Who won’t recognize the advertisement “Marlboro Man” and “Marlboro Country” which has taken a big part symbolizing American culture and commerce?
Marlboro is named after Great Marlborough, a street in London where its factory was first situated on, but its largest cigarette manufacturing plant is now located in Richmond, Virginia. It was first introduced in 1924 by Philip Morris, a British cigarette manufacturer as a women’s cigarette with its slogan: “Mild as May”. A series of ads has been out in the advertising world in 1926 with stylish women posed in plush settings targeting female consumers. However, during the World War II the brand has been faltered and has been temporarily taken off the market. During those times, three new competing cigarette brands has been introduced: Camel, Lucky Strike and Chesterfields, which has been sold to US soldiers during the war with a firm hold on the consumer market.
It was 1942, when Reader’s Digest published an article on their July issue titled “Cigarette Advertising Fact and Fiction," which mainly discussed that all cigarettes are deadly, regardless of brand and during the 1950’s they published another article linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer. This serves as another path for Philip Morris to re-introduce Marlboro and market it as the “safer” filtered brand. However, it has not been easy for Philip Morris for there are other cigarette companies who launched filtered end cigarettes in the market. Philip Morris has to do a complete revision and switch their advertising strategies from its feminine image to a complete transformation targeting a new group of consumers: addicted male smokers who are afraid of acquiring lung cancer.
“Marlboro Country” with those rugged cowboys also known as “Marlboro Men” was first seen in 1960s. This was the time when Philip Morris completely re-introduced a new image of Marlboro with a manly image this time. “Marlboro Men “has been recognized all over the world and cowboys has been one of the most popular characters. From the filtered-end cigarettes, flip-top boxes also came out, enticed women to try "the cigarette made for men that women like," and explained that long white ashes are a sign of good tobacco.
Marlboro completely boost out other cigarette brands in the market, dominating in the cigarette world market. It has been one of the top-selling cigarette brands for Caucasian smokers. Marlboro was also ranked as the world's No. 1 most valuable brand, with a market worth of $32 billion in 1992. Now, Philip Morris' tobacco brands are in 180 markets, have a 38% market share in the US, are the top-selling cigarettes in the world, and the tenth-most valuable product brands overall.