Marlboro Cigarette Company - Essay Example

Marlboro Cigarette Company: A. Introduction Marlboro is the globally acclaimed of the leading brand of cigarettes which has always remained ahead of its competitors and invested quite a lot of hard work in managing its reputation and power for past many decades. Name of the brand is borrowed from the Great Marlborough Street in London which is also the location of the original cigarette factory established by Morris (Bukisa, 2009; Shah, 2005). However, currently the largest manufacturing plant of Marlboro is located in Virginia, US. As the largest selling brand of the world unbeatable by any of its competitor cigarette companies, it is obvious that Marlboro has consistently remained in demand by both national and international customers. There is a growing body of research dedicated to scrutinizing a huge repertoire of reasons about why exactly the tobacco aficionados around the globe dote on the brand Marlboro and how these cigarettes manage in catering to the customer’s diverse needs in a distinguished and invincible way. This essay is primarily based on reviewing some of those reasons to find out what are the steps taken by Marlboro which foster durable success and riveting charm in the brand. General consensus is that this globally acclaimed brand’s reputation is largely sustained by its delicious full-flavored cigarettes which have a unique and fresh taste unlike any else brand. As a result of ever-increasing sales, Marlboro is consistently named by different research engines the leading cigarette brand doted by a prodigious line of customers from all backgrounds. B. History of the brand  1. Origin of the brand  Philips Morris was a London-based cigarette manufacturer but resolved to open a New York subsidiary in 1902 to make an impression on the US market and began selling a variety of his brands including Marlboro there. But it was after some years in 1924 actually that Marlboro really made an impression in the US as a women’s cigarette brand. Therefore, it would not be wrong to claim that Marlboro’s real journey started in the US by 1924. In the beginning, the Marlboro brand catered to only a small group of customers comprising of women mostly due to which it popularized as a woman’s cigarette brand and men hesitated from purchasing it. The advertisements around that time also stressed on attracting women by presenting the cigarettes in a very glam and lady like way to establish relationship between femininity and Marlboro brand. As Marlboro made filtered cigarettes in contrast to most other brands at that time, so the cigarettes were marketed mostly to health conscious women initially but after a staggering number of studies linking lung cancer to smoking got released (Shah, 2005), the Marlboro manufactures reestablished the face of Marlboro filtered cigarettes and began marketing them to the larger customer group of men to compensate for the reduced revenues (Bukisa, 2009). A lineup of manly figures performing hardcore strenuous tasks was shown in the new Marlboro advertisements by the founder of the brand, Philip Morris, in an attempt to market the filtered cigarettes to the men (Shah, 2005). This marketing strategy implemented by Morris amazingly worked very fast and took the manufacturing company to the heights of success within a year. It is actually the art of engineering smart strategies at the right time which lifts a business to the heights of fame and Marlboro cigarette manufacturing company is all about this art. Marlboro has since 1924 journeyed from being just a small cigarette manufacturing firm in the US to becoming one of the most prized and valuable enormous conglomerates of all times with the highest revenues. Within the US, Philips Morris USA is endowed with the rights of making this brand and outside the country, this brand is made by Philips Morris International. However, Philips Morris Inc. changed its name to Altria Group, Inc. in 2003 (Shah, 2005). Repositioning of Marlboro from a women’s cigarette to a men’s cigarette by Morris was a crucial tool which generated huge revenues for the brand. To achieve this goal, Morris and co-workers took advantage of attractive macho-type advertisements and made filter a resolute feature of their cigarettes. Wise investments, strategic marketing, and quality customer care are identified as the major reasons which explain Marlboro’s firm hold on the market and why this brand’s market share increased from less than one percent to the largest selling brand in the whole world. However, the course of life for this largest-selling brand has not remained smooth always as it has its share of turmoil and losses also. Research offers several historical perspectives about Marlboro to discuss the roots of the brand, how the long journey in the world of tobacco began for it, and what obstacles were faced by it when struggling to secure the top spot in the market. It is implied that the speed with which Marlboro began to make an impression on its customers faltered by the time WWII began and during the war to an extent that the brand was even temporarily removed from the market (Bukisa, 2009). This lapse in the brand sales proved to be disastrous for the Marlboro manufactures because not only this plummeted down the revenues but also generated new significantly powerful competitors in the meantime. In the absence of Marlboro during WWII, other cigarette brands like Camel, Chesterfield, and Lucky Strike took advantage of the empty grounds and began providing cigarettes to the US soldiers which marked an instant impression on the market and interfered with the popularity of Marlboro. This is worth mentioning that the undeterred Marlboro manufacturers did not lose hope when other brands took over them but with relentless perseverance, managed to regain market share by making a huge comeback in a short time. This explains why Marlboro reemerged as the number one youth brand. 2. Product Line  It is an indisputable reality proved by research that Marlboro dominates other competing brands in the global cigarette market. It is consistently ranked by research analysts as the tenth most valuable and liked product brand in the world with almost 38% share in the US market alone. This top-selling brand has a huge product line with each product offering different flavors to meet the diverse customers’ needs and tastes. Texture, taste, and packaging of different products are all considerably seriously taken by Marlboro manufactures in order to keep up with the ongoing aggressive competition. First, there is the most liked full-flavor Marlboro Red product which caters to the taste of those customers who prefer the strong tobacco version. As way of highlighting the feature of variety in every aspect, Marlboro Red is not the only full flavor product marketed by the brand, rather there are other full flavor varieties also like Marlboro Red Eighty Threes and Marlboro Red Seventy Twos. To cater to the medium and light tastes, there are several varieties of medium and light cigarettes also offered by Marlboro to its ever-growing customers like Marlboro Red Label and Gold Pack. There is a long line of Menthol variety also introduced after the standard Red line which also provides all three full flavor, medium, and light flavors. Other than more widely popular Red and Menthol lines, there are also many other fascinating and attractive lines of Marlboro among which, No. 27, No. 54, Southern Cut, Silver Pack, Skyline, Smooth, Black, Filter Plus, and NXT are primarily notable and most sold. Marlboro is distinguished in the sense that it really considered its customers one of the most important stakeholders of the business due to which the manufactures strive to address the concerns of every kind of customer. To satisfy the tobacco craving of the most health conscious customer group, there is even ultra light flavor provided in all its lines. However as of 2006, not only Philip Morris but all other cigarette companies in the US are stopped by the Federal District court from marketing their products under the labels of Lights, Medium, or Ultra-Lights to keep all cigarette manufactures from casting a false impression on the public with respect to health and safety (Shah, 2005). It was implied by the judged that full, medium, light, or ultra-light, all versions cast similar effects on the health of the consumers so they should not be marketed under such names to convey this idea to the public that mild or light cigarettes are less detrimental in some way than the standard full flavor. So instead of using such labels, Marlboro is since the court ruling required to rename their mild and light brands and to use only color coding in place of marketing products as either medium or light version. Consequently, Marlboro Lights are now sold as Marlboro Golds and Marlboro Ultra-lights are renamed Marlboro Silvers. The practice of color coding has been already active in the European Union since 2005 in contrast to the US. 3. Characteristics of the users  Though the initial attempts made by Philips Morris (presently Altria Group, Inc) were targeted at female smokers but after they failed, the cigarettes were actively aimed at male users. The slogan popularized by Marlboro when targeting US female smokers was Mild as May (Bukisa, 2009; Shah, 2005) but once, the target group shifted from women to male users, everything from the slogan to the advertisements changed to make the cigarettes appeal more to male users. Marlboro Company has its own target market segment and consumer analysis is frequently done by the experts to actively targets adult consumers. Several marketing strategies are implemented by the manufacturers in over 180 countries around the globe (Katholnig, 2012) to keep the under age group from consumption of cigarettes. Online sales are also restricted and a lot of formalities have to be covered before placing an order as a way of not allowing underage people from smoking powerful cigarettes sold under the brand name Marlboro. Myriad consumer surveys reveal that many consumers of Marlboro Reds have found them to be significantly potent and nicotine rich in contrast to other brands. This is why many efforts are made by Marlboro management to keep the minors from purchasing their cigarettes. Targeting female smokers has both historically and presently not remained a successful market segment for this cigarette brand which is why Marlboro was some years back retargeted to adult males. That is why the advertisements also strive to create a strong, powerful, crude, and adventure image of the cigarettes to grab the attention of the male consumers. Advertising strategies are regarded very valuable by all Marlboro-selling manufacturers around the globe because they help promote the particular masculine image which is important for casting the right kind of impression on the male community. Males are naturally more inclined towards adventure, thrill, and rugged activities than women are, so different advertisements also associate that kind of image with Marlboro cigarettes (Bukisa, 2009). By contemplating such gender-associated and myriad other features, advertisement strategies are carefully designed and product personality is analyzed by experts to define characteristics of the users and determine target groups. C. Analysis of the brand 1. Product Substitutes  There are so many products made available by Marlboro that there are a lot of substitutes which can be enjoyed by the customers. Other than a long product line sold under the label Marlboro, the American multinational group Altria Inc. now owns four other brands in addition to Marlboro called Philip Morris, Chesterfield, Basic, and L&M. The largest plant, as already mentioned, is located in Richmond, Virginia but there are dozens of other plants operating around the globe which manufacture several different products desired by a diverse line of customers. As a way of generating more sales, different flavors are also available like menthol and even clove (Bukisa, 2009) so that the customers could switch from one kind to another after sometimes. Each of these products and all five brands sold by Altria provide the freedom of having a lot to choose from. Instead of using the old products, the consumers are introduced to new lines, flavors, and brands which are all owned by Altria and investments are made in all in a similar way. Instead of using old products, there are so many unique products offered by Marlboro that consumers from all backgrounds are equally satisfied. The legendary status of Marlboro is based a great deal on its remarkable ability to serve the targeted consumers by introducing quality product substitutes. 2. Segmentation/Marketing segmentation For different kinds of customers, there are different buying behaviors associated and same goes for thinking perspectives. Customer mentality varies from country to country and even from region to region inside a country. Other than that, there are also other factors which potentially affect Marlboro sales and revenues like income scale of a society at large, culture of a country, status of people, social classes, and purchasing pattern of the consumers. There is a great deal of analysis done by experts on every kind of segmentation including psychographic, behavioral, geographic, and demographic segmentation. Public’s attitudes are examined and then products are introduced in a matching manner to gain general appreciation from the public and to win their trust. Cheap online cigarettes are passionately advertised by Marlboro advertisements agencies on every search engine to make the tobacco products available to people from low income groups to give them the feeling that they can also enjoy the fine taste of the world’s elite brand like upper social class can. People are more likely to buy the products when they are significantly discounted and Marlboro manufacturers realize such purchasing patterns of the public with the help of which they devise their marketing strategies. In contrast, Marlboro also sells its cigarettes at considerably high rates at large exclusive stores in upscale places to target consumers from affluent backgrounds. Surveys identify that same Marlboro product has been found to be sold at different prices in different parts of the world. A Marlboro Reds pack sold at a cheaper rate in Spain might be sold at a higher rate in London which is notoriously expensive and where general income level is higher than elsewhere. Prices of Marlboro cigarettes are significantly lower in Eastern Europe than they are in Western Europe with respect to purchasing pattern and income of the people in different regions.   3. Product and Pricing No matter what kind of product is sold in the market, the price at which it is sold produces a direct influence on a company’s success or product sales. Pricing strategies can prove to be very complex for any business. Product life cycles significantly affect various pricing decisions (Packaging & Pricing, 2012). If products are sold at high prices irrespective of local income scale or the income of people of the country to which the products are exported, a negative influence is inflicted on the product sales. Products have to be priced competitively for import and export purposes and this thing is fully recognized by Marlboro manufacturers not in US alone but everywhere else. Product pricing spells the difference between success and failure for a business which is why the feature of flexibility must be considered by all businesses when devising pricing strategies for selling different products. Marlboro is distinguished and the brand sells like hot cakes around the globe because products are priced with respect to the incomes earned by people in the country to which the products are exported. In addition to that, the availability of a staggering number of deals online makes access to these cigarettes easier for people from low-income groups. It is also argued that Marlboro keeps pricing its products higher than ever to stay in the global game. Increased taxes are also a problem. However, Marlboro has always welcomed unlimited competition which is why it always strives to offer comparable prices on different kinds of cigarettes to value the taste and desire of the customers from all backgrounds.   4. Promotion and Place Distribution Marlboro promotes and distributes its products to each country in a different way paying due attention to the factors of culture, class, income, and mentality. The culture of each country is very different and Marlboro devises its advertisements strategies in accordance with this. For example, the culture of US sets in huge contrast to that of any South Asian country like India or Pakistan. While Marlboro advertisement campaigns can actively target the female users in the USA to promote different products among them, same cannot be done in India or Pakistan because such advertisement strategies negatively interfere with the cultural norms of these countries according to which, women smokers are not seen respectably in the society and a woman seen smoking a cigarette is looked down upon by both dominant male and repressed female community. While Marlboro or any other cigarette brand can generate high sales by targeting the female smokers in the Western countries, all such efforts made by advertisement campaigns at promoting sales among women even at drastically lower prices will thwart in the Eastern countries. Export of the main Marlboro theme cannot be highly successful in every market in every group of customers. This explains why determining cultural perspectives hold immense importance before devising product promotion and place distribution strategies. The global marketing, promotion, and distribution strategy of Marlboro largely focuses on selling a marketable version of the American dream to consumers worldwide (Katholnig, 2012) while paying attention to cultural, economic, social, and gender differences.   5. Recommendation of the brand Marlboro cigarette brand is strongly recommended by many cigarette aficionados for multiple reasons. The fact that these cigarettes have a very rich, crude, smooth, and sweet flavor is the primary reason. Though they are considered by many to be very expensive or overrated cigarettes, truth is that they are the largest-selling brand for some reason. They have a remarkably fine taste which varies from one line to another. The harsh taste of Marlboro Reds shifts to the mellow side in Marlboro Golds and the menthol taste of Marlboro Menthol can easily be substituted for the rich mellower taste of blend No. 27s. The cigarettes marketed by Marlboro to different groups of adult customers are so diverse in taste and aroma that it is very easy to switch from one line to another while still enjoying the leisurely tobacco experience. Decent amount of nicotine neatly wrapped in fine quality paper makes Marlboro quite suitable for a leisurely smoke on a night out or any social occasion. References: Bukisa. (2009, Dec 02). The History of Marlboro Cigarettes. Retrieved from http://www.bukisa.com/articles/207783_the-history-of-marlboro-cigarettes Katholnig, S. (2012, May 10). Marlboros Global Brand Strategy. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/SimonaChindea/marlboro-globa Packaging & Pricing. (2012, May 24). Product Pricing Can Spell Difference Between Success and Failure. Retrieved from http://www.bizfilings.com/toolkit/sbg/marketing/packaging-pricing/pricing-is-difference-between-success-failure.aspx Shah, SAA. (2005). MARLBORO: Consumer Behavior Final Report. 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