Small History of Organizations Marlboro

How Marlboro Brand changed its sex?

Marlboro is a brand of cigarette famous for its flavor, billboard

advertisements and magazine advertisements of the Marlboro Man.

By 1992, Financial World ranked Marlboro the world's No. 1 most

valuable brand, with a market worth of $32 billion. In 2001 it was

the most popular cigarette brand in the U.S.

Marlboro smoker, now personified by the rugged

cowboys who puff on cigarettes was once meant for

woman. Marlboro Brand was born in 1924 as one of the first

women's cigarettes. During that time, the idea of marketing

cigarettes to women was a taboo. Advertisers had to

address the issue of stained teeth, foul breath, and

addictive cravings, not to mention that dry, heaving

morning cough. Philip Morris decided that their brand

needed to have a classy, sophisticated name. Winston

Churchill was in the news at the time, and it was being

reported that he was related to the Earl of Marlborough.

Philip Morris marketers liked the sound of the Marlborough

name, but didn't think it looked good on the pack. They

lopped off the "ugh" and came up with Marlboro. In the

1920s, the Marlboro campaign was based on how the

cigarette was different. They painted a red band around the

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of Technology, Tiruchengodu-637209

filter to hide those unattractive lipstick stains, calling them

"Beauty Tips to Keep the Paper from Your Lips." They

called Marlboro the "Mild as May" cigarette for women and

added a tag line -"Discerning feminine taste is now

confirming the judgment of masculine connoisseurs in

expressing unanimous preference for the Aristocrat of

Cigarettes. . . ." The brand had a small share to survive.

After Two decades, Philip Morris decided to "reposition"

the brand due to low volume of sales.

In the early 1950s, scientists published a major, well-

publicized study linking smoking to lung cancer. This

publication had a great publicity impact. In 1953, for the

first time, cigarette consumption slowed in the United

States. During the same era Reader's Digest magazine

published a series of articles that linked smoking with lung

cancer.

The cigarette companies moved fast. They pursued an

offensive strategy: claiming that the studies were

"inconclusive" on cigarette safety while implying that their

brands were "safer" than those other, more dangerous,

brands. The brands that were lost their market share were

nonfilter brands.

Small History of Organizations Marlboro

Filter cigarettes were perceived by smokers as safer, but

up to that point of time filter cigarettes had been marketed

to only women. Many men now wanted a filtered brand,

thinking that it will be safer, but were afraid they were

afraid that smoking women’ brand in public will show them

in poor light, if they switched to a woman’s brand.

Cigarette manufacturers are not in favour of filter

cigarettes to men, as it may perceived to reinforce the

image that cigarettes induce the bad effects of cigarettes,

filters implied that smoke was unpleasant or dangerous.

However, they are driven by profits. Filtered cigarettes

were more profitable because the filter material was

cheaper than a comparable amount of tobacco. Besides,

filters screened out some of the smoke's harshness, which

meant they could get by with a cheaper grade of tobacco.

Philip Morris decided to give Marlboro repositioning. The

company hired Chicago advertising executive Leo Burnett to

design the strategy. Burnett created advertising characters

Prepared for classroom discussion for students of MBA by Prof.K.Prabhakar, Director, KSR College

of Technology, Tiruchengodu-637209

like the Jolly Green Giant, the Keebler Elves, and the lonely

Maytag Repairman, Charlie the Tuna, Poppin' Fresh, and

Morris the Cat. When he thought about repositioning

Marlboros, he decided to use a series of the manliest

images he could think of. He intended to present a series of

ship captains, weight lifters, adventurers, war

correspondents, construction workers, Marines, and the like.

The cowboy was his first image of the series. Philip Morris

had his reservations. It hired a research company. The

research agency reported that there were only three

thousand cowboys in the entire United States at that time.

The research report said the men in town will not identify

with cowboys. Burnett convinced the company to try the

cowboy image. The campaign worked. In one year, Marlboro

brand share increased from marginal presence, to the

fourth bestselling brand.

Burnett's first set of cowboys were professional models,

some of whom had never been on a horse before. That led

Small History of Organizations Marlboro

to a series of embarrassing problems. For example, an early

advertisement showed a cowboy's legs in close-up: His blue

jeans were well-worn, his hand-tooled boots were scuffed in

all the right places, but his spurs were upside-down. After

that, the agency started recruiting real cowboys from places

like Texas and Montana for their ads.

In 1955, the agency added a trademark tattoo to their

cow boy's hand. One model observed after a photo shoot

that they had spent three minutes making up his face-and

three hours painting the tattoo. In 1962, Burnett's agency

bought the rights to The Magnificent Seven theme and

added words to it for their TV ads ("Come to where the

flavor is . . . Come to Marlboro Country").

Since then, the Marlboro Man has been among the most

successful campaigns ever, keeping the cigarette at or near

the top of mind recall for years. When cigarette ads were

banned in 1971, the cowboy made a smooth transition to

print and billboards since he never said anything anyway.

He continued squinting off into the distance with that self-

absorbed expression. Everyone seems to love the cowboy.

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of Technology, Tiruchengodu-637209

In France, Philip Morris sued an antismoking group that

used a cowboy model to deliver an antismoking message,

claiming trademark infringement. Philip Morris won a small

victory-a judgment of 1 franc instead of the $3 million he

asked for, However the advertisements were off the print.

The real cowboy models, meanwhile, have periodically

embarrassed the company by dying from smoking-related

diseases like lung cancer, emphysema, and strokes.

David McLean, who appeared in many Marlboro television

and print advertisements starting in the early 1960s, also

died of cancer at age 73 on 12 October 1995. McLean

starred in the short-lived 1960 television Western Tate, and

he played roles in numerous television series and feature

films during the 1960s and 1970s. McLean took up smoking

at age 12, began to suffer from emphysema in 1985, and

had a cancerous tumor removed from his right lung in 1993.

Despite the surgery, the cancer remained and spread to his

brain and spine, and McLean succumbed in 1995. In August

1996 McLean's widow and son filed a wrongful death lawsuit

against Philip Morris, Inc., claiming that McLean was unable

Small History of Organizations Marlboro

to stop smoking because of his nicotine addiction, and that

his smoking habit was the cause of his lung cancer.

The lawsuit contended, among other issues, that

McLean had been obligated to smoke up to five packs per

take in order to get the right look while posing for

advertisements, and that he received cartons of Marlboro

cigarettes as gifts from Philip Morris. At last report (in 1999)

the lawsuit was still pending, having outlasted all attempts

by defendant Philip Morris to have it dismissed.

The small history brings out some important issues relating

to management.

1) Marketing

i) Study the advertisement and posture of the cowboy.

What kind of imagery you find in the ad? What he tries to

communicate? He looks not into your eyes but into distant

lands.

ii) How “cognitive dissonance”, is managed in this case

when Reader’s Digest articles appeared in the news

regarding carcinogenic character of cigarette smoking?

ii) If you consider the image of Marlboro what kind of

Prepared for classroom discussion for students of MBA by Prof.K.Prabhakar, Director, KSR College

of Technology, Tiruchengodu-637209

characteristics the brand has? Male or female, what

physical characteristics?

2) Ethical Issues: Is it right to mislead people to believe

that smoking provides MACHO Image for men? Please see

the advertisement given in the reference. Children asking

their parents to smoke the brand . Is it ethical?

3) The brand value is 32 billion $ built on misery of

thousands of people- do you agree?

References

www.courses.rochester.edu/foster/ANT226/Spring01/histo

ry.htmlt http://www.tobacco.org

Please go to the links to have a good understanding of

the case.

Small History of Organizations Marlboro

Prepared for classroom discussion for students of MBA by Prof.K.Prabhakar, Director, KSR College

of Technology, Tiruchengodu-637209