The Magic of Lifestyle Marketing

On the historic date of 11th January 1964, it was officially declared by the United States government that cigarettes cause cancer and within a day an $8 billion tobacco industry and the income of 7,50,000 families was at stake. While most companies saw their sales dropping down but there was one company that miraculously went from having less than 1% market share to becoming the 4th largest cigarette brand in the world in less than one year and after 1970 when cigarette advertisements were permanently banned from televisions this brand became even more popular to go on to become the largest manufacturer of cigarettes in the world. This brand I am talking about goes by the name Marlboro and it is so huge today that it has got more consumers than its next 10 competitors combined.

The question is what did they do? Because of which the very same cancer report and the ban which is essentially supposed to kill its business ended up becoming a stepping stone for Marlboro to become a $58 Billion brand. The answer to this question lies in one of the most iconic marketing strategies ever witnessed by mankind which is called Lifestyle Marketing.

Now let's try to understand this by using a very simple example. If you are a 90's kid and watched Sachin Tendulkar play, then at some point of life you must have bought a MRF bat, that too nothing knowing about Kashmir willow, English willow. You did not care about which wood the bat is made up of, you did not care whether it is original or duplicate, you just wanted a bat. Now here the question lies – Is it a coincidence that millions of children all across the country were so stupid to mindlessly buy a bat with a sticker of rubber tyre company (MRF)? If not, then how does this even happen? Well, here’s where the magic of Lifestyle Marketing comes in. We all idolised Sachin Tendulkar and even wanted to become like him so subconsciously, the MRF bat made us feel as if we were holding the exact same bat as Sachin Tendulkar himself. So, the bat that we bought, is not the bat itself but the connection that it had with our idol. This is what we called as Lifestyle Marketing wherein consumers buy more into the lifestyle of the icon which is associated with the product than the product itself. And this is what exactly the marketeers of Marlboro did to their brand.

After the 1964 report, which was released by the surgeon general of the US, brands started to do everything in their capacity to keep their reputation. Some brands tried to justify cigarettes while some brands completely disapproved of the very research itself. Back then Marlboro was a very small company that made cigarettes only for women but as soon as this news broke out the parent company of Marlboro, Philip Morris decided to change their method of marketing which became an epitome of business propaganda in the 20th century.

So, they came with a campaign called the Marlboro Man, wherein they introduced a character who was supposedly everything a man wanted to be like and they named this character “The Marlboro Man”.

Marlboro Man was a cowboy who had a perfectly built-up body and the commercial showcased him as the ultimate archetype of Manhood. He was tough, affectionate and stylish and overall stood as the icon of freedom and manliness. So as a result, Men of the 1960s were so fascinated by the Marlboro man, they started buying Marlboro cigarettes that the commercial became a massive game changer for the company. And within a year Marlboro went from having less than 1% market share to becoming the 4th largest cigarette brand in the world. And the fun fact about all those commercials is that cigarettes were not even the primary subject of focus. Infact cigarettes as a product got less than 10 seconds of footage time in all those commercials.

This is how they were able to connect the emotions of men very easily. This was the reason why even after the 1970 ban, Marlboro’s business still kept growing, their sales skyrocketed and they became a legend in advertising and laid the foundation to become a $58 Billion company.