Marlboro is one of the most recognizable and successful cigarettes brands in the world that miraculously went from having just 1% market share to becoming the fourth largest cigarette brand in the world all thanks to amazing Marlboro marketing strategy.
Over the years Marlboro has become a company worth more than $58 Billion dollars and still has a very good market share in the tobacco industry, thanks in large part to Marlboro genius marketing strategy.
So, make sure you read this post till last as this post is really going to teach you how to find loopholes in the laws, do a powerful marketing and become a market leader.
Introduction
On 11th of January 1964, it was officially declared by the United States government that cigarette causes cancer and within a day an $8 Billion dollar tobacco industry and the incomes of 7,50,000 families was at stake.
While most companies saw their sales drastically going down Marlboro was the only one which grew enormously bigger in size. The fact that cigarettes causes cancer and government restrictions didn’t stopped Marlboro to go from 1% market share to becoming one the most famous and biggest cigarette brand in the world.
Another amazing fact, when the US government decided to ban cigarette advertisements permanently from televisions this brand became even more popular !
Today, Marlboro so such a big brand that it has more customers than it’s next 10 competitors combined.
Marlboro Marketing Strategy Explained - The Lifestyle Marketing
To understand the Lifestyle marketing let me give you a very simple example.
If you are from United States and if you love basketball then I am pretty sure that you must have watched Michael Jordan playing basketball a lot, the world famous professional basket ball player. If you really loved basketball I bet that at some point in your life you must have bought Nike Jordans, although they are a bit more costly.
But why the hell you went for Nike Jordans ? What shoes have to do with our favorite basketball player ?
So to put that straight, what we essentially bought into when we bought Jordans were not just shoes but the connect that it had with our idol, Michael Jordan.
We all idolized Michael Jordan and we all wanted to be like Michael Jordan, so subconsciously, the Nike Jordans made us feel connected to our lovely player Michael Jordan.
You will be shocked to know that but according to Forbes your subconscious mind is responsible for 95% of purchasing decision.
Thus there was and still is a lot of fascination for Air Jordan shoes, especially in the US. So much that Michael Jordan still makes more than $100 millions every single year from the Nike Jordan deal. As of 2020 Michael Jordan has made more than $1.3 Billion from the Nike in royalties.
This is the magic of “Lifestyle Marketing” wherein consumers buy more into the lifestyle of the icon whose associated with the product than the product itself.
Similarly, if you are from India then I’m sure you must love cricket and back as a child you surely must have try to buy yourself the bat with MRF sticker just because our ideal Sachin Tendulkar used it.
Whenever you had two choices bats with no stickers or bats with MRF stickers. you chose the MRF bat by default and god knows after how many years later you realized that the MRF stands for Madras Rubber Factory, which is primarily a rubber tire manufacturing company which just happened to sponsor Sachin Tendulkar.
Now, this is exactly what the marketeers of Marlboro cigarettes did to their brand. Marlboro Genius Marketing Strategy was based on Lifestyle Marketing.
Shift in the Marlboro Marketing Strategy
After the 1964 report, which was published by the health spokesperson of the US, brands began to do everything in their ability to keep their reputation. A few brands tried to protect cigarettes claiming that their cigarettes are completely safe and are not carcinogenic. Some brands even tried opposing reports published by the US government arguing that the government needs to do a proper research.
Back then Marlboro had just 1% market share and used to make cigarettes only for women.
But as soon as the news broke out that cigarettes are harmful to health and can cause cancer. The parent company of Marlboro, which is Philip Morris decided to shift Marlboro marketing strategy and became an epitome of business propaganda in the 20th century.
Keep reading further to find out about the Marlboro marketing strategy that turned Marlboro into a really successful company.
Introducing - The Marlboro Man
The introduction of “The Marlboro Man” was a major and most successful step in Marlboro marketing strategy.
Instead of justifying smoking and using statistics that were difficult to understand they came out with a campaign called The Marlboro Man.
The Marlboro Man was portrayed as a character who was supposedly everything a man wanted to be like. Marlboro Man was a cowboy who had perfectly built up body and the commercial showcased him as the ultimate architype of manhood.
He was tough, affectionate and stylish and overall stood as the icon of freedom and manliness.
The result – Just as we all bought the Nike Jordans, the men of the 1960s were so fascinated by the Marlboro man and started buying Marlboro cigarettes that the commercial became a massive game changer for the company.
And within a year Marlboro went from having less than 1% market share to becoming the 4th largest cigarette manufacturer in the world.
Marlboro Propaganda
The fun fact is that in all of those commercials cigarette was not even the primary subject of focus. In fact, cigarette as a product got less than 10 seconds of time footage in all of those commercials.
Due to this even when cigarette commercials were permanently banned from television and brands couldn’t show cigarettes in commercials or TV, Marlboro was very easily able to dodge through that situation, as their focus was anyways not on cigarettes but on Marlboro Man himself.
This is the reason why even after the 1970 ban on promoting cigarettes, Marlboro’s business still kept growing. In fact, the sales skyrocketed because the rest of the brands were struggling to market their brands without showing cigarettes.
This made Marlboro a legend in advertising and laid the foundation for Marlboro to become a $58 billion brand.
Other Tactics Used by Marlboro
Apart from just running advertisements on National Television, targeted advisement, sponsoring events and athletes, selling branded merchandise were also a part of Marlboro marketing strategy also used.
Sponsorship of Sporting Events
Targeting and sponsoring sports events was also a major part of Marlboro marketing strategy. Marlboro has sponsored Ferrari in Formula 1 (The world’s most famous and reputed international racing) for 50 years. The Ferrari-Marlboro deal ended 2022. Marlboro used to spend more than $100 million dollar in F1 (Formula 1 racing) each year on avergae.
Selling Branded Merchandise
Marlboro has brought out their own personal merchandise in the market, such as Marlboro-branded lighters and ashtrays.
Conclusion
Its very clear that lifestyle marketing has a massive impact and influence on people. When carcinogenic commodities can be sold then its very clear that if brand just target the correct market and brings out a good product they can adopt lifestyle marketing especially when it comes to selling customers.
But lifestyle marketing does not work in B2B space, i.e. , in business-to-business deals as businesses are smart enough and takes decision based on data, cost and they know the quality they want.
Lastly, as a brother I would advice you all that always remember that smoking cigarettes or drinking too much alcohol won’t you a better version of yourself. It will only deteriorate your health.
So keep your will power strong and never let these so called brands to use your insecurities to make billions.