Interview with Nelson Iraola: global relocation after 14 years in the hookah industry.

Hi Nelson, we know each other for 5 years. I remember a time when we have met at Expo Hookah Brazil and Hookah Battle South America cup 2017. I remember a very nice Brazilian hookah brand, BR MADE. Can you please tell your story how you have started in hookah industry?

Hello, it’s a pleasure to talk to you, after two visits to Brazil and also a participation in Las Vegas, I can say that I feel like a friend of the Hookah Battle group.

My trajectory in hookah began due to a passion for the habit, at only 18 I started researching a lot on the subject, which put me as a contributor to the only hookah channel in Brazil at the time (2011) the Blog do Arguile.

After some time learning about the culture and making new friends, in 2012 I founded the Narguile Club channel on youtube, which was the beginning of a very nice journey, it was through the Narguile Club,

that I met my partner, Wilson Junior and together we founded BRmade brand, which for many years was the pioneer in the manufacture of high quality rosh (bowls) in Brazil and in global innovation, such as the first rosh made in stone, the first hookah made entirely of plastic and the first rosh (bowl) in octagonal format. And it was thanks to BRmade that today I’m telling you a little bit about everything.

Ive seen some really nice pictures and promo campaigns of BR Made products. Who’ve been responsible for marketing questions in BR Made company? What was your the best marketing activities?

At the beginning of BRmade it was just me and my partner Wilson, he trained in chemical engineering and I graduated in advertising.

This was essential for the creation of our first products, in which brands quickly stand out in Brazil for bringing some differences that others didn’t have yet, such as putting our logo printed on our products.

Wilson was the main responsible for the technical creation of our first bowl and I was responsible for the creative part and insertion of the brand in the Brazilian market. In the first two years of BRmade, all the photos, arts used and campaigns were created by me, in which I always sought to innovate and bring a professional vision to a branch that in Brazil was still very amateur.

After some time of brand success, we hired Cassio, who was our Marketing Director for 4 years, we worked together for the creation of new product launches, which always put us in the spotlight. The great knowledge of the market that Cassio and I had was essential to our success. Until the end of my cycle with BRmade I was responsible for the last arts of the company and today it is under the command of Wilson, who will soon start a new stage of the company.

I believe that the most important campaign it was the Onix Bowl divulgation, the bowl is composted totally by stone and it brought a lot of clients and fans around of the world.

So what happens with BR Made?

BRmade had its first bowl for sale in 2012, and from then on we had a huge success in Brazil, as we brought a product of superior quality and with a fair price, at that time it was the American market that most exported products to Brazil. The success was fantastic, after our first bowl the Traditional BRmade we reached an agreement at the factory to increase production to more than 15 thousand pieces per month,

which brought us security to innovate in the market, we made the first Bowl whole of Stone, the first Octagonal Bowl, the First plastic hookah, the first gold stamped Bowl, etc. However, the Brazilian market has always suffered from smuggling from Paraguay and counterfeits from China, we even had many BRmade counterfeits circulating around the world. With the success also came one of the first hookah lounges in Brazil, the BRmade Hookah Lounge, which was open until the year 2020, closing its activities due to the pandemic.

In recent years the company has been twice in Germany for the famous hookah fairs

and we have increasingly invested in novelties, but the Brazilian market has been looking for increasingly cheaper and disposable products, which has had a great impact on us, as our products are all manufactured in Brazil with a much larger workforce than those imported from China, and with that the brand lost its space, going from market leader to another brand that would have to compete a lot to remain unstable, because we compete with unregistered companies and smuggled goods. In the last year I had to focus my efforts on a new activity in my life, I worked with the creation of advertising pieces for companies from different branches. In November 2021 I chose to sell my share of the company to my partner Wilson, who has plans to reactivate the brand engagement and make it strong again. I chose to move to Europe and start a new stage of my life, because the distance would not help in this endeavor and I decide to end this stage of my life with great pride, and I sincerely wish to see this brand that still has my DNA being big and seen again as the largest in Brazil.

As a marketing expert can you tell Top 3 challenges you face when you try to make a marketing of hookah product?

I believe that the main challenge today is not being able to boost the brand with existing online tools, such as Google ads and Facebook ads, due to the ban on tobacco-related content, which makes the search for your customer more painful and time-consuming.

The second point is how to relate to your customer, inbound marketing has become essential for companies that want their customer close, but every day the hookah customer is less specific, we have people of all ages and social classes who appreciate it, and it takes great audience work for your content not to get lost.

The third is how to keep a brand at its peak with so many behavioral changes in the hookah audience, as it is an audience that brings very traditional people as well as people who want innovation at all times, it is up to marketing to understand its audience and relate in the best way. to always remember, a company that does this very well in Brazil is Zomo.

What is your future plans? Will it be related to the marketing and hookah industry?

Next April 2022 I am moving to the Netherlands, I believe that my initial focus will be to work with my training in marketing and advertising. The hookah has always been by my side, as I have been working in the hookah industry for 14 years, my knowledge on the subject will always be relevant to new challenges. I hope to make good contacts for those who know how to help other brands on the European continent to have the same success that I was able to achieve with BRmade.