Competing with kreteks: transnational tobacco companies, globalisation, and Indonesia. (57/461)

OBJECTIVE: To examine the strategies employed by transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) to compete more effectively compete with the dominant kretek manufacturers in Indonesia, and to consider implications of their failure. METHODS: Systematic analysis of corporate documents obtained from British American Tobacco's (BAT's) Guildford depository and from industry and tobacco control websites document collections. RESULTS: The limited progress of the TTCs in Indonesia is best explained by the distinctive political economy of its tobacco industry. Though effective when collaborating on regulatory issues of mutual interest, TTCs have been less able than kretek manufacturers to exercise political influence where their interests conflict. Global strategies of TTCs have undergone significant local adaptation in attempting to compete in this distinctive environment. While maintaining uniformity in core brand attributes, TTCs have sought to reconcile international imagery with local norms, particularly to appeal to women. BAT unsuccessfully attempted to develop clove based products that imitated the appeal of kreteks, withdrawn following concerns about exposing the company to charges of operating double standards. CONCLUSIONS: The documents presented highlight the complexity of the global tobacco industry. Tobacco control efforts need to address more effectively the ongoing impact of kreteks while recognising the distinctive threats posed by TTCs.  (+info)

Impacts of the Master Settlement Agreement on the tobacco industry. (58/461)

OBJECTIVE: To assess effects of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) and the four individual state settlements on tobacco company decisions and performance. DESIGN: 10-K reports filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, firm and daily data from the Center for Research in Security Prices, stock price indices, market share and advertising data, cigarette export and domestic consumption data, and newspaper articles were used to assess changes before (1990-98) and after (1999-2002) the MSA was implemented. SUBJECTS: Five major tobacco manufacturers in the USA. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Stockholder returns, operating performance of defendant companies, exports, market share of the original participants in the MSA, and advertising/promotion expenditures. RESULTS: Returns to investments in the tobacco industry exceeded returns from investments in securities of other companies, using each of four indexes as comparators. Domestic tobacco revenues increased during 1999-2002 from pre-MSA levels. Profits from domestic sales rose from levels prevailing immediately before the MSA. There is no indication that the MSA caused an increase in tobacco exports. Total market share of the original participating manufacturers in the MSA decreased. Total advertising expenditures by the tobacco companies increased at a higher rate than the 1990-98 trend during 1999-2002, but total advertising expenditures net of spending on coupons and promotions decreased. CONCLUSION: The experience during the post-MSA period demonstrates that the MSA did no major harm to the companies. Some features of the MSA appear to have increased company value and profitability.  (+info)

A nicotine delivery device without the nicotine? Tobacco industry development of low nicotine cigarettes. (59/461)

BACKGROUND: Defining harm reduction and regulating potentially reduced exposure products (PREPs), including low nicotine products, are key issues in tobacco control policy. The US Congress has been considering legislation authorising the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate tobacco products. OBJECTIVE: To investigate tobacco industry perceptions, interests, motivations, and knowledge regarding the marketability of low nicotine tobacco products. METHODS: Qualitative analysis of internal tobacco industry documents identified in the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library between February 2002 and June 2004. Search terms included low-, no-, reduced-nicotine; denicotinization; low-, reduced- alkaloids; Next; de-nic; and key names of people, organisations, projects, and their common abbreviations and acronyms. RESULTS: The tobacco industry has made repeated efforts to develop low nicotine cigarettes. Reasons for doing so include consumer appeal and economic importance in a highly competitive cigarette market for "healthier" products. The industry considered the development of a new "denic" market segment a critical challenge. CONCLUSIONS: The tobacco industry exploits consumer misunderstanding of the health effects of nicotine in development and marketing efforts. The industry has risked the development of a less addictive product to expand the market reach of tobacco products based on perceived health benefits and appeal to quitters.  (+info)

The Living Tomorrow Project: how Philip Morris has used a Belgian tourist attraction to promote ventilation approaches to the control of second hand smoke. (60/461)

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To examine the involvement of Philip Morris in Living Tomorrow 2 and determine the rationale behind its involvement. DESIGN: Research was conducted through a web based search of internal tobacco industry documents made publicly available through litigation. MAIN RESULTS: For approximately 1,000,000 euros Philip Morris (now Altria) became a co-initiator of Living Tomorrow 2, a tourist complex in Belgium that aims to demonstrate how we will be living in the future. In addition to promoting the company and its grocery products, Philip Morris is using the complex and its website to promote ventilation as a means of accommodating smokers and non-smokers in the indoor environment. Particular emphasis was placed on the bar and restaurant areas. Despite the rationale for its involvement, Philip Morris fails to acknowledge its role as a cigarette manufacturer. As a form of corporate sponsorship Philip Morris thought its involvement could evade any European tobacco advertising ban. CONCLUSIONS: Philip Morris is using a tourist attraction to promote its views on control of second hand smoke (SHS) and accommodation of smokers and non-smokers in the indoor environment. However, ventilation does not deal with the health effects of SHS. Policymakers must be cognisant of the devious tactics the industry employs to promote its own agenda, especially in relation to indoor air quality and smoking in public places. Tobacco control legislation should be continually modified and strengthened in response to the changing activities of the tobacco industry as it strives to evade existing legislation and deter the advent of new legislation.  (+info)

How Philip Morris unlocked the Japanese cigarette market: lessons for global tobacco control. (61/461)

BACKGROUND: The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control includes tobacco advertising restrictions that are strongly opposed by the tobacco industry. Marketing strategies used by transnational tobacco companies to open the Japanese market in the absence of such restrictions are described. METHODS: Analysis of internal company documents. FINDINGS: Between 1982 and 1987 transnational tobacco companies influenced the Japanese government through the US Trade Representative to open distribution networks and eliminate advertising restrictions. US cigarette exports to Japan increased 10-fold between 1985 and 1996. Television advertising was central to opening the market by projecting a popular image (despite a small actual market share) to attract existing smokers, combined with hero-centred advertisements to attract new smokers. Philip Morris's campaigns featured Hollywood movie personalities popular with young men, including James Coburn, Pierce Brosnan, Roger Moore, and Charlie Sheen. Event sponsorships allowed television access despite restrictions. When reinstatement of television restrictions was threatened in the late 1980s, Philip Morris more than doubled its television advertising budget and increased sponsorship of televised events. By adopting voluntary advertising standards, transnational companies delayed a television advertising ban for over a decade. CONCLUSIONS: Television image advertising was important to establish a market, and it has been enhanced using Hollywood personalities. Television advertising bans are essential measures to prevent industry penetration of new markets, and are less effective without concurrent limits on sponsorship and promotion. Comprehensive advertising restrictions, as included in the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, are vital for countries where transnational tobacco companies have yet to penetrate the market.  (+info)

Adults only: the prevalence of tobacco promotions in bars and clubs in the Boston area. (62/461)

OBJECTIVE: To document the nature and prevalence of tobacco promotions in bars and clubs in a major US city. DESIGN: We conducted systematic observations in a representative sample of 38 establishments in the Boston area, half of which had been advertised in a tobacco company ad. We also observed seven events in six additional clubs hosting Camel Casbah promotions. Telephone interviews were later completed with club managers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Use of branded give-away items, distribution of free cigarette samples, managers' reports of costs and benefits of hosting promotions. RESULTS: The majority of the 38 clubs were observed to use bar paraphernalia including matchbooks with tobacco brand logos, regardless of their history of appearing in tobacco sponsored ads. Free cigarette samples were not observed at any of the sampled clubs, but were a feature of every Casbah event. Managers of clubs in the advertised group were somewhat more likely to report having hosted promotions, but 44% of managers of non-advertised clubs indicated that tobacco promotions had occurred in their establishments in the past. Approximately one third of club managers viewed public links with a tobacco company as a negative feature of hosting promotions. CONCLUSIONS: Based on managers' reports, tobacco promotions occurred in more than 50% of the Boston area entertainment venues frequented by young adults. Cigarette companies should be required to inform the attorney general of plans to conduct promotions in adult-only venues to facilitate monitoring of compliance with the Master Settlement Agreement. The negative health and business consequences of hosting promotions should be communicated to bar owners.  (+info)

Merchandising of cigarettes in San Francisco pharmacies: 27 years later. (63/461)

OBJECTIVE: To estimate changes since 1976 in the proportion of San Francisco pharmacies that sell cigarettes and to characterise the advertising of cigarettes and the merchandising of non-prescription nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products in these retail establishments. METHODS AND SETTING: 100 randomly selected San Francisco pharmacies were visited in 2003. Pharmacies were characterised based on the sale of cigarettes, advertising for cigarettes, and the merchandising of non-prescription NRT products. RESULTS: In 2003, 61% of pharmacies sold cigarettes, a significant decrease compared to 89% of pharmacies selling cigarettes in 1976 (p < 0.001); 84% of pharmacies selling cigarettes also displayed cigarette advertising. Non-prescription NRT products were stocked by 78% of pharmacies, and in 55% of pharmacies selling cigarettes, the NRT products were stocked immediately adjacent to the cigarettes. CONCLUSIONS: Since 1976, there has been a decline in the overall proportion of pharmacies in San Francisco that sell cigarettes yet most pharmacies, particularly traditional chain pharmacies, continue to merchandise the primary known risk factor for death in the USA.  (+info)

Corporate social responsibility and the tobacco industry: hope or hype? (64/461)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) emerged from a realisation among transnational corporations of the need to account for and redress their adverse impact on society: specifically, on human rights, labour practices, and the environment. Two transnational tobacco companies have recently adopted CSR: Philip Morris, and British American Tobacco. This report explains the origins and theory behind CSR; examines internal company documents from Philip Morris showing the company's deliberations on the matter, and the company's perspective on its own behaviour; and reflects on whether marketing tobacco is antithetical to social responsibility.  (+info)