LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Marlboro Intense, which is shorter than the typical cigarette by about a half inch, and which offers smokers seven potent puffs apiece versus the average of eight or so milder draws, is designed to appeal to customers who, due to indoor smoking bans, want to dash outside for a quick nicotine hit but don't always finish a full-size cigarette.
It is likely to be part of an aggressive blitz of new smoking products Philip Morris International will roll out around the globe once the company—now a unit of New York City-based Altria Group Inc.—becomes a standalone [image-nocss] entity, said The Wall Street Journal.
That change is scheduled to be set into motion today, when the Altria board is expected to approve a long-awaited decision to split PMI from Philip Morris USA. The move would free the tobacco giant's international operations of legal and public-relations headaches in the United States that have hindered its growth, the report said.
The separate entity would be exempt from U.S. tobacco regulations and out of reach of American litigators. And its practices would no longer be constrained by American public opinion, paving the way for broad product experimentation, said the Journal.
By as early as March, PMI could be operating as an independent company—the third most profitable consumer goods concern in the world after Procter & Gamble Co. and Nestlé SA, said the report. The move will make it easier for the tobacco behemoth to market an array of new smoking concepts, each targeted to different foreign populations, who, collectively are expected to smoke 5.2 trillion cigarettes this year.
Among the new products in test phase is a hand-held electronic smoking device called the Heatbar, which emits less smoke than a regular cigarette. Another is Marlboro Wides, an extra-thick cigarette with a package that flips open from one side. To appeal to customers in some emerging markets, the company is making sweet-smelling cigarettes that contain tobacco, cloves and flavoring, with twice the tar and nicotine levels of a conventional U.S. cigarette.
PMI stands to rank as the world's largest nongovernment tobacco company, with sales volume totaling more than four times that of its U.S. sibling. In 2006, PMI had revenue of $48.26 billion, compared with $18.47 billion at Philip Morris USA.Ahead of the restructuring, CEO André Calantzopoulos has simplified PMI's decision-making to quicken the introduction of new products. Local managers have the "power to decide" which new ideas might have legs in a particular region, he told the newspaper.
Many of PMI's other new products are intended to strengthen and broaden the world's leading Marlboro brand, whose sales volumes outside the United States slid by 0.53% from 2001 to 2006. "It's in pretty good shape, but we can do much more with the brand," Calantzopoulos said.
Recent Marlboro launches include Marlboro Mix 9, a high-nicotine, high-tar cigarette introduced in Indonesia last July. PMI is poised to export the clove-infused Mix 9 to other Southeast Asian markets as soon as this year. Another iteration of the iconic brand, the Marlboro Filter Plus, is being sold in South Korea, Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. It touts a special filter comprised of carbon, cellulose acetate and tobacco that claims to lower the tar level while giving smokers a smoother taste. The short but strong Marlboro Intense, which the CEO lit up in his office, is newly available in Turkey.
PMI said it will also launch new products specifically to draw attention to paradoxical regulatory or tax policies. And future products will feature unusual packaging, a response to limits on cigarette advertising imposed by the WHO antitobacco treaty.
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