From: anne@tobaccodocuments.org
Date: Fri, 05/16/08
2nd Posting Date: Friday, May 16, 2008 (First posted on Tuesday,
September 9, 2003)
Report of A Qualitative New Brand Development Study in the A / B
Price Sector in Pakistan
Company/Source: Philip Morris
Document Date: 20 Sep 1990 (est.)
Length: 49 pages
Bates No. 2504008471/8519
Document Images: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ocq19e00
This document from the Philip Morris collection shows that Pakistani
smokers' fears and anxieties about health were considered a "market
opportunity" for cigarette companies to market "light" cigarettes in
that country.
In countries where information about the health hazards of smoking is
less advanced, cigarette makers anticipate an eventual increase in
smokers' health anxieties and begin positioning their brands to cater
to, and profit from those fears:
[Taken from Page 46 of the document, or Bates Page No. 2504008518]:
"The evidence as a whole seems to indicate, in fact, that anxiety
about the health/safety issue had not yet reached the level where
avowedly very mild cigarettes like Rothman's Lights could expect an
extensive franchise...Over time, anxiety levels would rise, as they
have done in other markets, and when this happened mild/light brands
like Rothman's Lights would begin to achieve respectable sales. The
indications were, however, that such as development would take some
time."
In some cases, cigarette companies actually stimulate smoker fears to
increase sales of their brands. In 1983, Brown & Williamson
implemented Project Lodestar, the intent of which was to increase
health fears among smokers to increase sales of their "light" brands
in Kuwait. In a document about Project Lodestar, B&W lamented that
"The lack of growth in this [low tar and nicotine] segment,
especially in developing countries, has seriously affected the
potential of key BWIT brands..." Thus Project Lodestar's goal was to
"Stimulate concern among less aware consumers..."
Another part of the plan involved recruiting assistance from major
anti-tobacco groups in Kuwait to help "stimulate concern":
"Lobby [the Kuwaiti Anti-Smoking] Society to emphasize low delivery
brand alternatives for concerned smokers who do not want to quit
smoking..."
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