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January 30th, 2011:

Transnational tobacco industry promotion of the cigarette gifting custom in China

ABSTRACT
Objective To understand how British American Tobacco
(BAT) and Philip Morris (PM) researched the role and
popularity of cigarette gifting in forming relationships among
Chinese customs and how they exploited the practice to
promote their brands State Express 555 and Marlboro.
Methods Searches and analysis of industry documents
from the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library
complemented by searches on LexisNexis Academic
news, online search engines and information from the
tobacco industry trade press.
Results From 1980e1999, BAT and PM employed
Chinese market research firms to gather consumer
information about perceptions of foreign cigarettes and
the companies discovered that cigarettes, especially
prestigious ones, were gifted and smoked purposely for
building relationships and social status in China. BAT and
PM promoted their brands as gifts by enhancing
cigarette cartons and promoting culturally themed
packages, particularly during the gifting festivals of
Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival to tie their
brands in to festival values such as warmth, friendship
and celebration. They used similar marketing in Chinese
communities outside China.
Conclusions BAT and PM tied their brands to Chinese
cigarette gifting customs by appealing to social and
cultural values of respect and personal honour.
Decoupling cigarettes from their social significance in
China and removing their appeal would probably reduce
cigarette gifting and promote a decline in smoking.
Tobacco control efforts in countermarketing, large
graphic warnings and plain packaging to make cigarette
packages less attractive as gifts could contribute to
denormalising cigarette gifting.

ABSTRACTObjective To understand how British American Tobacco(BAT) and Philip Morris (PM) researched the role andpopularity of cigarette gifting in forming relationships amongChinese customs and how they exploited the practice topromote their brands State Express 555 and Marlboro.Methods Searches and analysis of industry documentsfrom the Legacy Tobacco Documents Librarycomplemented by searches on LexisNexis Academicnews, online search engines and information from thetobacco industry trade press.Results From 1980e1999, BAT and PM employedChinese market research firms to gather consumerinformation about perceptions of foreign cigarettes andthe companies discovered that cigarettes, especiallyprestigious ones, were gifted and smoked purposely forbuilding relationships and social status in China. BAT andPM promoted their brands as gifts by enhancingcigarette cartons and promoting culturally themedpackages, particularly during the gifting festivals ofChinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival to tie theirbrands in to festival values such as warmth, friendshipand celebration. They used similar marketing in Chinesecommunities outside China.Conclusions BAT and PM tied their brands to Chinesecigarette gifting customs by appealing to social andcultural values of respect and personal honour.Decoupling cigarettes from their social significance inChina and removing their appeal would probably reducecigarette gifting and promote a decline in smoking.Tobacco control efforts in countermarketing, largegraphic warnings and plain packaging to make cigarettepackages less attractive as gifts could contribute todenormalising cigarette gifting.

http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/4/e3.full.html

January 30, 2011

Download PDF : China Gift giving cig TI. TC 11 07