Philip Morris Companies

Philip Morris Companies, Inc. is a leading consumer products company with three major segments: tobacco, food and beer. Each of these strategic business units (SBUs) is a significant force in its respective market; the company is the largest cigarette company in the United States and the largest American food processor (Shea, 1993, p. 1822). Philip Morris has among its assets the most valuable brand in the world: Marlboro (Morris, 1993, p. 43). This research examines the advertising campaign that created this successful brand, and the strategies that have driven the campaign.

In 1992, Philip Morris dominated the domestic cigarette market with approximately a 45 percent market share. Tobacco products accounted for 43 percent of 1992 revenue and 69 percent of the company's operating profit (Barrett, 1993, p. 317). That dependence on a single business unit makes the company especially vulnerable to legislation and litigation arising from the sale of tobacco products. In recent years, Americans have become increasingly concerned with public health and with the sale and regulation of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Many public facilities now prohibit smoking indoors, and designated smoking areas have become commonplace at restaurants and other private establishments throughout the country. Announcements by the Environmental Protection Agency in early 1993 that second hand smoke can be a significant contributor to lung cancer has been met with vehement and expensi

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Man � virile, healthy, independent � is not at all related to his smoking cigarattes, let alone his smoking Marlboros. Once a consumer chooses to smoke and becomes addicted, the challenge is in keeping the smoker loyal to a single brand of cigarettes. Thus the positioning strategy is to build an image around the product that can both attract first-time nonsmokers to the brand as well as bring smokers of other brands to the product. With this in mind, cigarette advertisements tend to emphasize healthy lifestyles (physical activity) and young, attractive consumers. The Marlboro Man image reinforces the healthy lifestyle, showing an outdoor scene, and the image of the cowboy is the image of America itself to overseas consumers. That value came about because the mere image of the Marlboro man is enough to sell cigarettes in this country and abroad. After cigarette advertisements were banned from television, Philip Morris continued to use the effective Marlboro Man, and now regularly purchases full-page advertisements in major magazines that show a picture of the cowboy, the brand name and a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. The success of this imagery has resulted in one of the single most unified advertising campaigns throughout t

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