have you got a light?!!!

Ice Baby

Hi All

Just wondering if anyone could help me!
Im currently studying Marketing and e-business and i am abroad for this year studying. The problem is that i have a subject called Launching a Product and the product i was givent o launch is ciggaretes and i have to pretend to launch them in Sweden who have very strict laws about tobacco advertising etc. and i have to find new ways of launching a new brand of ciggs called UNO ! anybody have any suggestions?????

whiskeyman

Look how competitors advertise there and follow a similar approach.
Is your brand supposed to be backed by one of the big ciggy companies, or is it a go-it-alone product?
Any USPs?

d-arke

Isn't the advertising of tobacco now banned more or less all over Europe. I know theres a huge ethical side of things such as no tobacco sponsorship in sports like F1 Racing and snooker. Was more or less certain it was banned in all forms of advertising so your best approach would be a mass below-the-line advertising campaign such as possible in-store promotions (don't know if this would be feasible or legal), or what about a promotion in nightclubs or something, or is there any no smoking laws in Sweden. I'm sure you can do some sort of play on words with the name of the product, eg "UNO when you've been tango'd", so why not go with something like "Everyone dies sooner or later, tobacco speeds increases the process. Try UNO, you know you want!"

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possible lawsuit me thinks

Ice Baby

haha im thinkn that could be a possible lawsuit i think!
Yeah its sort of a difficult one because any form of advertising and sponsorship of tobbacco is illegal anywhere in Europe , Sweden was the first to Start the ball rolling and they have now implemented no smoking in public areas.However im going over there next week so itl give me a chance to have a look, im trying to think what its like back home , i know its been a few months since i was there but dont they advertise in the shop the ciggarrettes for eg, Carrols have signs displayed behind the counters and the mats on the counters are usually of ciggarette companies?
Its ment to be a new brand produced by BAT (Brittish American Tobbacco) and not many usps given in the brief just that it has a high quality , luxurious product, has a stong brand name backing it and it already has a good reputation among customers.

whiskeyman

Ice Baby wrote:

.
Its ment to be a new brand produced by BAT (Brittish American Tobbacco) and not many usps given in the brief just that it has a high quality , luxurious product, has a stong brand name backing it and it already has a good reputation among customers.

Thats your key then.... having BAT as producer (big budget and large establish market).
Not all advertising is banned... look at F1.
Arent BAT still in F1?
Pretty sure the Swedes loves their rally driving... perhaps theres more sponsorship avenues there.
POS at duty free is another.

d-arke

USPS??

Your right about the Carrolls, you walk into some newsagents like Spar and they have those Carrolls mats. Not sure about signs behind the til, maybe there's a big sticker or something on the smoking vending machines behind the til and possible on machines in pubs.

F1 Racing, BAT? Isn't it BAR (British American Racing) I've lost track of F1 these days. I'm fairly sure F1 is tobacco advertising free, or is being phased out after current contracts expire. Such as what happened with the snooker and the Embassy World Championship

growler

with the blanket ban on advertising its obviously very difficult to successfuly introduce a new product into a crowded market where there is a lot of brand loyalty and very little (i imagine) price sensitivity. As you've been told this is a high quality / luxury product you can't go in with the lowest price to steal some market share, you could though plan to have an initial entry low pricing level to attract addicts to try the new brand.

Without advertising its going to be hard to build a brand, I don't know where UNO cme from or what it means but i'll assume it doesn't meana arse in swedish. One of the few ways you can differentiate your product in the ciggarette market is packaging / design , look for an unusual design and eye catching colours / fonts, the so-called premium brands in the market use slightly different packaging i.e. Dunhill or different style of cigarette ie. the skinny ones. Since there is very little to chose between one pack of fags and the next there may be potential to have a much trendier design that would attract a younger buyer ( again depends on the demographics of the swedish smokers whether that would work or not) although the "DEATH" brand was a short -lived foray into the cigarette market so its not without risks.

Maybe look for a USP in the tobacco, "selected from the finest tobcco leaves" or go for a pseudo-health position, fewer additives / carcinogens than other leading brands etc.

Again, not sure what the local laws might be , but as you need to attract as many new users asap, perhaps you can run a competition for some exotic holiday / cancer care etc. which will give you a good reason for instore promotions, don't leave out the shop-owners either as you'll need them on you side too ( incentives for sales / selling winning packets etc., usual stuff). Airports are alwys a good place to do promotions too, you'll get smokers and may will be relatively well off also, free samples, ( not supposed to do lighters anymore), umbrellas, snow shoes etc. at a stand manned by some lovely local talent.

As a premium brand you'll need to attract smokers who are well off, trend setters, look to do promotions in some of the trendier bars, again depending on the law you may be able to buy a database of smokers who fit your target audience profile and send samples to them.

The tobacco maket is a very tough nut to crack, if you can steal a small market share within a few years you'll do well.

off the top of my head :-)