The age of solidity and maturity does not prevent the brand from having an image of youth and freshness. Perhaps the famous eagle soaring on each pack, or the constant improvement and renewal of the brand create such an impression. But the 50-year history of this uniquely successful brand is very interesting and instructive. Today our story is about it.

How advise https://cheap-cigarettess.com/ the city of Winston was founded by Quakers in the state of North Carolina 155 years ago, in 1849. Not far away, a little to the south, was the city of Salem, founded almost a century earlier. Now the city of Winston-Salem is the eleventh largest business center in the United States and a leading production and research center of the tobacco industry.

The history of the city as a single settlement began in 1913, and one of the most legendary tobacconists in world history, Richard Joshua Reynolds, had a hand in this. From 1875, when R.J.R. arrived in these places and founded tobacco production, to 1887 - in just 12 years - he developed and brought to market 86 tobacco brands. These were mainly chewing tobaccos, they were preferred by local residents, but gradually the range was filled with other types of tobacco products: snuff, cigarettes, pipe tobacco. The creation of the Camel cigarette brand in 1913 turned out to be a real success; its sales brought the R.J. Reynolds company to the leading position in the American tobacco industry for a long time. And from its leading position, the company set the tone in the tobacco business.

The 1950s were the golden age of the cigarette industry. In a short period of time, the efforts of leading companies introduced innovations that determined the development of the industry for the next half century. Then the first mass international brands appeared (Marlboro, Winston, Salem; Camel was recognized almost all over the world after the war, and global demand arose).

The American blend, which continues to win fans all over the world to this day, was found by specialists from the R.J. Reynolds company and used in Winston. By an amazing coincidence, in the same year, Philip Morris decided to radically update its Marlboro cigarette brand, which had existed on the market for 30 years, but did not bring significant income: the composition of the tobacco blend was fundamentally changed and turned out to be very close to the composition of the Winston blend. Historians are still wondering whether this was successful industrial espionage, collusion, or a real coincidence, and who was truly the first.

Both companies consider themselves to be the pioneers, but that is not the point. The blend turned out to be really better than the previous versions, which was immediately proven by the sales of cigarettes of both companies. These two blends determined the composition of "skeletal" tobaccos, known as "American blend", where the main characteristic feature is the presence of "toasted" (heat-treated) tobacco of the "Burley" variety. The filter as an integral part of the cigarette was first used by the Europeans, and then it was "Winston" that became a mass-market brand equipped with a filter. "Marlboro" a little later also offered a version with a filter instead of the usual cardboard mouthpiece. But "Philip Morris" was the first to use a "hard" pack with a flip-top box, which also very quickly spread to the most popular brands.

So, the birth of Winston cigarettes took place in 1954, immediately with a filter and an American bag. Corporate legend attributes the authorship of the idea to Edward Darr, one of the managers of the R.J. Reynolds company, who visited Switzerland in the early 50s and brought a lot of new ideas for business development. The choice of the name of the new product was also quite natural - by the name of the city where the company and its founder achieved real success. By the way, the second part of the city's name also came in handy and was used two years later for a brand of menthol cigarettes (TM wrote about the history of the Salem brand in No. 11 (20) last year).

The official history of the company claims that two years later, in 1956, Winston was recognized as the "best cigarette in the USA", although it does not specify who recognized it. If this recognition is like the Russian titles "Brand of the Year", "Product of the Year", etc., then this is nothing more than one of the marketing moves, not necessarily related to reality. Such titles are quite affordable for large manufacturers with deep wallets both here and in America. Real recognition is sales volume, and Winston achieved this triumph in 1965, becoming the best-selling cigarette brand in the USA in just ten years. And this is a very short period. For comparison: the Marlboro brand needed 51 years from its creation, or 21 years from its "rebirth", to reach the first line in the American group of leaders. The position of the leader became a launching pad for further expansion. In 1967, the “hundredth” (“Winston 100”) was introduced to the market, and the brand attracted the interest of ladies (light versions were still a long way off at that time; richness of taste was valued).

Today, Winston can be found in 60 world markets, and the brand has long and firmly held the world position of No. 4 among the best-selling cigarettes. The rights to the brand in the USA still belong to the company R.J. Reynolds, and in other countries of the world, with the rare exception of licensed production, Winston belongs to the company JT International. In the portfolio of the international corporation, which belongs to the Japanese manufacturer Japan Tobacco Inc., the brand occupies an honorable third place, second only to Mild Seven and Camel. For the new "parent", such a "child" turned out to be a successful acquisition, sales in the world continue to grow, and in Russia, over the past 4 years, there has been simply explosive growth. Probably, there is no other brand on our market that has been growing so steadily in sales volume for such a long time. Moreover, this happens regardless of the intensity and ideology of advertising support. A redesign was carried out on the fly, giving the pack a slightly more modern look, the line was expanded to four varieties, and this did not hinder sales growth, which does not always happen. As not always in Russia, Winston experienced a time of triumph.

Our complex market, where a presidential decree with customs benefits, or a financial crisis can instantly change the places of leaders and outsiders, does not spare anyone. The end of the 90s was a difficult time for Winston in Russia, but this is a "completely different story." One way or another, the brand is celebrating its 50th anniversary in Russia on the rise.

If under the management of JTI "Winston" feels more than confident, and not only in Russia, then its "father" - the American company "R.J. Reynolds" - seems to have fallen out of love with it. After several marketing experiments with expanding the family and innovations in packaging, the company announced that "Winston" is not a priority brand for it, its marketing support will be curtailed, and efforts and additional funds will be directed to support the brands "Camel", "Salem" and "Doral". Experiments with packaging led, in particular, to the creation of an original plastic pack with a metallized label. Officially, this "Winston" (see photo) is sold only in the USA, but if desired, it can be bought in Moscow. "Babushki u metro" offer a pack for 300 rubles and say that there are regular customers for this version, buying in blocks. In the US, Winston currently holds just under 5% of the market (the total output of the R.J. Reynolds company accounts for 22%).

What awaits the brand tomorrow? Forecasts in economics are a thankless task, but the future of Winston seems quite bright. If we assume that the sales dynamics of Winston and its main competitor, L&M, will continue in the near future, then it cannot be ruled out that they will soon swap places in the popularity ratings among Russians. According to the Business Analytics agency, as of January 2004, Winston moved up to fourth place in sales among all cigarette brands presented in Russia. According to our special research, already at the beginning of 2003, Winston firmly occupied third place in popularity among visitors to Moscow restaurants, second only to Parliament and Marlboro (see TM No. 2 (11) for last year). Only special efforts by competitors can shake such an obvious success of the brand. However, no one is immune from their own mistakes and the actions of our unpredictable government, which can damage the most successful brand. History is rich in examples.