Marlboro Red- A Product That Kills Its Best Customers
P3 Product Critique for ME120, Spring, 2020 by Fred Lee
For my final product critique, I have chosen to closely analyze and discuss one of the worlds most influential demerit goods, Phillip Morris’s Classic Red Marlboro Cigarette. In a lucrative yet competitive business, the Classic Red is described as the benchmark other cigarette companies try to reach for. I asked myself, how did Phillip Morris create a billion-dollar product that literally kills those who consume it and even those around them. I for one thought the answer was quite simple; nicotine is addictive however upon further research, I have discovered that the Marlboro cigarette is a well-designed product that has overcome a multifaceted plethora of issues and challenges throughout its history. Here is a brief timeline of the Marlboro Red Cigarette:
1847: Phillip Morris starts his business selling tobacco
1924: Marlboro was launched in America and labelled as ‘Americas first luxury cigarette’.
1930: Heavy advertisement of Marlboro as a ‘womens cigarette’.
1937: Sales stagnated and was overshadowed by its competitors
1950A: health report published by a group of British Scientists linking smoking to lung cancer caused Phillip Morris to rebrand Marlboro as a men’s cigarette.
1964: Surgeon General Luther Terry and John F. Kennedy review a 400 page report that concluded cigarettes as a cause of a variety of deaths. Tobacco companies globally start to stagnate.
1971: Cigarette companies are no longer allowed to advertise cigarettes on TV.
1972: Marlboro becomes the best tobacco company in the world.
2017: Marlboro has an estimated brand value of 88 billion dollars, putting it within the top ten companies in the world.
This series of events highlights how Marlboro was able to overcome adversity and establish itself as one of the most stubborn and trusted products despite its’ turbulent rise to success. After research in a multitude of areas, I assert that the main factors of success behind the Marlboro Red Cigarette lay within Phillip Morris’s uncanny understanding of the economic market and its competitors throughout history, the design of the cigarette functionally and aesthetically, and an expert design team that has established Marlboro as a timeless American classic despite modern obstacles.
Business Management
Philip Morris was born in 1835 who lived most of his life as a tobacconist and cigarette importer before he died of cancer in 1873. His widow and Margret and son Leopard Morris would continue his business and expand the company leading to the creation of “Philip Morris & Co. Ltd” in 1885. The company registered ‘Marlboro’ in 1908 but it took another 16 years before the company was happy enough to finally release the worlds very first Marlboro classic. However, this wasn’t the first time Philip Morris & Co would try and create the world’s greatest cigarette. In 1885, Philip Morris & Co would begin advertisement for a cigarette branded as “Marlborough”. Marketed as a ladies cigarette, the company found little to no success losing a few investors and partnerships. Despite this, those loyal to the company would continue under the guidance of Leopard and Margret Morris in their pursuit of Philip’s vision and continued selling the Marlboro Red as a ladies cigarette. Not much else is recorded during this time period but in the film Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes, climate researcher Ben Santer remarks that “Philip Morris didn’t do what other companies did, a lot of people wanted to get rich quick so they would make really inadequate cigarettes. What the people at Philip Morris prioritized, was this idea of making the world’s best cigarette so they spent weeks and weeks perfecting their formula which gave way to one of the most addictive damn cigarettes the world has ever seen” (Merchants of Doubt).
Despite a shaky start, the formula for the world’s first luxury cigarette proved effect and sales were slowly on the rise. As soon as Philip Morris started seeing some profit, the company would have to reevaluate their situation due to external marketing factors as the United States was preparing for war. In 1937, sales for Marlboro plummeted as the market demands for the slightly more expensive ‘luxury cigarette’ was completely overlooked. Marlboro’s competitors Camel, Lucky Strike, and Chesterfield would remain as the only cigarette brands successful at this time because of their affordability and quantity. Marlboro Red’s couldn’t compete and was withdrawn from the market to be reevaluated. The classic cigarette would spend many more years in development and review before making it anywhere near the top of the market once more. In 1950, an opportunity came for them when a group of British scientists published a paper with one key theory: filtered cigarettes where healthier than unfiltered cigarettes. “So far, no clear distinction has been made between filtered cigarettes and unfiltered cigarette smokers, and it is natural to ask whether both methods of smoking tobacco are equally related to carcinoma of the lung but table IV indicates that there is a higher chance with unfiltered cigarettes.” (Doll) Upon this publication, Philip Morris immediately came up with a new approach this time branding their Marlboro Reds as a much healthy alternative catering to a very niche and small target audience of men worrying about their health at the time. It was this foresight for the product that has placed the company where it is today. At first there was a lot of skepticism rebranding the luxury women's cigarette to a heavy and healthier alternative for men. Back then filtered cigarettes were considered ‘feminine’ as they were portrayed to be ‘lighter and smoother’ so selling to the male demographic was definitely a risk. Despite this cultural stigma, sales would prove the decision a wise one as Marlboro Reds went from a market share of 1 percent of the entire tobacco industry to becoming the fourth best product in the market. Thus, in the1960’s, the legendary icon of ‘Marlboro Man’ was born- a suave, gritty, cowboy aesthetic further cementing the Marlboro Red as a men’s cigarette.
Finally, on a cold Saturday in 1964, a morning press conference held in the White House garnered international attention and would help give meteoric rise to the Marlboro Red Classic. The surgeon general at the time Luther Terry and President John F. Kennedy would review a 400 page on the incontestable, irrefutable, and indisputable proof cigarettes as an undeniable cause of cancer. After reviewing the accumulated evidence, it is reported that 5 committee members would refrain from smoking immediately and Terry announced that he would also give up cigarettes and take up the pipe instead. At first, citizens around America had taken the news to heart evident in the declining sales of tobacco products although this did not last for long. It is reported that “In the United States, sales fell 20 percent in the months after the reports issue, only to rebound spectacularly in 1965 when companies posted their highest profits to date”. (Milov) So what explains the resurgence of tobacco products after a crippling acknowledged study? Addiction. As all are familiar with, tobacco products are steeped in nicotine an extremely addictive chemical found in all kinds of cigarettes. As aforementioned, the Marlboro Red formula was a timely investment that had finally started paying dividends. The cigarette was one of the most addictive out there and because of the companies earlier vision of branding the cigarette as a healthier alternative, sales for Marlboro Red Classic Cigarettes skyrocketed and established itself as the most popular cigarette in 1972.
The exemplary vision that Philip Morris had for his products and the companies’ expert understanding of it’s competitors, the market, and factors that would affect the market undoubtedly helped steer the company away from failure multiple times. The ability to show restraint and discipline when needed, knowing when to go back to the drawing board, and when to take risk from a business perspective helped catapult the Marlboro Red Classic into success however, none of this would matter if Philip Morris’ cigarette didn’t live up to the hype.
Design: The Cigarette and The Aesthetic
The Cigarette
As in the nature of the business, there isn’t much publicly available when it comes to how Marlboro Reds are specifically made which is understandable if you are the worlds leading cigarette company. Instead, I will talk about the design of cigarettes in general as the Marlboro Red does not differ too much from the classic design. Cigarettes may look simply but everything about their design has been thought about to the finest detail in order to make them as addictive as possible.
There are four components that are considered when it comes to how cigarettes are made.
The first component of the cigarette is the filter. The filter is designed and marketed to filter out any harmful chemicals and reduce the negative effects of the cigarette. However, the cigarette filter is purposefully constructed for the completely opposite purpose. Cigarette filters are made from small bundles of thin hair like fibers patterned with small ventilation holes to make it more difficult for smoke to be inhaled. This consequently forces the consumer of a cigarette top inhale much deeper and as a result, take in more of the toxic fumes deeper into the lungs allowing the addictive and poisonous chemicals to have more of an effect. Furthermore, it is widely believed that filters are made out of a biodegradable material purely because of how it looks and feels however, journalists at CNN state that “95% of cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate (a plastic), and the balance are made from papers and rayon”. This is one of the many reasons why cigarettes are so harmful to the environment, because most cigarette filters are made out of plastic, littered butts are not degradable and any butts that make it into any sort of ecosystem will consequentially poison that ecosystem.
The next part that goes into the consideration in constructing a cigarette is the cigarette paper. The cigarette papers main function is to wrap around and hold the cigarette filling within. One thing that is often overlooked, is that everything that gets burned is inhaled as fumes by the consumer. Cigarette papers aren’t made out of 100% paper, they contain toxic chemicals inside that actually control how fast the cigarette paper burns. Sodium potassium tartrate and potassium citrate are used as a combustion regulator in cigarette paper which are chemicals linked to cancer. These chemicals make the cigarette burn slower, this is designed so that when the consumer is not smoking, the cigarette doesn’t burn which means there is more of the actual cigarette for the person to consume.
The next component of how the cigarette is made is the tipping paper. The tipping paper serves a very simple purpose in which it’s designed to wrap around the filter to connect it to the actual cigarette. The Classic Marlboro Red has a filter length of 21mm, diameter of 8mm and cigarette length of 84mm. The only notable difference in the Marlboro Red Cigarette is the small print placed just above the filter that reads “Marlboro”.
In terms of what actually goes inside a Marlboro Red Cigarette, Philip Morris lists the ingredients as the following:
Although the list seems short, it should be noted that depending what study you look at, chemical additives in cigarettes range anywhere around 600 chemicals. These chemicals are simply listed as “additives” on the back of the current Marlboro Red box. What’s even scarier to think about is when burned, these 600 chemicals compound into 7000 chemicals that get inhaled by the consumer. According to many different studies, at least 70 of these chemicals are known to have a direct impact in causing cancer which Marlboro does well to not acknowledge. These are a plethora of issues and problems that derive from the chemicals found in cigarettes. These chemicals have the main function of being addictive to the consumer and can lead to many phycological issues as well as behavioral issues especially in teenagers. Marlboro Red is known to have the most tar and carcinogens out of any cigarette and additionally, each cigarette congains 10.9 milligrams of nicotine when on average a cigarette is said to contain 10.2 milligrams of nicotine. (Braun) This helps the Marlboro Red develop its signature muskier and harsher flavor as well as why it’s proven so addictive for its consumers.
The Aesthetic
The Marlboro Red packaging aesthetic wasn’t anything revolutionary when it first hit shelves in 1924. Similar to other cigarette companies, the Marlboro Red looked similar to its competitors donning a frail soft white packaging design with weak graphics that were copied from other brands. The packaging was frail and easily ripped or deformed in pockets and purses.
With the Marlboro Red Cigarette gaining so much popularity and sales going through the roof, Philip Morris decided it was time to give Marlboro a complete redesign and update the packaging for a more modern appeal. Designer Frank Gianninoto, who redesigned the Campbells soup packaging, was hired to give the package more of a flare. Gianninoto’s vision was similar to that of his redesign of the Campbell’s can — red on the top and white on the bottom. The white meets the red as an arrow pointing upward, a very simple graphic device that has since become iconic worldwide.
Furthermore, the redesign not only gave the Marlboro Red some much needed flare, but perhaps the most radical part of the design was the structural integrity the packaging provided. As mentioned earlier, all cigarette companies at the time had a flimsy paper packaging with some foil liner and cellophane wrapper to support it. Prone to tear and deform, Gianninoto’s design incorporated a cardboard box with a cut out at the top so that the package could be flipped open and closed for the convenience of the consumer. This proved extremely effective in giving the Marlboro Red cigarettes some extra life with more resistances to its surroundings in addition to reminding the consumer of what brand he or she was smoking as English Design critic Reyner Banham theorized “the real purpose of the box was to prevent people from removing their cigarettes too easily. The last time a cigarette is even Brand-X is in the act of being extracted from the packet — after that it is strictly Brand Zero,” Banham wrote. Opening the flip top was, he went on, “a mechanical ritual to be performed each time with the pack in view.” Thus, Banham argued, the package served to remind a smoker what brand he preferred, even though “the corners of the hard box when stuffed into the traditional American shirt pocket dig into the surrounding rolls of affluent flesh every time he folds himself into the driving seat of his car.” (Banham- Hine)
From a design aspect, the Marlboro Red Classic cigarette embodies good design philosophy evident in the functionality in each component of the individual cigarette to the importance in appeal and attraction established by the aesthetic and packaging. 20th century designer Charles and Ray Eames legendary design philosophy of ‘learning through doing’ is evident in the history of failures and resulting changes to the Marlboro Red that we know and have today. Despite the seemingly immortal seat that Marlboro red has at the top of the market, modern obstacles have certainly caused uncertainty within the cigarette market but to the credit of Philip Morris International, their team has done an exceptional job adapting to modern obstacles.
Adaptivity
In 2017, Marlboro recorded its highest global brand value ever at 87.52 billion USD. However in 2018, after four steady years of growth Marlboro started to decline slightly at a value of 81.91 billions USD. In 2019 the value dropped even further to 71.96 billion USD. Right now in 2020, Marlboro is currently valued at 28.5 billion USD according to Forbes.
So, what caused this meteoric plummet in value for not only Marlboro but also the tobacco industry in general? Innovation. Innovation in the sense of new competition and innovation in the sense of a new approach to life.
In 2015, fraternity brothers James Monsees and Adam Bowen created Juul, an electronic cigarette that is supposed to be a solution for smoking offering a way of interacting with nicotine without partaking in any of the chemicals or cancer-causing carcinogens. It became mainstream and widely known in 2018 (right as Marlboro started to lose value) as American youth spread the device like wildfire throughout schools, parties, and social media. It wasn’t soon before it was ‘cool to Juul’. The overnight empire takeover from cigarette companies by Juul can be associated with the fact that our society has become more and more progressive. In a 2012 campaign, the United States Centers or Disease control encouraged the nation to smoking with the goal of a healthier American. Countries around the world such as Australia and China have also been running campaigns to reduce smoking as early as the 2000’s due to “problematic environmental effects of smoking” (Lazarus). With the worlds leaders understanding the devastating impact and effects the tobacco industry has on the environment and ourselves, the mentality of quitting smoking has become more and more prominent.
Philip Morris International identified this ‘obstacle’ to their business long ago and have taken Marlboro and its other cigarette brands in an entire new direction.
“We’ve built the world’s most successful cigarette company, with the world’s most popular and iconic brands. Now we’ve made a dramatic decision. We will be far more than a leading cigarette company. We’re building PMI’s future on smoke-free products that are a much better choice than cigarette smoking.
We understand the millions of men and women who smoke cigarettes are looking for less harmful, yet satisfying, alternatives to smoking. We will give them that choice. We have a commitment to our employees and our shareholders. We will fulfill that commitment by pursuing this long-term vision for success. Society expects us to act responsibly. And we are doing just that by designing a smoke-free future.” (PMI)
Instead of fighting against the movement, the team behind Phillip Morris international and Marlboro have identified that there is no way to combat pure factuality and inevitability thus once again changing their market strategy and company policy to adapt to these modern obstacles such as Juul. Once again the company has its back against the wall, whether or not the Marlboro Red can be restored to its former glory remain very uncertain, yet the direction that Marlboro and Philip Morris International as a whole is taking is a puff of relief because at the end of the day, the cigarettes are one of the leading killers of the world with an “estimated 480,000 American cigarette related deaths each year” (CDC) with the Marlboro Red Classic cigarette paving the way.
Works Cited
Figures:
Fig. 1: “Cigarette.” Augusts Binu,
https://www.saucey.com/other/tobacco/marlboro/TB-MARL-REG
Fig. 2 “Marlboro Ladys Cigarette Advertisement” Marlboro
https://brandriddle.com/marlboro-success-story/
Fig. 3: “Marlboro advertisements 1972, Mild as May”
https://www.firstversions.com/2015/02/marlboro.html
Fig. 4: “Marlboro Man” Marlboro
https://philosophyofshaving.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/the-truth-about-the-marlboro-man/
Fig. 5: “How Cigarettes are Engineered” FDA,
Products, Center for Tobacco. “How Cigarettes Are Made and How You Can Make a Plan to Quit.” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA, www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/products-ingredients-components/how-cigarettes-are-made-and-how-you-can-make-plan-quit.
Fig. 6: “Marlboro Red CAD Design” Emann420
https://www.tinkercad.com/things/acsf3FtKqXE-marlboro-red-100-cigarette-with-filter-dots
Fig. 7: “Marlboro Red Ingredients” Phillip Morris International
Fig. 8: “Beauty Tip” Marlboro
https://www.firstversions.com/2015/02/marlboro.html
Fig. 9: “Frank Gianninoto Redesign” Marlboro
Fig. 10: Guttmann, A. “Marlboro: Brand Value 2019.” Statista, 9 Aug. 2019, www.statista.com/statistics/326081/marlboro-brand-value/.
Fig. 11: “Marlboro.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, www.forbes.com/companies/marlboro/#62dbd334411d.
Sources:
Milov, Sarah. The Cigarette: a Political History. Harvard University Press, 2019.
Whitaker, Hannah, and Hannah Whitaker. “Cigarette Butts Are Toxic Plastic Pollution. Should They Be Banned?” National Geographic, 18 Oct. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/08/cigarettes-story-of-plastic/.
DOLL, R, and A B HILL. “Smoking and carcinoma of the lung; preliminary report.” British medical journal vol. 2,4682 (1950): 739–48. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4682.739
“5 Ways Cigarette Litter Impacts the Environment.” Truth Initiative, truthinitiative.org/research-resources/harmful-effects-tobacco/5-ways-cigarette-litter-impacts-environment.
Lazarus, Sarah. “Cigarette Filters Are №1 in Plastic Pollution.” CNN, Cable News Network, 25 Jan. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/01/24/health/dirty-truth-about-cigarette-filters/index.html.
Braun, Markus, et al. “Particulate Matter Emissions of Four Different Cigarette Types of One Popular Brand: Influence of Tobacco Strength and Additives.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 16, no. 2, 2019, p. 263., doi:10.3390/ijerph16020263.
Oreskes, Naomi. Merchants Of Doubt : How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. New York :Bloomsbury Press, 2011.
Hine, Thomas. “Marlboro Country Was Once No Man’s Land.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 Apr. 1995, www.nytimes.com/1995/04/16/arts/design-view-marlboro-country-was-once-no-man-s-land.html.
“Designing a Smoke-Free Future.” PMI, www.pmi.com/markets/united-kingdom/en/about-us/our-vision.
“Fast Facts.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21 May 2020, www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm.
