Tobacco Documents Online

~ . : .F ,. ., eiil

I I 9 I 1 I i j .0 I I Who said this? „srrdmk a4a ua,E -11-~,,Q, ~ ~„~, " s am "i 7 c. h ~ T e ans.ver is... ALBERT EINSTEIN ~ N ~ R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Research & Development Creativity Workshop September 9,10, 1992 . Hilton Head, SC ~ ~

Sanaple Letter.Sent To Creatives To Recruit Them July 1, 1992 0 9 Michael.F. Dube Et::J:~' Iteyrioid"s Tobacco Co BGTG~', Bldg. 611-13/301;, Winston,Salern, NC 27105 : , .. . ~,7. r. t;33; V 'f ; . . , , . ; 3oweve,r, througti "a diasto"li c'conflux of genetic and cosmic aberration; a; unique moment - ~_,, ~oluhon ©f the univeXSe~. has3oGc,~urred It has been"determined tHat sr rtt .fiable$ ;'' 1 + ' ~ L „ %F; r a 3i' M { It is rumored " that a` creative genius comes alorig only cince every hundred years or so .~. .... e Fa .r '~ i''cW Ctv.~. i~^ Y a fi e~nclo~ed)F~ereatrv~ g s~xist at this very moment.' Statisti~ e~'rcherat;a rG . h 6. .,..;4G~a~ r..,; *c ' ~~'as~ er~i ;thml ,~~t~ii ~t ~~ ~v~f n~rmed that the'odds of having s~5 geniu(alive~ k, i, jaGd"' 4FSF ~" s ve~y,~s~ine time are.only one in a googol (and that it may not happe~ ag tt until the year L Reynolds Tobacco Company has the distinct pleasure of inviting all six of the unfiverse's certified creative geniuses to•converge for the purpose of creating a new product <<.; } brea,kttiar~ugh ;~or ~the; c~garette busmess. ~ ~ ~ ~~' ~~~ i 4 rr1'} 1 f~ Some° detal ls 'bn the_ event rr~:r.~ 0?ta{K~kil~Z's t. 1 ."1'he site, js,the.Westin Resort at Port Royal Plantation on Hilton Head Island in,, , South Carolina (accommodations' are ieserved in your name). Don't forget to pack clothes appropriate for getting wet in. . Please plan to arrive on Tuesday, September 8 (there are no activities planned on I "We Work For Smokers" Tuesday so you can arrive as early or late as you like). The "convergence of creative genius" will start Wednesday morning with breakfast at 8:00 a.m. and continue until late Thursday evening, September 10. You may arrange to fly home Friday morning, or stay and enjoy Hilton Head; however, you're on your own expense account if you decide to stay after Thursday night. Ln W N N r.&

-4 r a 0 ;. Make your own air travel arrangements. U. S. Air flies a puddle jumper into Hilton Head. Or you can fly to Savannah, Georgia, rent a'car, and drive about an hour, to , Hilton Head. Please be kind and reseie only "coach" airplane seats since that's_ RJR company pohcy. Your, travel expenses will be reimbursed by RJR . You,will sbe paid.nan honorarium,of $5,000 for..your participation, and your , ., , , . . , : signatur~on a confidentiality agreementwill ~e requ~red.- other creative genius once'said that, "Invention is 99% perspiration' and 1% ~i'k We have,already done; ~nuch ~bU~ w ot all) of the perspuat~~~;'G° ou will receive in ' ~ t' Q~~ne rspir~,~?t. t e b.. o'M~d'atey, ,'} Y ur,~/ h: <, y1 a, e, ore © Qcs °a nu num:~6ii-~rauna~•iad tr~ e hning of my stomach is. made ,o n:. Che best ;creativit l n;`in`iag!tl~;,`~s ,. tbe' 'F ~ elp' in an~w~~ig "tlie `~otl~"~lhg questio yssue`;~paper~~~ lummum foil x~f Holes~ `used to v exeC cas,e designed to develop.ane ~ 0 n ;r oduct id~,As I have i3 v t J I enjoy, or think I would enjoy most enjoy) ... Golf Reading a trashy novel Sweat Parasailing Building sand castles Being pampered rank order the following with "1" being what you "We Work For Smokers" Kayaking A quiet walk on the beach Fierce competition Dinner on a yacht Tennis

I I both c.opaes, keep one for your files and return,one autographed copy to me pronto. . The foods I live for are, (check all that apply) ' Tabasco Metamucil Big Mac and fries Ben & Jerrv's.' Coffee .- 100 octane, ~ Other ~~~ ~~`o~"~~Klf "tlie an, f~ahes'~~ .FtV4-h r t~~. r a .~S,aadw~~~F '" M , , . , orkshol~,' ~'lease uncierstand that,t P ear on;' the"r~ aes of USA TodaY~.y, p g ~; Enclosed with this letter, please find a contract which not only spells out the terms of payment; but also obtains your consent to maintain all information. confidential, and gives RJR : exclusive` rights to any and all GREAT ideas resulting from the workshop. ' You need to sign Call me at (919) 741-4980 with any questions. Have a great day, and I'll be waiting to see your responses. Sincerely, Mike Dube "We Work For Smokers" Ln ~ N N M

I 1 +I 0 I I j I i I J I Sample Letter Sent to Creatives After They Agreed to Help August 18, 1992 1- Dear 2-, sections, feedback, obtained from retailers of 7-Eleven ~Indianapolis, Boise and Providence; in the next three (3) four (4) sections, reactions from consumers in Sante Fe, I'm glad you found this book!! As promised, here's a written record of the 'perspiration' completed by us prior to our upcoming workshop. Within the book, you'll find in the first convenience stores and independent store owners in Boston; and in the last section, the results of days spent working the trade with sales representatives of RJR in three of the six sales regions in the country. We expect that you'll read through this book. As you read please make notes on anything you think is important or creative. Your objective is to help us reduce this book of information to a concise summation of the data. We want you to assimilate the data and find the key learning contained therein. Extract key elements and major themes; identify new great ideas; springboard from these ideas to new ideas of your own. We hope to leave the workshop with a two or three page document which gets to the heart of all the data on these pages. Remember that our ultimate goal is to direct long-range product research plans for RJR which will bear fruit in the years 1995 and beyond. On the first morning of the workshop each of our six creative experts, you being one of them, will be asked to present your summation of this information. We are scheduling 30 minutes for each of you to do this. Shorter presentations are OK but longer ones are not acceptable. You may do this anyway you choose. Handouts and overheads may be used but we prefer that you use your own creativity to create a presentation which is a dazzling, brilliant, and insightful analysis which captures and propels the imaginations of your audience. Please let me know in advance if you have special A/V requirements or you'll be up the proverbial creek. By the way, it is mandatory that we have at least one hardcopy of the content. J

I I 1 I I I I I 7 ; I I I j There are some critical elements we'd like to see incorporated into your summation. We want to know what you think and we understand that you're not an expert in cigarettes or tobacco. In fact, that's why we chose you! What do we want to know?? Following are seven (7) questions we want you to answer: 1. What are the six (6) most important issues for the cigarette business? . Identify at least three (3) trends you envision for .the future. What do y'QU 1see as the six (6) `1best product ~improvement icieas y . 4. What are six (6) great non-product ideas that should be pursued? 5. From all the ideas, which one do you think is the single biggest idea? Add some of your creative talent and develop the idea to a stage ready for a project team to begin work. 6. List six (6) smoker related problems associated with the use of cigarettes and solve one of them in a way applicable to current product. 7. Pick one idea on which you'd like to run an ideation session, and come prepared to run it. Assume you'll have thirty (30) minutes to do•it. These queetions are to be used as an outline to help focus your:interpretation of the data and to assist you in pulling together a presentation. Use creative license anywhere you please. If you have any questions about what's expected, callll Have fun!!! Sincerely, Mike Dube I

1 BACKGROUND 1 1 i U ~ I I I 7 I I J I I The background for this project is best summarized in an excerpt of a 1/24/92 letter from Mike Dube in RJRT R&D to R.A. Lloyd: "Current management theory tells us that successful companies are those that constantly interact with their consumers and know them intimately. At RJR we continually conduct focus groups and consumer tests to obtain feedback on product, advertising, promotion and all other elements of our business for the purpose of guiding business decisions." "One are where we have failed to involve the consumer is in the arena of new product Idea generation. We routinely conduct ideation sessions, however, these sessions are generally done among ourselves or with outside consultants/experts. In reviewing our documentation, the only studies I've found that asked consumers for information are large marketing research studies which used questionnaires to solicit input." "The proposal being forwarded here is to conduct idea generation among consumers to build a consumer driven idea base which can be used to focus research efforts for products 3 to 5 years down the road." "An example may serve to illustrate the approach. In the early 1950's, all cigarettes sold were non-filtered. A common complaint among consumers at that time was that tobacco got in the mouth. This was an inconvenience and made the act of smoking a dirty and sometimes disgusting habit. Such a complaint, on the surface, would appear to be trivial. Yet, it spawned the filtered cigarette and the current market situation, dominated by filtered cigarettes is the result. The development of filtered cigarettes, at that time in the '50s, was probably looked at as a change that would not revolutionize the industry, but rather as one which could differentiate the market and generate a solid small share of business. The ideas needed to drive future product development are probably out there in the minds of our consumers and what is needed is to tap into that source of ideas and develop executions which truly solve the problems. Adding a filter to a cigarette must have been a monumental change, considering that there were no suppliers of filter material and no machines which could mass produce them or hook them onto cigarettes. Packaging had to undergo radical changes and so did the thinking of management of the tobacco companies. The next ideas need to be the filters of the 1990's. A first set of consumer ideation sessions was held in Santa Fe, NM on March 11-12, 1992. A second set of consumer groups was held in Indianapolis on March 30-31, 1992. Two more groups were held with 7-Eleven convenience store managers and clerks in Dallas, Texas on April 15-16, 1992. A third set of consumer ideation sessions was held in Boise, Idaho on May 11-12, 1992. A fourth set of consumer ideation sessions was held in Providence, Rhode Island on May 20-21, 1992. Convenience store owner/operators in 3 Alik'L DELTA RESEARCH

I t 1 I i 0 0 I 1 ] i J ~ TI I I j the Boston area participated in Groups on June 9-10. A second meeting with selected 7- Eleven convenience store managers and clerks from the Dallas area was held on July 9. This report details results of four days of sales calls with RJR sales representatives during the week of July 13. 4 A - ~.- DELTA RESEARCH

D E L T A R E S E A R C H ~.--- Marketing Research/Marketing/Product Development U I i I i :.: f I I I I I J R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO CO. Constuner Ideation for Produot Development Stants Fe, New Meadco - March 11-19, 1992 March 1992 Research By: DELTA RESEARCH James E. Fay 1049 Kalfahs Street - Neenah, Wisconsin 54956 414n29-9266 FAX 414/729-9254