Anne Landman's Collection
Suggestion Concerning Advertising and Promotional Marketing (Via Decals W/ Subliminal Message).
Abstract
This draft letter appears to be written by an R.J. Reynolds (RJR) employee, as it refers to "our coupons,"and "our younger smokers," and mentions RJR brands. While it reads like something from a marketing department employee, the writer signed the letter with the title "Elec. Tech. #72111" The writer suggests RJR produce decals with cigarette brand logos on them that would be "targeted to our younger smokers" who "might place them on notebooks, lockers, purses, jackets or clothing items...". The writer says,
"It is important that we develope [sic] either a series of 10 different color schemes or 10 different decals for each brand targeted to our younger smokers since they usually purchase one pack at a time...[E]ach carton will have a complete series of decals and be much more attractive to our younger smokers."
The writer suggests targeting both young smokers and non-smokers to increase RJR's market share:
"The youth of this day are very decal conscious and logo orientated [sic]; Therefore, by targeting our younger smokers and non-smokers with quality decals, we should be able to capture a larger share of that fast-growing market."
A search on the writer's name failed to reveal more information about who this employee was or what department he actually worked in, but a search of the adjacent Bates numbers proved quite revealing. An adjacent Bates number-document (507747289) is a memo from RJR's Director of Special Markets (T.C. Harris) revealing that Mr. Richardson formally presented his ideas to RJR's marketing department, praising Mr. Richardson for his ideas, promising to follow up on them and encouraging submission of these kinds of ideas from all RJR company employees:
"Last Friday Lynn Beasley and I attended a presentation by John Richardson in which he submitted his suggestions for a younger adult smoker targeted decal program. Not only did the presentation reflect a great deal of quality thought and preparation, it also contained some excellent ideas...I assure you that the program idea will be thoroughly evaluated and actively pursued...Doug, on behalf of the entire Marketing Department, I would like to thank you for soliciting this type of input from your people. By focusing the commitment of every employee of RJR against our key business issues, our chances of finding the answers are bound to increase." http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc'tid=isv28c00&fmt=pdf&ref=results
The above letter from Harris was written on 4 December 1989, just 2 months after Richardson made his suggestion to target youth with cigarette-brand decals. This dispels the notion that Mr. Richardson might have been a "rogue employee" acting without approval, and shows that the corporate culture at RJR encouraged all employees to think of, and suggest new ways to target youth.
Fields
- Quotes
To: Whom It May Concern:
Re: Suggestion concerning advertising and promotional marketing (via DECALS w/subliminal message)
My suggestion is to place a quality decal i.e., the same size as our coupons, in each pack of cigarettes to be used for promotional advertisement. These decals could be targeted to our younger smokers who might place them on notebooks, lockers, purses, jackets or other clothing items, family boats, car or truck bumpers and/or windows etc..
It's important that we develope, either a series of 10 different color schemes or l0 different decals for each brand targeted to our younger smokers since they usually purchase one pack at a time. If we use the Minnesota Automation system and our decals (to be inserted) are seriesed in groups of 10, then each carton will have a complete series of decals and be much more attractive to our younger smokers.
We could carry this a step further by developing a carton size quality decal to be dispensed independently (free) through our vendor cigarette display. This could provide product advertisement through many non smoking decal users as well. The cover for the decal could contain such information as to how one might obtain a complete series of decals; i.e., buy the carton.
The youth of this day are very decal conscious and logo orientated; Therefore, by targeting our younger smokers and nonsmokers with quality decals we should be able to capture a larger share of that fast growing market. / Please find enclosed an 8 minute VHS color video which encompasses most of this communication and illustrates the two different size decals and their applications. I am also enclosing 3 pack size decals for Winston, Magna, and Chelsea respectively and one carton size decal for Winston all of which have been created for actual size and color as intended.
Thank you, for your time and consideration in this matter.
Respectfully,
John H. Richardson Elec. Tech. #72111 #12 Downtown, 9-Shift
- Company
- R.J. Reynolds
- Author
- Richardson, J.H.
- Recipient
- Presumed corporate recipient, R.J. Reynolds
Document Images
