On the history date 11th January 1964, it was declared by the United States Government that cigarettes cause cancer. And within a day $8 billion dollar industry and the income of 7,50,000 families were at stake.
While most companies saw their sales coming down. That one company which miraculously went from 1% market share to becoming one of the fourth largest cigarette brands in the world in less than 1 year.
And cigarette advertisements were completely banned from televisions. This brand became even more popular. Which went on to become the largest cigarette manufacturers in the world.
This brand I am introducing goes by the name “Marlboro“. And to this day the Marlboro brand is so huge that it has got more consumers as compared to its top 10 competitors combined.
The question is what did they do?
After the cancer report and ban on advertisements which is supposed to be a big no for its business. Ended up becoming a stepping stone for Marlboro becoming a $26.8 billion dollar brand. (Brand Value)
The answer to the question lies with its most iconic marketing strategies ever witnessed by mankind. Which is called lifestyle marketing.
Marlboro Brand – Lifestyle Marketing
If you are a 90’s kid and you watched Sachin Tendulkar play. I bet you at some point in your life or someone from your friend circle must have bought an MRF Bat. And chances are that when you visited the store, you knew nothing about English willow, Kashmir willow, etc. You didn’t care which wood the bat is made up of. You didn’t care about whether it was original or duplicate. At the end of the day, you simply wanted ‘A CRICKET BAT’.
And had two choice bat with those stickers and bats with MRF stickers. And most of us chose the latter one. And most probably some of you may know that MRF is primarily a rubber tyre manufacturing company. And MRF full form is Madras Rubber Factory. Which happened to be the sponsor of Sachin Tendulkar.
Now isn’t this a coincidence that millions of children all across the country were mindless to buy a bat with a sticker of a rubber tyre company?
If not then how the hell did this happen?
Well here’s how the magic of lifestyle marketing happens.
We all idolized Sachin Tendulkar and wanted to be like the God of Cricket. So subconsciously the MRF bats made us feel as if we were holding the same bat as master blaster Sachin Tendulkar himself.
So what we essentially brought into when we bought MRF is not the bat itself. But the connection it had with our idol. I.e Sachin Tendulkar.
Now in the US the same thing happened to Nike’s Air Jordans shoes lined up. When Nike signed up Michael Jordan. The fascination for Air Jordan shoes went so crazy that even today after 18years of Miachel Jordan retirement he earns $100 Million each year just in royalty.
This is what we call as ‘Lifestyle Marketing’
Wherein consumers buy more into the lifestyle of the icon who is associated with the product than the product itself. And this is what the marketers of Marlboro did to their brand.
After the 1964 report which was released by the General of the United States. Brands started doing anything in their capacity to keep their reputation. Some brands tried to justify cigarettes While some brands completely disapproved of the very research itself. Back then Marlboro was a very small company producing cigarettes only to women.
But as soon as the news broke out the parent company Philip Morris decided to shift their method of marketing. And became an epitome of business propaganda in the 20th century.
What the marketers of Marlboro did was instead of justifying smoking and using statistics which was difficult to understand. They came out with the campaign called ‘The Marlboro Man‘ wherein they created a brand image and introduced a character who was supposedly everything a man wanted to be like. And they came with the character The Marlboro Man.
Leo Burnett’s campaign for Marlboro projects an image which has made it the biggest-selling cigarette in the world. It has been running, almost without change, for 25 years.
Next time an apostle of hard-sell questions the importance of brand images, ask him how Marlboro climbed from obscurity to become the biggest-selling cigarette in the world.
Leo Burnett’s cowboy campaign, started 25 years ago and continues to this day, has given the brand an image which appeals to smokers all over the world.
The Commercial presented Marlboro man as a perfect archetype of manhood. He was tough, affectionate and stylish. And stood as an icon of freedom and manliness. Men of the 1960’s were so fascinated by Marlboro men that they started buying Marlboro cigarettes.
The campaign became a game-changer for the company. And within one year Marlboro went from 1% market share to becoming the 4th largest cigarette manufacturer in the world.
Fun fact is in all its commercials cigarettes was not the primary subject of focus. Infact cigarettes as a product got less than 10% of footage time in all of its commercials. And because of this even when cigarette commercials were permanently banned from TV. And brands couldn’t show cigarettes in their commercials.
Marlboro easily navigated through that situation because it anyways their focus was not into cigarettes but in Marlboro man himself.
That’s how they were able to build an iconic brand image and communicate the message very effectively and subtly even through print and magazine ads.
The sale skyrocketed because the rest of the brand were struggling to market their brands without showing their product.
Now more than a marketing lesson there’s a very important life lesson to learn from this iconic case study.
People just liked Marlboro in the 1960s even today what we fail to realise is that we are constantly being bombarded by lifestyle cigarette commercials that do not appear as ads but in the form of pop culture icons, movies, and entertainment.
Like in Peaky Blinders, James Bond wears a tuxedo smoking cigarette which tries to portray a gentleman kind of personality. Or Kabir Singh (Indian Movie) who is portrayed as an epitome of manliness.
Now regardless of how lucrative they look. What is important for us to understand is that they are basically tapping into your insecurities to convince you to do something which will give you an elevated feeling of yourself.
But the truth is because of your lack of self-awareness. You don’t realise your insecurities are putting money into their pocket.
Eventually making those companies into billion dollar valuation. But to turn you into a sick and miserable addict of either cigarettes or social validation depending on what you are buying into.
So keep your eyes open and do not fall into these traps.
And last but not the least my advice to you is. Always buying dumshit will never make you a happier or better version of yourself.
The only thing that will make you feel better is your acceptance of your insecurities and imperfections.
And at the end of the day if you don’t embrace your insecurities some billion dollar brand is waiting to dig into your misery and make a fortune out of it.
So if you think this blog makes sense and has really made you aware.
Please share it to the near and the farthest ones you know.
Share it to as many people as possible.
Thank you
