MARKETING MANAGEMENT IN BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO

Marketing Management In British American Tobacco

Marketing Management in British American Tobacco

Introduction

British American Tobacco Plc is a leading global tobacco company. It is based in the Globe House in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

International Brands include Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Vogue, Rothmans, Peter Stuyvesant, Benson & Hedges, Winfield, John Player, State Express 555, KOOL, and Viceroy. However, British American Tobacco does not necessarily own the rights to all of these brands in every nation they are marketed.

Local brands owned by British American Tobacco include, Belmont (Colombia, Chile and Venezuela), Jockey Club (Argentina), Stradbroke (Australia), pt:Hollywood (cigarro) Hollywood (Brazil), du Maurier (Canada), Prince (Denmark), North State (Finland), HB (Germany), Sopianae (Hungary), Wills (India), Ardath (Indonesia), Carrolls, Carrolls Kings, Grand Parade, Black Allen (Germany), Sweet Afton, Major (Ireland), Boots, Alas (Mexico), Gold Leaf (Pakistan), Jan III Sobieski (Poland), Yava Gold (Russia), Courtleigh (South Africa), Parisienne (Switzerland), Maltepe (Turkey) and Xon (Uzbekistan), Craven A (Vietnam and Jamaica) as well as BAT snus, Holiday, Freedom and Park Drive (New Zealand) Royals (UK), Embassy (Kenya), Viceroy, Newport, Lucky Strike in Dominican Republic.

On 11 June 2006, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company announced that it would be manufacturing Camel brand snus in Sweden in partnership with British American Tobacco; the product would be test-marketed in Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas by the end of the month.

BAT has diversified into various fields at different times in its history. Its U.S. retail division, BATUS Retail Group, acquired Gimbel's, Kohl's, and Saks Fifth Avenue in the 1970s and Marshall Field's and its divisions in 1982. The United Kingdom retail chain Argos was purchased in 1979. Kohl's grocery stores were sold to A&P in 1983. In 1986, BATUS sold the Kohl's department stores and two Marshall Field's divisions, The Crescent and Frederick & Nelson; BATUS closed Gimbel's the same year, with many locations being absorbed by sister division Marshall Field's. In 1990 Marshall Field's was sold to Dayton Hudson Corporation (now Target Corporation), Ivey's (another Marshall Field's division) was sold to Dillard's, Saks Fifth Avenue was sold to Investcorp S.A., and Argos was demerged (Argos was acquired by previous parent company GUS plc in 1998).

The group was a major financial services company with the acquisitions of Eagle Star (1984),[13] Allied Dunbar (1985) and the Farmers Group, Inc. (1988). Around 1996 British American Tobacco merged their financial operations into a single operating unit, British American Financial Services (BAFS). This division was merged with Zurich Insurance Company in 1998 to form the Zurich Financial Services Group. B.A.T still owns the minority interest in Zurich.

The Nigerian federal government filed a lawsuit against BAT and two other British American Tobacco in 2007. Nigeria is seeking $42.4 billion, $34.4 billion of which the government seeks in anticipation of the future cost of treating Nigerians for tobacco-related illnesses. They are also seeking $1.04 billion as a fine for the companies' advertising and marketing campaign allegedly targeting Nigerian youth, and ...