British American Tobacco – Winning Through Better Quality
Essay Preview: British American Tobacco – Winning Through Better Quality
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British American Tobacco is the worlds most international tobacco group.
Through more than 100 years of operations, British American Tobacco have built a strong international reputation for high quality tobacco brands to meet consumers’ diverse preferences.
British American Tobacco have never believed that вЂ?one size fits all’. Their portfolio, of some 300 brands, is based on distinct вЂ?must-win’ consumer segments – international, premium, lights and adult smokers aged under 30.
Their four Global Drive Brands – Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall – are well represented across the segments and since 2002 have together grown volumes by 62 per cent. While developing their Global Drive Brands is central to their strategy, B.A.T are also increasing the profile of Vogue in the super premium segment and Viceroy, a leading low price international brand.
Much of the growth of their leading brands is driven by innovation — from filters to flavours and packaging to cigarette formats.
British American Tobacco invest in positioning high quality brands competitively for the adults who’ve decided they do want to buy tobacco. And they’ve shown that through focus, intelligence, responsiveness and a high priority on responsibility, they can successfully build the brand loyalty of adults who have chosen to be tobacco consumers and win consumers away from competitor brands.
A billion adults worldwide choose to consume tobacco. The aim of B.A.T is not just to maximise their share of sales — value and quality are high on their agenda. B.A.T aim to keep adding value for their consumers, trade customers and shareholders through an approach call �win-win-win’. This means giving their consumers premium value through premium quality and unique, differentiated brands, enabling their trade customers to benefit from premium margins and, by satisfying both consumers and trade customers, delivering long term sustainable value for their shareholders.
The global drive brands of British American Tobacco – Kent, Dunhill, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall – are at the forefront of their innovations, product refinements and trade engagement, with each brand differentiated and given a special focus within their вЂ?win-win-win’ approach. B.A.T aim to grow their drive brands by high single digits a year over the medium to long term and continue increasing the large proportion of value they contribute to their global brand portfolio.
Modern tobacco brand marketing is driven by an excellent understanding of the consumer and by sticking to the marketing fundamentals that are appropriate to their challenging product.
Their approach starts with really understanding the different profiles of their consumers. B.A.T invest in gathering comprehensive insights into smokers’ preferences and buying behaviour, then invest in developments across the marketing mix that aim to be truly relevant to consumers’ tastes, attitudes, pockets and purchasing patterns.
B.A.T aim to be spot-on with packaging, taste and product formats that consumers like, with quality that consumers are willing to pay more for and with availability of their brands in the places where their consumers want to buy.
All marketing is based on the fundamental �5 Ps’: product, price, packaging, promotion and place. For B.A.T, promotion is now much more limited and very carefully controlled. But their strong brand growth in recent years indicates that a clear focus on appropriate marketing based on the other 4 Ps is a clear pathway to success.
Product
British American Tobacco’s first chairman, Buck Duke, said two basics for success were “devise a superior product” and “hire the best people to make it”.
Today, B.A.T are delivering innovations and refinements to their products across leaf blends, finer cut tobacco, new filters, new formats such as slimmer products and improved tastes in segments such as menthol.
Their ability to innovate while maintaining consistency and quality of leaf, components, materials and ingredients — and also meeting regulatory compliance for their products – is backed by the product science skills of Research &Development teams.
In their leaf supply chain, their proactive approach to agronomy support for farmers gives them access to responsibly managed sources of quality leaf supply that is unrivalled in their industry.
British American Tobacco also want to offer consumers a less harmful way to enjoy tobacco, and in several countries they are selling or test marketing smokeless Swedisch — style snus, which is supported by several independent health experts as significantly less harmful than smoking cigarettes