History of the British American Tobacco Company - Research Paper Example

British American Tobacco  Critical Appraisal of BAT’s strategies since 2003       The history of the British American Tobacco (BAT) Company can be traced more than a hundred years back. A business flourishing till date had persisted through several waves and turbulences of war, nationalization, and revolutions. It also did pave its way through the controversies, which surrounded the smoking culture, reaching the goal of ultimate success. The business shaped itself in 1902 as a joint venture between an American Tobacco Company and United Kingdom’s Imperial Tobacco Company. James ‘Buck’ Duke instituted the American company. The name of the hybrid company thus created was derived from the domestic bases of the two individual founding partners, but they initiated their business for trading purpose outside both the U.S.A. and the U.K. The policy helped the company to spread its network all across the continents of Africa, continental Europe, Asia and Latin America. Over a century’s hard work ultimately did pay off when this company gained enough proficiency while operating locally in amidst of diverse cultural forums. In the early years, from 1902-1932, the company was expanding rapidly with the sole objective in focus that is to seek and establish leadership all across the world wherever a market exists. Operating globally for many years, the company ultimately reached U.S.A. with the acquisition of a small firm of North Carolina, Brown & Williamson in 1920. After the Wall Street Crash in 1929, the trading situations deteriorated but from the year 1930 it was witnessed that several distributional networks of the company become complete subsidiaries with a spread of consolidation across the nation. In the middle years, firstly the World War II, and secondly de-colonization posed rise of several disorders for the BAT. The upheaval of the war caused shrinking of some of the end markets of the company but the global sales continued to grow at a brisk pace. The situation took a new turn when the company started operating in 50 countries by the year 1970. By the end of that year, diversifications were made along with the expansions in the 1980s in the sectors of financial services, which gave way in 1989, and BAT again re-focused itself on the business of tobacco. With the advent of the economic liberalization and breaking up of the state monopolies in the 1990s, new trading opportunities were unleashed in the Far East and the Central and Eastern Europe. BAT took the advantage of this and followed the strategy of rapid acquisition and establishing new ventures in the countries like Uzbekistan, Hungary, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, and Poland. In 1994, another significant acquisition was made when the ownerships of the Lucky Strike and the Pall Mall brands were transferred into the hands of BAT. The Canadian market was greatly influenced and manipulated by the merger with Rothmans International, the fourth largest tobacco company in 1999. The new millennium commenced with the selling off of the Canadian interests during the year 2000. The company group decided over a new series of investments in countries likes Egypt, Turkey, South Korea, Vietnam, and Nigeria, which they announced in 2001. “In November 2003 Martin Broughton discloses that he plans to retire from British American Tobacco at the end of June 2004 after 10 years leading the Group as Chief Executive and, for the last five, as Chairman. Paul Adams takes over as Chief Executive of the Group in July 2004, with Jan du Plessis as Non-Executive Chairman” and then “Acquisitions come to the fore in 2008 with our winning US$1.72 billion bid for the assets of Tekel, the Turkish state tobacco company” (British American Tobacco, 2009).       BAT, despite of the various impediments, in its long journey towards achieving the goal of sustaining success rate in all these years had been encouraged and assisted by expertise in immaculate strategy making decisions. There is a vast range of products of the company especially designed and marketed keeping in mind the simple theory of diverse tastes and demands of the consumers all across the world. The range includes Cigarettes, STIX, Roll Your Own, Pipe, HTL, Machine Made, and Hand Made Cigars. The basic strategy is to incorporate each and every tobacco segments, even though Cigarettes are given the maximum priority. The fundamentals of a good strategy of a multinational business enterprise like BAT requires proper analysis of the consumers’ tastes which vary greatly from nations to nations or from continents to continents (U.S. Regional Differences in Attitudes and Behaviors Lend Themselves to Targeted Marketing Efforts, 2008). There are several strategies, which are adopted for exclusive market zones. The dexterity in the management of the Board of Directors in taking up the strategy rules comes to the forefront by adeptly analyzing the variegated consumers tastes and demands. (British American Tobacco, n.d.)       The BAT once planned for diversification but later chose to focus on the tobacco industry only. In this course of its return, the company went for expansionary measures and a methodical approach to penetrate the market strategically by two basic structural adjustments. The first one is the Organic Growth and the second one is Cost Efficiency. Quite a natural and easy to perceive process is the market capture by the means of merger and acquisition. The way of spreading the network or growing organically was a major policy undertaken by BAT with the initiation of trade liberalization. The four main wings of this market expansion process can be delineated as introduction of new range of products, finding entry in the new geographies, venturing into and addressing to new customer segments and proper usage of new distribution channels (Partnerships). There are several discrepancies related to the overall simplistic approach of market penetration through Organic Growth (Hess & Kazanjian, 2006, p.169). First of all the feeling of complacency that comes naturally after acquiring a new firm and with it the market associated which results in the stagnation of the operational structure. The big or mature companies like BAT usually tend to overlook the methodologies, which helped them once to reach the pinnacle of success. One simple example may be the general policy of cutting costs or raising revenues through exorbitant price structure at the expense of the consumer base which ultimately affects in the overall growth rate of the firm. There are also unnecessary resistances and restrictions to change at organizational and individual levels shrinking the field of view. It is not possible for the company to go for a detailed long term planning or strategical framework whenever the market passes through a volatile phase which is quite frequent. Experimentations and innovative scopes are much less since the company undertakes policy decisions, which are designed, only meet the Short-term targets (Yearly, Half-yearly or quarterly). Lastly, the disbalanced approach towards attaining a corporate strategy aiding to the productivity and the efficiency of the company to the detriment of the venture strategies is most likely to fail before achieving the ultimate success. All the above points may be summed up as the major Growth Risks. There are some of the Innovations Risks as well like decreasing lifespan of the technologies and the products. The incremental features of a product will be attributed with lesser and lesser amounts of value additions. The trend lines of the future are very difficult to predict, almost impossible. There is every possibility of rejection of a new potential technology due to the superiority complex of big corporate house. The approval processes become unusually time-consuming resulting in the sloth development process. The Marketing and Competing Risks also surfaces with some of the glitches like plummet of growth rate and margin of the company with the markets getting matured. Rivals are expected to react terribly to the company’s expansionary market campaigns. Ignorant attitude towards the potential market segments as the company becomes too much busy in acquiring others and stressing on the market standings. With the expansion of the company, assessment standard of the profitability and effectiveness deteriorates. Other risks associated are the Financial Risks, Team and Management Risks. These also have the potential to degenerate the condition of BAT substantially, since it opts for Organic Growth as the history suggests. (Fernando, 2006; Kotelnikov, n.d.; Spolsky, 2008) Analysis of the environment in which BAT operates   The methods, which were applied in response to the restrictions, imposed on advertising and sponsorships of tobacco in Brazil definitely advocates profound strategies and policy decisions the company’s Board of Directors undertakes those. Starting from obtaining of data from the websites of the BAT’s and the Souza Cruz’s Institute as well as various other news and magazines regarding the activities of the tobacco industries to the launching of new range of products and promoting different related events were carried out. On site observations was also a part of the strategy concentrating upon a specific smoking zone at a major airport along with visits and surveys conducted on the Brazilian retailers and a toll-free number was taken for accepting calls as a part of the survey. The methodical approach of BAT was highly pragmatic and enthusiastic while taking the initiative to promote cigarette sales by the help of “point of purchase” programs held in stores. It also simultaneously claimed that the cigarette smoking was only a matter of choice and not at all a dependency factor. This was also an exceptional policy adopted by the company in order to mislead the smokers through this “Smoke in Moderate” marketing campaign which was developed with objective of reinforcing the particular section of “social smokers”. Further remodeling was done with the image makeover and consistently building up company’s reputation by subtle alteration in its website drawing the customer base by its side. A whole new range of products was launched at the service of the customers and the company kept on promoting two of its recently launched brands in the operating market. BAT efficiently administered the involvement in this pilot project mostly recognized as the “Smoking Point” with the Federal Government Airport Management Company by developing a partnership. The new approach was appreciated by many which reflected the company’s social and environmental consciousness projected through the inauguration programs like setting up of an Environmental Park and regular implementation of the projects by the way of the Institute of Souza Cruz in a total comprehensive manner (Treviño & Weaver, 2003, p.93). The formulation and execution of the strategic planning of the company shows a tremendous coupling of expertise and experience bonded with excellent market campaigns as conducted to extract the maximum possible yield. The realization of the achievements surfaced when several communities agreed on a common base regarding the social and environmental sense of responsibility and perception of BAT who looked into the matter through detailed study. The discharge of the policy decisions in an expert framework earned the company with a social responsibility award approved by the City Council of São Paulo. In 2007, the NACRA Malaysia was awarded for the Consumer Product Categori. (Corrêa, 2006; Awards and Achievements, 2009) 1.       There are a lot of factors which do affect the macro environment of a nation and accordingly the decision patterns of the manager of a particular organization, in this case the Board of Directors of the BAT may decide upon the policy decisions those can be altered whenever the situation demands. Proper identification and analysis, by PESTEL analysis, of the factors are necessary in order to classify them. PESTEL stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal While any company or firm wants to enter into the market of a country it needs to make a thorough analysis of these 6 conditions of a country. The political conditions include the ideology and the type of the government. Whether the government is a leftist or liberal? For example a liberal government is always willing to attract new investment and a leftist government would like to restrict the entry of the new industry to the market. The political stability in the domestic market always boosts up the investors and traders and if there is political disturbance and unrest the profitability of the business would be lower in the country. If the country possesses hostile trade unions the situation would not be healthy for the business in the country. The international relationship of the country is also a crucial factor. Any chance of war would be detrimental for the expected profitability of the project taken. The stability of the existing government is a major factor. If interim election takes place repeatedly and the government changes frequently the market structure would be disturbed and the profitability of the business and trade would decline. Moreover, if there is the existence and disturbances by the terrorist and insurgent groups in the country that is not healthy for the investors. last but not the least the relationship of the host country with the home country of the investors matters a lot. That determines what type of welcome the investor would receive from the government of the host country. The most crucial factor among the PESTEL is the economic situation of the host country. Actually the economic situation of a country is closely correlated to the social situation of the country. The investor should examine the situation and trend of the economy. One major indicator of the future profitability is the tax structure of the country. Higher the tax rates lower will be the expected rate of profit. The trend of taxation is a crucial factor to be watched out by the investor. The availability of resources and finance should be judged before entering the market e.g. India is a good destination for the investors as there is a huge amount of natural resources. The level of competitiveness in the market should be judged. If the economic authority of the country protect the domestic entrepreneurs the market would not be beneficial for the foreign investor. If there is a government regulation over the market the situation would be detrimental for the interest of the company who is entering into the market. The business cycle facts should be considered i.e. if there is a high frequency of economic recession the future profitability of the venture would be lower. The size of the domestic market of the host country is a major factor, as larger size of the market would ensure greater scope of sales promotion and profit. For example Brazil is a good destination for the investors for the large size of market. The infrastructure of the country and social overhead capital is a major determinant of the profitability of the venture. Higher the level of infrastructure and social overhead capital greater will be the opportunity to expand the business. The level of disposable income in the country matters in analyzing the economic condition as higher level of disposable income ensures higher demand and higher scope of sales. The money and financial markets of the host country play a significant role in the analysis well established money and financial market makes the operation smoother for the investors. The trend of the average price level in the country is a major factor i.e. if there is a high rate of inflation the country will not be a good destination for the traders. The level of employment affects the analysis in two ways. Higher level of unemployment creates the opportunity tom employ the labour at cheaper rate and on the other hand higher level of unemployment causes a lower purchasing power and hence a decline in aggregate demand and the profitability of the business. The interest and the foreign exchange policies play a crucial role. Higher interest rate implies lower profitability. The currency convertibility and the foreign exchange management policies affect the decision. If the country is characterized by the full convertibility of domestic currency there is full chance of repatriation and the investor will be interested and vice versa. We can say that an overall good performance of the economy does attract the investors. The social factor includes mainly the demographic situation of the economy and the institutions and the rituals of a country. In the demographic situation we would consider the type of the people of the country. Their education level, their outlook to the market and the product, their choices and consciousness etc are the major factors that affect the demography and when we include their behaviors, social custom and rituals, institutional framework everything we will get the social factor. The social factor determines the consumers’ preference pattern and hence the demand pattern. The demand pattern of the host country should be analyzed before making decision about investing in that country. For example according to the ritual of Islam alcohol is strictly prohibited. Hence it would not be wise for a liquor company to invest in liquor factory in a Muslim country. The technological condition of the host country is quite important. The technological factor includes the state of technology in the host country. It involves the opportunity to make research and development, government initiatives for technological improvement, the maturity of the technology and information and communication. Moreover the access to technology and the licensing factors are considered. The level of supply of energy and the technical skill of the workforce are very much significant for the investor. The environment issues include two factors: first is the ecological environment and second is the business environment. The first deals with the level of pollution, biodiversity, environment consciousness etc and different environmental restrictions imposed by the government. Environmental factors—change in weather or climate, impact on sectors mostly like the agriculture, insurance and tourism. The tobacco manufacturer should keep this important in his mind as this is directly to the quality of the product and also awareness in the environmental setup like “Smoking ban” can hamper the demand conditions. Van der Linde argues “Properly designed environmental standards can trigger innovations that lower the total cost of a product or improve its value” (Fiorino, 2006, p.93). The growing environmental consciousness is driving the people towards eco-friendly products and any other kind, especially tobacco, has got stringent laws imposed on it. So the demand of the product may vary in this regard. Legal factors—composed different sub-categories like Consumer Laws: designed to guide the consumers against malpractices and misleading features of a particular product, Competition Laws: to make sure there is no exploitation of the consumers by the monopoly power of a firm and laws in regard to the acquisition and merger of firms, Employment Laws: to cover the arenas of minimum wage, working hours, redundancy and dismissals, Health and Safety Regulations are also there to ensure that there is safety at the workplace and appropriate safety equipment provision in training, and reporting of accident. So here we see that the company needs to abide by these laws and much go through before penetrating a particular market between all these factors. BAT will try and trace those countries where there are less strict law measures with low minimum wage and high skilled workers can be obtained as good deal (PESTEL analysis of the macro-environment, 2007, Oxford University Press). The main competitors of BAT are companies like the Japan Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, and Phillip Morris. BAT ranks as the 2nd highest tobacco company jus after Phillip Morris International (15.6%) with a market share of 13.6% higher than that of Japan Tobacco (11%) and Imperial Tobacco (6%) (British American Tobacco, 2009; Phillip Morris International, 2008). Corporate Social Responsibility and BAT Corporate social responsibility is the combination of the concepts of taking responsibility for the development of the community and the profit making business development is the challenge the present business organizations are striving to achieve. The corporate sectors doing business in the modern market scenario are expected to be accountable for their actions impacting all their stakeholders including consumers, employees, suppliers, investors and shareholders, communities as well as the environment rather than just concentrating on the profit making purposes (Price, 2007). With the growing concern for the community development more and more corporate sectors are seen to engage in corporate social responsibility not only because of legal bindings but also due to their internal voluntary policies. It can be stated to provide benefits both to the organizations and the society at a larger context attracting the organizations to take action in favor of the same. Implementing corporate social responsibility is the necessity of the modern world when the dangers loom large on the societies in terms of global warming, reducing natural resources, etc. Under these circumstances sustainable business practices are even more important than concentrating on profit making alone as a sustainable environment can only provide a sustainable business situation. BAT showed its corporate social responsibility in many ways. The best example was its slogan “smoke in moderate”. BAT, hereby makes the citizens conscious about the adverse effects of smoking beyond limit. This strategy expresses the transparency of the BAT Company. On the other hand BAT established many smoking points as their consciousness about the inconveniences that the passive smokers face. The other contribution to the society was the establishment of environmental parks and conducting the environment consciousness projects. That was the major factor behind the success story of BAT. Evaluate the potential for BAT to remain as a major player in the global tobacco business Competitive advantage refers to an advantage gained over competitors by offering customers greater perceived value, either through lower prices or by delivering more benefits that justify higher prices (Fletcher and Brown, 2005, International Marketing 3e). Porter’s five forces are based on the idea of rivalry among firms. This rivalry is originated from five forces of competition – barriers to entry, threat of substitutes, buying power, and degree of rivalry and supplier power (Porter, 1980; QuickMBA, 2008).        From this diagram we see that BAT must opt for unique product range and constantly designing new strategies so as to minimize the Threat of substitutes (Moreton & Zenger, 2004, p.11). The price range should be reasonable to tackle both the Bargaining power of the consumers and the entrance of new rivals. The Bargaining power of the suppliers will lessen if the company occupies the lion share of the market. Thus we see there needs to be lesser chances of industry competition and intensity of rivalry so that competitive advantage remains with the company. So the company continues to extract profits over and above the Cost of Capital. (Sterner, 2002, p. 210; Definition Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA). n.d.)       The market potential of the company may be analyzed well with the help of SWOT analysis and Value chain analysis (See APPENDIX). Value chain analysis shows how well BAT may survive in the competitive scenario. The dominant strategy, which has been successful till date for BAT in its way towards market expansion and penetration, is policy decisions regarding the merger and acquisitions. Major tobacco companies like the Brown & Williamson and RJ Reynolds in 2004, Swedish-style snus in Sweden and South Africa in 2005, and “Acquisitions come to the fore in 2008 with our winning US$1.72 billion bid for the assets of Tekel, the Turkish state tobacco company” (British American Tobacco, 2009). It is also followed quickly by the deal of acquiring Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni business of cigarette and snus. So we see that the company is not only penetrating markets but creating by buying out other companies. Along with sound marketing strategies, the company also has showed a lot of environmental and social responsibility as discussed before in this article and that definitely brings out the corporate social values with respect to the environment.  Appendix: 1. SWOT ANALYSIS— STRENGTH 1. Strict maintenance of the value system and giving the utmost priority to the customers’ needs as per the international standards. 2. Conveniently provides a whole range of quality tobacco products. 3. Capable of perceiving the tastes of different customers. 4. The range of the products is being competitively priced. 5. Original product designing concepts and unique marketing techniques are undertaken. 6. Maintaining ample amount of quality tobacco leaves through proper harvesting methods. WEAKNESS 1. New ventures in many countries without proper information and knowledge of people’s affordability. 2. Prevalence of the factor of a considerable time lag in incurring the initial costs of setting up business in tobacco. 3. Presence of recession and people pre-occupied with the mindset of saving rather than trying out a new product. 4. It cannot be proved that consumers are going to prefer the new products over those of its domestic rivals but can only be presumed and ignorant behavior regarding brand of the tobacco especially in the Developing nations. OPPORTUNITY 1. Finding potential and taking advantages of the ever-expanding huge market for tobacco consumption especially in the LDCs. 2. Penetrating the unexplored potentially large market bases by utilizing the diversified range of tobacco products. THREATS 1. Prevalence of numerous experienced competitors in the sector of tobacco products in every nation. This can reduce the profit margins. 2. Rival companies can steal the business ideas and marketing techniques of BAT which will damage the value of uniqueness of the company. 3. Widespread discontent regarding the tobacco consumption all across the world and the stringent policies in against it might hinder the growth rate of the company.   2. VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS—    To frame out a better understanding as of how the BAT managed develop a competitive advantage over the other firms and to raise the share value. It has now got 300 hundred brands over 180 markets worldwide (British American Tobacco plc - Financial and Strategic Analysis Review, 2009, p. 19; Payne, 1998, p.6). There are some value-generating activities, which were followed by the company to create an overall generic value. (Grant, 2005, p.292)    The structure can be shown below with value chain network:        The inbound logistics are the supply of the Raw materials that the company receives from various suppliers for the manufacturing of products as and when required. The Operations relates to the department, which transforms the raw tobacco into the different types of products. The Outbound Logistics is for warehousing and distribution of the finished products. The Marketing and Sales department detects the potential customer base and generates the sales process. The company along with the sales of the tobacco provides Service. All of these are the primary value chain activities and they are supported by the infrastructure of the company (organization, company culture, control system, etc.), HR Management (recruitment, training, development, compensation, etc.), Technology development (to support value creation) and Procurement (purchase and supply of intermediate goods and raw materials). BAT derives its cost advantage from the capacity utilization, vertical integration, differentiated product mix, economies of scale and of course by gathering knowledge and information regarding every related factors as defined earlier. Differentiation and value chain can be of cost advantage and market grip since the other rivals are not getting the supply of inputs that BAT is getting. The movements, which are cost effective and differentiated, market hold appears gradually by defining a well-drawn value-chain. (The Value Chain, n.d.) References 1. Awards and Achievements, 2009, accessed on: 11th April 2009, available at: http://www.batmalaysia.com/oneweb/sites/bat_62vkm3.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/810559C188B0651FC1256FC000122CA4?opendocument&DTC=&SID= . 2. British American Tobacco plc - Financial and Strategic Analysis Review, 2009, Global Markets Direct, p. 19, accessed on: 10th April 2009, available at: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=692562. 3. British American Tobacco plc, 2009, Moody's Global Credit Research, accessed on: 11th April 2009, available at: http://www.alacrastore.com/alacra/help/sample_moodys1.htm. 4. British American Tobacco, last updated: 2009, accessed on: 10th April 2009, available at: http://www.bat.com/group/sites/uk__3mnfen.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO52ADGE?opendocument&SKN=1. 5. British American Tobacco, n.d., Update of BAT Marketing Strategy, accessed on: 10th April 2009, available at: http://www.bat.com/group/sites/uk__3mnfen.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO7C3DXU/$FILE/medMD6J6N2Y.pdf?openelement. 6. Corrêa P., 2006, British American Tobacco's Advertising and Marketing Strategies in Brazil 2003-2004, accessed on: 10th April 2009, available at: http://2006.confex.com/uicc/wctoh/techprogram/P3076.HTM. 7. Definition Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA). Description, n.d., 12Manage, accessed on: 11th April 2009, available at: http://www.12manage.com/description_sustainable_competitive_advantage.html. 8. Fernando N.A., 2006, Dynamics of Commercial Microcredit—Sustainable Growth Sustainable Growth, accessed on: 11th April 2009, available at: http://www.adb.org/Documents/Slideshows/Microfinance/Dynamics-Commercial-Microcredit.pdf. 9. Fiorino D.J., 2006, The new environmental regulation, MIT Press. 10. Fletcher R. and Brown L., 2005, International Marketing 3e, Pearsons Education, Australia. 11. Grant R.M., 2005, Contemporary Strategy Analysis: Concepts, Techniques, Applications, Blackwell Publishing. 12. Hess E.D. & Kazanjian R.K., 2006, The search for organic growth, Cambridge University Press. 13. Kotelnikov V., n.d., In the new era of rapid change, no business is mature, accessed on: 11th April 2009, available at: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/psa_bcoach_maturity.html. 14. Moreton P. & Zenger T.R., 2004, Corporate Strategy and Analyst Incentives: Do Capital Markets Encourage or Discourage Uniqueness?, Oxford University Press. 15. Payne A., 1998, Relationship marketing for competitive advantage: winning and keeping customers, Butterworth-Heinemann. 16. PESTEL analysis of the macro-environment, 2007, Oxford University Press, accessed on: 11th April 2009, available at: http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296378/01student/additional/page_12.htm. 17. Phillip Morris International, 2008, accessed on: 10th April 2009, available at: http://www.philipmorrisinternational.com/pmintl/pages/eng/ourbus/Our_history.asp. 18. Porter M.E., 1980, Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, Free Press. 19. Price, T., 2007. Corporate Social Responsibility: Is good citizenship good for the bottom line? CQ Research, 17 (28). 20. QuickMBA, 2008, Strategic Management: Porter’s Five Forces, accessed on: 11th April 2009, available at: http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/porter.shtml. 21. Spolsky J., 2008, How Hard Could It Be?: The Four Pillars of Organic Growth, accessed on: 11th April 2009, available at: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080101/how-hard-could-it-be-the-four-pillars-of-organic-growth.html. 22. Sterner T., 2002, Policy instruments for environmental and natural resource management, World Bank Publications. 23. The Value Chain, NetMBA, accessed on: 11th April 2009, available at: http://www.netmba.com/strategy/value-chain/. 24. Treviño L.K. & Weaver G.R., 2003, Managing ethics in business organizations: social scientific perspective, Stanford University Press. 25. U.S. Regional Differences in Attitudes and Behaviors Lend Themselves to Targeted Marketing Efforts, 2008, Press Release, accessed on: 10th April 2009, available at: http://www.marketresearch.com/corporate/aboutus/press.asp?view=3&article=1055&g=1. Read More