I like rolling tobacco and suggested that smoking brand names was related to the advertising industry, not any functional need.
Today on Harpers:
http://harpers.org/PerfectSuckers.html
[Ethnography] Perfect Suckers Posted on Thursday, January 26, 2006. From memoranda written between 1994 and 1999 by the advertising and marketing firms Market Trends, Collett Dickenson Pearce, and M&C Saatchi, for Gallaher Group, makers of Hamlet cigars and Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut, and Superkings cigarettes. The memos are among 14,000 pages of internal documents from tobacco advertisers recently made available by Cancer Research UK’s Centre for Tobacco Control Research. Originally from Harper's Magazine, July 2005. Sources
A four-group solution contains the most potentially useful set of eighteen- to twenty-four-year-old smokers: Slobs, Aspiring Sophisticates, Conservatives, and Worriers.
Slobs are more down-market than average, more likely to live with their parents, and less likely to have gone on to further education. They are particularly found in Scotland and the Midlands/Anglia. Smokers in this cluster are committed, wanting a strong cigarette. Describing members of this group as “slobs” may seem unkind, but this title is particularly earned by their low concern with their appearance and the little effort they make to keep themselves informed. The latter is supported by the low status they attach to their work and below-average likelihood of buying a daily newspaper. “Hedonistic slobs” is arguably a better description of this cluster, with their head-in-the-sand approach to their diet and to smoking.
Aspiring Sophisticates are mainly eighteen- to twenty-year-old men. Marlboro performs best in this group in terms of usage and image. These smokers are extremely image-conscious and hedonistic.
Conservatives are not distinct demographically or attitudinally, scoring “average” in most aspects. Smokers in this group are the least financially pressurized, and are fashion/appearance conscious. Their brand requirements are for a slightly milder smoke, with imagery associated with young and successful people, and an expensive-looking pack.
Worriers are largely women and likely to have gone on to further education. They are particularly found in Wales/South West, and likely to be “flat-sharing.” They are worried about many aspects of life: financial pressures, the environment, the future, health issues, and smoking.
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SUPERKINGS PROFILES:
London males: personnel officer, software engineer, self-employed carpet business, office manager, musician, sales rep, interior decorator, estate agent; cynical, slightly patronizing, articulate
London females: MBA student, hospital administrator, salesperson, computer trainer, fashion stylist, secretary, airline ground staff; vibrant, opinionated, imaginative, perceptive, communicative, anti-bullshit
Nottingham males: computer technician, nurse, decorator, stock controller, shop assistant, caretaker; bright, open, straightforward, down-to-earth, limited articulacy
Nottingham females: housewife, cleaner, cook, school assistant, childminder; rough, unfocused, insecure, brazen, inarticulate
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Who is the “must-reach” audience and how does he view the brand? He’s thirty to fifty-five and really is Mr. Average. He probably reads The Sun, lives in a three-bedroom semi, and is a bit overweight. His job is a bit boring, but at least they give him a car. He smokes a bit but feels that he can control it. A decent night out may be him and his missus to the pub with a few other married friends, and then for a curry with one other couple. He likes any ads that make him laugh. He doesn’t currently think that smoking a Hamlet is for him—but only because he hasn’t really thought about it.
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We want to see British B&H in the Ben Sherman shirt pockets of Brit-popped, dance-crazed, tequila-drinking, Nike-kicking, Fast Show‒watching, Loaded-reading, babe-pulling young gentlemen.
We want more eighteen- to thirty-four-year-old blokes smoking B&H than ever before. We want to see these dudes ripping up packets of Marlboro and Camel and treating them with the disdain that second-rate American filth deserves. For Christ’s sake, what are people doing smoking brands that are made to be smoked by “cowhands” and not by the youth of the trendiest, coolest, most happening country in the world? In many ways this brief is a charity brief. Trying to help people recognize the error of their ways, thinking they are being cool smoking what Roy bloody Rogers smoked, and opening their eyes to the unchallengeable truth that the coolest smoke in the world is a B&H.
This is Perfect Suckers, a reading, originally from July 2005, published Thursday, January 26, 2006. It is part of Lifestyle, which is part of Readings, which is part of Harpers.org.