Sponsor (June-Sept 1960)

in be very proud. I Ten years ago, as ie company's v. p. for advertising he riefed sponsor on B&W ad strat W-) But to get the full significance of I Louisville success story, it is necsary to dig beyond the bare facts id figures and explore three rich eas: 1 ) The kind of company that B&W : — its unique history and position in ie industry. 2) The "marketing revolution" (tat has shaken the tobacco business a the last decade, and its effect on Ivertising practices. 3) The hard-hitting tv policies and rategies worked out by B&W and i agencies, Ted Bates and Keyes, ladden & Jones. In this first of two articles on B&W PONSOR presents a discussion of bints 1 ) and 2 ) . Next week we'll exlain the B&W tv structure, and how operates. &W started with a depression : Though B&W roots in the tobacco jusiness extend back nearly 90 years. jie company was not incorporated in Is present form until 1927. and it idn:t hit its stride until the great Repression of the 1930's. those unhappy, apple-selling ays the price of regular cigarettes as 15^ a pack. And for thousands I jobless and near jobless 15c was jtuch too much. B&W defied the industrv bv bringlg out a 10<i cigarette, Wings, and uikling it into a volume brand. It followed the 1930 introduction f Wings with other strong evidence f its down-to-earth, grass roots thinklg. In 1931 it introduced the first lended cigarette tobacco. Target, for nokers who rolled their own. In 932 it developed and marketed roll our own kits, another B&W first. Also in 1932 it began packing prelium coupons with Raleigh, the first nd only major brand to develop a remium program (and still highlv jccessful after 28 years I . i B&W followed these breaks with • aditional tobacco marketing by inroducing two other innovations, des|ned to have great significance nearly j score of years later. ' In 1933 it brought out Kools and jecame the first to popularize a men!iol flavored brand. In 1934 it in B&W PROGRESS— 1950 vs. I960 In November 1950 SPONSOR published a two-part story of the success of Brown & Williamson, then a heavy user of net and spot radio. Here is a then-and-now-comparison of the tobacco company's status. 1950 1960 Cigarette sales l billions ) 16.4* 51.8* Share of market 4.7%* 10.6* Ad budget (millions) $3 $32 % in air media 90% 85% No. of brands marketed 4 10 Brands Raleigh, Kool Viceroy, Wings Raleigh (regular, filter), Kool (regular, filter), Viceroy, Wings, Life, duMaurier, Belair, Kentucky Kings. if market figures c< troduced Viceroy, first of the important filter cigarettes. At the time, the industry, and many of the big New York agencies which served it, were inclined to sneer at the B&W efforts as trivial and unimportant. The power struggle between American's George Washington Hill, and his rivals at Reynolds and Liggett & Myers held the spotlight, and to many unimaginative admen the only unsolved question about the tobacco business was (and forever would be) "Will Camels or Luckies grab first place this year?" B&W, however, ignored the gibes and pursued its own independent policy of seeking specialized cigarette markets. In its advertising practices too, it struck out on its own. An early (1930) user of radio, it really hit its radio stride and developed its air media patterns in 1938 when Freeman Keyes, then president of Russell Seeds, now board chairman of Keyes, Madden & Jones, persuaded B&W to try a low-budget radio program over WLW to promote Bugler cigarette tobacco. Plantation Party, with a 8400 weekly talent tab, increased Bugler sales 500$ in 13 weeks, and B&W was off and running on a policy of hard-hitting low cost radio. Between 1938 and 1949, B&W had a succession of economy-budgeted shows — Uncle Walter's Doghouse, Red Skelton (when he was an unknown I People Are Funny, and many many more. Such independent, realistic, and creative marketing and advertising strategies began to pay off as the infant B&W company gradually inched its way into a market dominated by giants. They are still characteristic of the Louisville firm today — an important aspect of the B&W image. W . S. Cutchins, who took over as B&W president in 1958, tells this to his staff, "Bring on the new ideas, new brands, new tastes, new advantages. This generation not only will accept new things, it demands them." Since Cutchins assumed the presidency, B&W has re-designed every one of its packages and cartons, and within the last 12 months has introduced no less than three new national brands — Life. Belair. and Kentucky Kings. B&W cashed in on a revolution But B&W's healthy sales rises in the past 10 years cannot be fully understood without a close, hard look at the marketing revolution which rocked the entire tobacco industry PON: AUGUST 1960