Philip Morris: an image strategy to reassure its shareholders

At a time when health issues are at the heart of concerns in all countries, the tobacco company Philip Morris International (PMI) brought together shareholders virtually on May 6, 2020 to welcome the recovery of the manufacturer's profit margins. The last few years had seen a significant deterioration and the tobacco company is committed to a strategy to stop this phenomenon. PMI, one of the largest publicly traded tobacco companies in the world, has spent the last three years and billions of dollars on a public relations campaign to communicate its new identity. Aware of the health concerns that drive people and governments today, the tobacco company does not hesitate to affirm that it wants to work towards a "smoke-free world". The tobacco company has thus created a foundation: The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. This effort to change the company's image went hand in hand with a positioning relative to risk reduction in order to sell the manufacturer's new products: heated tobacco. In doing so, the objective pursued is to reduce the issue of the fight against smoking to this single dimension and to claim a place at the decision-making table, in particular to relax the legislation concerning its products.[1]. The speech is very polite. The business practices are considerably less so, as PMI's own figures attest: cigarettes are still the company's main product, which claims to no longer sell them but at the same time continues to promote them vigorously. Thus, while PMI claims to be "non-smoking" itself, it has produced nearly 59,000 cigarettes for every dollar spent on funding its foundation.[2]-[3]. This strategy of the cigarette manufacturer is increasingly adopted by other manufacturers. It is ultimately not new and follows on from previous campaigns of introduction of filters, so-called "light" cigarettes in tars etc. The PMI report on Q1 results reveals the true nature of the company's concerns during COVID-19. In this report, PMI attempts to allay potential investors' concerns about how COVID-19 will negatively impact consumers' access to its products; the decline in duty-free sales in airports ; and a delay in implementing regulations favorable to the tobacco industry worldwide. Similarly, the cigarette manufacturer was at the same time filing an appeal against the American federal government for the introduction of broader health warnings, in graphic form, on cigarette packages. Thus, the manufacturer is attacking measures to reduce tobacco consumption while deploying a public relations and image strategy to reassure its shareholders and increase its profits. ©Tobacco Free Generation

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[1] https://tobaccotactics.org/wiki/Foundation-for-a-Smoke-Free-World:-How-it-Frames-Itself/ [2] https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2020-02-06/philip-morris-international-inc-reports-2019-fourth-quarter-full-year-results [3] https://www.smokefreeworld.org/our-vision/funding/ | ©National Committee Against Smoking |