Advertising, Cigarette Brands and Smokers - An Analysis of Different Cigarette Brands, their Target Groups and the Conveyed Customer Images

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. What is Advertising ? – A Brief Summary

3. Consumers’ Product Preference

4. Cigarette Brands and their Target Groups & Images
4.1. Lucky Strike
4.2. Marlboro
4.3. West

5.Conclusion

6. References

7. Appendix

1. Introduction

In this essay I want to compare different cigarette ads from Marlboro, Lucky Strike and West in detail and in general. Moreover, I want to analyse the different target groups and characteristics of the different brands’ smokers. It is conspicuous that many cigarette brands do not advertise for a particular kind of tobacco and its taste or quality, but for a certain image, lifestyle or attitude. This makes clear that many cigarette brands advertise more for an image than the actual product and brings up the question why cigarette brands concentrate on promoting and emphasizing the brand image. Since the different brands address and appeal to different types of persons or smokers, I am going to find out, what makes a person choose a certain cigarette brand.

2. What is Advertising ? – A Brief Summary

In his essay “The Functions and Management of Cigarette Advertising” Dr. Richard W. Pollay quotes the American Marketing Association, which has defined advertising as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor. Pollay states that advertising works in the longer term and evokes change of public awareness, perceptions, attitudes, or images. Moreover advertising is said to promote consumer awareness, interest and desire and places a brand in consumers' memories. It changes consumer atti­tudes and images in various ways and seeks to enhance the consumers' perceptions of the product. Advertising chooses words and pictures carefully to glamorize the product and its users, and to induce purchase and consumption.^[1] Lester G. Telser who also mentions that firms use advertising to persuade consumers to purchase their product supports this.^[2] Like Dr. Richard Pollay Angela Goddard says in her book “The Language of Advertising” that an advertisement can refer to a product, an idea or an image.^[3] In my essay, I want to go into the aspect of different images that are promoted by several cigarette brands. Since the advertised products are all cigarettes, the most significant difference is the publicized image of the brand and the brand’s typical smoker.

3. Consumers’ Product Preference

Cigarette brands try to emphasize and to convey different images and attitudes to persuade customers of their product. In this chapter I want to make clear, why people choose a particular cigarette brand and which motives influence their decision.

M. Joseph Sirgy states in his essay “Self-Concept in Consumer Behaviour: A Critical Review” that consumers can be defined by the products they buy or use or by the meanings products have for them or their attitudes towards products.^[4] Ivan Ross proves with an empirical test that people buy certain things only if these are consistent with the conception they have of themselves. He distinguishes the role of “actual self-concept” and “ideal self-concept” and their relations to consumer behaviour. He points out that many researches suggest that people tend to like others whom they perceive as being more similar to themselves than those who are less similar. Based on this social psychological research he maintains, “people should prefer brands which they perceive as being the sort of brands that would be consumed by a person who is ‘similar’ to themselves.”^[5] Ross concludes that a person will prefer to consume a product or brand of product, which is perceived by him to be more rather than less similar to his own self-concept.^[6] The concept of ideal and actual self-concept is also taken up by M. Joseph Sirgy who explains several definitions of self-concepts and presents the duality of ideal and actual self-concept as a common idea.^[7] Sirgy makes clear that the individual behaves in order to protect and enhance the self-concept. Moreover the purchase, display and use of products communicates symbolic meaning to the individual and to others. By that the enhancement of the self-concept depends on the consumption of products as symbols.^[8] In connection with the idea of Ivan Ross in summary, one can say that the better a person can identify with a brand or product through the perceived similarity between brand image and self-concept, the more effective a person can improve his or her self-concept by the consumption of products as symbols.

Rob Cunningham says in his book “SMOKE & MIRRORS: The Canadian Tobacco War” that for many people, there is a gap between actual and desired self-image. He explicitly claims that the industry portrays cigarettes as something that can fill the gap. Cunningham also mentions that both men and women smoke to enhance social acceptability, to improve self-esteem, or to relieve stress.^[9] This leads to the conclusion that some people need cigarettes to increase their self-esteem, and the better they can identify with a cigarette brand the more comfortable it seems to them to improve their self-esteem by smoking. This explains the need for different and tailor-made cigarette brand images, because there are a lot of varieties of different personalities and types of persons who naturally identify with different brand images since they have different perceptions of themselves.

4. Cigarette Brands and their Target Groups & Images

M. Wakefield, C. Morley, J. K. Horan and K. M. Cummings claim in their essay ” The cigarette pack as image: new evidence from tobacco industry documents” that “cigarette brands embody the qualities we wish we had, the lives we wish we could lead, the great escapes we wish we could make".^[10] This means that smokers identify with a brand and its image. I want to investigate the differences between several cigarette brands and how they try to convince customers of their image. Moreover I want to characterize the different target groups.

Not only the abstract image of a cigarette brand but also the concrete cigarette packaging gives the user some of the identity and personality of the brand image, because when a smoker takes out his cigarette package, he makes a statement about himself. In addition to that Wakefield, Morley, Horan and Cummings point out that Cigarette brands enjoy the highest brand loyalty of all consumer products, with less than 10% of customers changing brands per year. Once a consumer chooses a cigarette brand, it is quite unlikely that he or she will change this decision.^[11]

[...]

^[1] Dr. Richard W. Pollay. “The Functions and Management of Cigarette Advertising.” Tobacco Control 1999. 3. 19 Feb 2005 <http://www.health.usyd.edu.au/tob21c/resources/M11-1.doc>

^[2] Lester G. Telser. “Advertising and Cigarettes”. The Journal of Political Economy 70.5 (1962). 474. 19 Feb 2005 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-3808%28196210%2970%3A5%3C471%3AAAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X>

^[3] Angela Goddard. The Language of Advertising. London: Routledge, 1998. 6

^[4] M. Joseph Sirgy. “Self-Concept in Consumer Behavior: A Crititcal Review.” The Journal of Consumer Research 9.3 (1982) 287. 19 Feb 2005 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0093-5301%28198212%299%3A3%3C287%3ASICBAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J>

^[5] Ivan Ross. “Self-Concept and Brand Preference.” The Journal of Business 44.1 (1971) 38. 19 Feb 2005 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-9398%28197101%2944%3A1%3C38%3ASABP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D>

^[6] Ivan Ross. “Self-Concept and Brand Preference.” The Journal of Business 44.1 (1971) 40. 19 Feb 2005 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-9398%28197101%2944%3A1%3C38%3ASABP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D>

^[7] M. Joseph Sirgy. “Self-Concept in Consumer Behavior: A Crititcal Review.” The Journal of Consumer Research 9.3 (1982) 288. 19 Feb 2005 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0093-5301%28198212%299%3A3%3C287%3ASICBAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J>

^[8] M. Joseph Sirgy. “Self-Concept in Consumer Behavior: A Crititcal Review.” The Journal of Consumer Research 9.3 (1982) 289. 19 Feb 2005 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0093-5301%28198212%299%3A3%3C287%3ASICBAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J>

^[9] Rob Cunningham. “SMOKE & MIRRORS: The Canadian Tobacco War.” The International Development Research Centre. 1996. 19 Feb 2005 <http://web.idrc.ca/en/ev-28829-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html>

^[10] M. Wakefield, C. Morley, J. K. Horan and K. M. Cummings. ” The cigarette pack as image: new evidence from tobacco industry documents” Tobacco Control Online. 2002. 19 Feb 2005 <http://tc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/11/suppl_1/i73>

^[11] M. Wakefield, C. Morley, J. K. Horan and K. M. Cummings. ” The cigarette pack as image: new evidence from tobacco industry documents” Tobacco Control Online. 2002. 19 Feb 2005 <http://tc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/11/suppl_1/i73>