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Winston cigarettes. Against grammar
For a long time, the town of Winston, which, in fact, gave the name to this tobacco brand, did not differ in anything special. It was located in the state of North Carolina near Salem (not at all the one where 19 witches were burned in the 17th century - this one in Massachusetts). He made a big step in world history only when, in 1875, Richard Joshua Reynolds, the founding father of RJR, opened the first tobacco factory here. At first, as elsewhere, the basis of the assortment was chewing tobacco, so beloved by Americans and so incomprehensible to the rest of the world. However, very soon the list of products was expanded to include pipe tobacco and cigarettes.
Reynolds' tobacco empire began its triumphant march across the United States. One of the major breakthroughs on this front was the creation of the Camel cigarette brand. R.J.R Tobaco Company's PR and marketers have always been distinguished by an aggressive manner and cynical creativity. Fighting with their main competitor, Philip Morris, they managed to create a good basis for promoting a fundamentally new brand of cigarettes. America was fed up with strong tobacco and almost the same taste, hiding under different names. For successful promotion, a qualitative leap was needed. The empty niche was occupied by Winston.
Winston. From Switzerland with filter
According to marketing legend, new cigarettes appeared thanks to one of the directors of the R.J.R Tobaco Company, Edward Darr. Allegedly while vacationing in Switzerland, he encountered filtered cigarettes, which were gaining popularity in Europe. I tried it - I liked it. Inspired by new trends, he returned to the States and convened a council of experts R.J.R. We thought. We smoked. We thought again and decided that the new feature should appeal to the American consumer. The main thing is to make sure that due to the use of a filter, smokers do not lose the opportunity to enjoy the strength and taste of cigarettes.
Simultaneously with the filter, a special tobacco mixture was also used in the new cigarettes, which quickly became known as the "American bag". The main difference of this from all the others was the presence in its composition of the tobacco variety "Barley". In addition, it was not just dried, but thermally processed in a special way to obtain a light caramel flavor (in the language of tobacco professionals, this process is called toasting). As a result of all these innovations, cigarettes were born, which were named after the city that became the cradle of the company. This is how American smokers got to know the Winston brand. The year was 1954 outside.
Winston. The price of a mistake
The first advertising slogan of the campaign to promote the new brand was: "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should". In translation, this was supposed to mean "The taste of a good cigarette should be like that of Winston." However, this phrase contains a clear grammatical error, which is not very noticeable to us, but immediately cuts the ear of the English-speaking consumer. Therefore, accusations of illiteracy immediately fell on the slogan. It is difficult to say now whether it was an accidental mistake or a well-thought-out advertising move (I personally tend to the second option), but public attention was attracted to the brand instantly.
When did the next slogan “What do you want, good grammar or good taste?” ("What do you want? Good grammar or good taste?") Winston's popularity skyrocketed. So already in 1956, these cigarettes were recognized as the most successful tobacco brand. It is not surprising, because in that year they were sold 31 billion pieces. But the producers were not going to stop there. Advertising images that emphasized the need for family comfort and new product lines such as the Winston 100 mm helped boost sales.
Winston today
Today, Winston cigarettes have long gone beyond the domestic American market and are one of the world's best-selling brands. True, the company that gave this brand to smokers no longer exists. Its assets were merged into the ubiquitous Japanese Japan Tobacco Inc. But this was not a disaster for the brand itself. Not only that, it continues to evolve. So, in 2007, a new “light” direction, Super Slims, was launched. And in 2008, Winston Premier went to storm the tobacco premier class.
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