PM History/2 - Legacy Tobacco Documents Library

PM history/2
mkt as 100 brands enter field/quoting Fortune on how distributors had
to be courted till the Big Three began to dominate, shrinking solicitude
for distributors as adv . budgets bulged//THE PINCH as chain stores sell
cigs as loss leaders . . .price manipulation of Big 3 during Depression &
10¢ brands led to almost no margin left for distributors . . .thus, jobbers
& retailers receptive as PM DEBUTS IN_._7AN _'33, brown box reminiscent of
older PM Turkish blends, suggesting :'s co costlier brands & adv " M N
only fifteen cents"sDECEPTIVE since a diff . cig, really . . .HIRING JOHNNY .
ho a "Iv'Fran ener etic cheerful ublie ersonalit ," b11 . . .Story of
the hygroscop e agent & researc in Os, 12- . . .PM Eng. Blends pass
Old Golds in '38 to become #4 seller//MARL OROs continues to be sold as .
"America's luxury cig" & ads talk of "Par~icular people . . .careful to avoid
cheap c gs mart debutantes (who) recognize Marlboros as a suitable
accessory" & men who demand M's as "the cig. of distinction," b14 . . .j,n,
'40 PM issues red-ti d to go w/plain & ivory version + adv "RED - to
ma c yr ps & f ngertipst SMOOTH - to leave yr lipstick on yr lipst'/
Marlboro sales slip to 200 million during '30s vs . 35 billion for Big 3//
WARTIME SHORTAGES, soldiers smoked twice as much as civilians, 15, so
Marlboros fill the gaps, sales jump, but adv . eschews patriotism of other
brands, showing women in watercolors, fashionable babes for whom the war
"is primarily an inconvenience," bored & occasionally sinister they seem
to be surviving the conflict on strength of their cigs, MUST USE EXAMPLES
OF THE ADV COPY, 16-*-*-#"One delightful luxury she still with clear conscience
demands" & ivory tips as "firm, smooth, utterly so gnee"+ "trans-
Y'orming impatience into pleasure"~#~t17/war's end cut Marlboro gains//
THE POSTWAR GL3LT failure to reconvert a i~ng from wartime leadingto
nonse3Sin ove stoeT-t r .a~ wn~ s ale Lyon ~~ unloa~3e
ne~llion stales
in am s e expor mkt, '¢1 . . ._i "No ciE han&ov~er" c g,$ y' .~_ helps the
cymebaclc + "nose test"//LYON~ PRAISE~-T E MILDNESS ~ S PITCH IN •57s
it gets at the smoker's guilt complex, "the eeling the smkg is an indulgence
he'd be better off w/o," b19i also good pitch to women who do
most of the family buying, esp . now cigs at supermkts/mildness theme had
dated back to Chesterfield's push in '33 slogan, Old Gold's "Not a cough
' in a carload," etc ., b20//KINGS INTRODUCED TO INDUSTRY by fluke in £ed .
'+ tax laws, allowing length tncrease of just over 20 provided diameter was
reduced so in toto contained onlZ17~ more tobacco & wgt didn't exceed
3 1bs per-M, t21//part of appea" LL es esT more o3 a smo es public perceptio-'
n tT_a~E longer length filtered out nicotine, Pall Malls soar . . .in wake
of kings come . . . . ///FILTERSs began in US in '30s w/Parliament, Viceroy
& DuMaurier, smallish prewar . . . 1950 THRESHOLD YRe postwar comeback pushed
sales over 40 billion & to 11,1% MKT SHARE, taking aim at L&M whose sales
were dwindling & mkt share down to 17 .1%, hopeful to become "3 -- but ' 1
is huge SHOCK a~ales, which had 'umved 25% _ in ' S0 ._ siip~ped1~, sales
pitcTi-~urning stale,-3ohnny is ag ng & his call turning into "~+?t!i earache"
. . .~MARLBORQ s sales were off, fashionplates in adv . scuttled & pitch
was that n-a`yoie could afford 'em + pleasurability, t23/late '51 oomt~3.nn~
the two aPneals in ~Esca ~e~from the Commonplace" via Marl oro~ s .o .strong &
interes~ing copy : "„hen smc~g-~s s op eH"'~ing a pleasure & becomes only
a habit, it's time to freshen up yr taste" . . .BUTs by • vailable
only in hotels, resorts, luxury-snecialtv shons . i s mkt share less t11
nearing erm-9.nal-status .-_ . ._Pffmanagement has worse probs,-though,
MALLS PASS PHILIP MORRIS in fourth place among sellers + FTC CASE
NALI. DS after 10 O yrs in 2, much researc & testing to counter PM
claims as competitors & glycerine makers balkt FTC forbids the mildness
pitch=MAJOR BLOW, 25 . . . decisions to enter kings mkt, PM starts w/Dunhill
in '52, weak, so after Chesterfield kings leads way well, PM offers king
version, climbs to 4th among kings in first yr of '53 but not enough to
offset slump in PM regs . . . . AWARENESS NOW THAT FILTERS WERE THE FUTURE,
"You could feel it tryin to w," said Geo . Weissman who came to PM in
' 2 . . . open m p ace as demonstrated by fast start for KENT introduced
ix ffiarnh •5?i. . . BUYING IN WITH BENSON & HEDGES PURCHASE . Par~laml ent had held down No
. 2 spot behind Viceroy for some yrs, 26/buying ]mow-how in
filter area . . .B&Hs another London tobacconist's shop on Bond St (Richard
Benson & Wm Hedges, props .), opened first retail shop in NYC in '99 . . .by ~
'52 B&H sales hit nearly 2 billion/LVOn & McComas exvlain the rationAie ~
- - • - - ---- - - - --- - --- ------- ------- --- - ~
I salesj '~ " w'~ sl V •kin yaty3+billionfin '53, c7%
sales at 2 .7 billion in'54t . . .THE PROBLEM WAS THE P a prem um price,C7%
odd-s3.zed pae , a-ted Sogo, seeme no to relate to smoker w/anxiety Cn
looking for new-type cigs now proliferating . WINSTONS AND L&M DEBUT IN p
'53, by '54 each was selling twice as much as Parliament, now 05 . . .
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