Tobacco Products Control Act Trial
Document 005C
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Expenditure", and then next to that the column is
entitled "Percentage Share of Voice". Would you tell
the Court first what is share of voice, Mr. Hoult?
A - Well, voice is a bit of marketing jargon, and voice
really means how loudly are you shouting. So, the total
voice is one hundred percent (100%) and the competition
has fifty percent (50%) share of voice. It means that
they have fifty percent (50%) of the presence of all
messages going to the consumer at that particular time.
So it's the share of total voice that the different
brands have got.
THE COURT:
Q - I'm not sure I understand what you are saying.
A - The total expenditure in the industry at any one time is
called the total voice.
Q - Okay.
A - All cigarette advertising, all sponsorships, all other
activity. And that is very much an estimate, and you
might say the total expenditure in the year nineteen
eighty~seven__(1987)~was of the_order, say, of one
hundred million dollars ($i00,000,000.00). And if that
were the case -- and I'm making it up for illustration
-- our expenditure, if, say our expenditure was twenty
million dollars ($20,000,000.00), we would have a twenty
percent (20%) share of voice.
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, ~;,,~,;oo d, Pierre Vilaire & .~,$~oEie~ Li'~e

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Q - Okay.
Me IRVING:
Q - And is this your share of total advertising expenditure
or total...
Total marketing...
...in any category?
Total marketing expenditure, because the advertising
expenditure is very clear. You can measure that very
accurately.
Hm, hm.
But the total spending does include things that you have
to estimate, like point of sale activity, in-store
activity, merchandising activity and, of course,
sponsorship activity.
And do I understand correctly then, Mr. Hoult, that your
brand managers, in preparing their own budget requests,
as it were, will monitor the amount of spending which
they are able to measure for the brands which are
competitive to theirs?
Well, they.certainly.~wouold, because one of-those telling
arguments for asking for a budget increase is to say:
"Look, this competitive brand against my brand, Export,
has doubled its expenditures last year, and I need to do
the same if I'm to remain competitive" So it
would be
utilized that way and very important.
,4UDIOTR,,4NSCRIPT, Division de Pierre Vilalre & Associ4s Lt4e

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Am
And each brand manager then would do that, would
Okay.
he?
Yes.
And would do it in relation to the brands competitive...
Yes.
... to this particular brand?
Yes.
So, in describing the process then, you have started
with the brand manager and I think you said, in answer
to a question from the Court, that the brand managers
would report up to the Vice-President Marketing?
Yes.
So that person is getting the...
That person would take all these parts, make some
evaluation and modification himself, bring in his own
input in terms of priorities, in terms of opportunities
and finally the whole thing would be put together as a
marketing plan which would be a part of the strategic
plan. And I would evaluate that marketing plan
alongside a manu,facturing.plan and alongside a sales
plan and so forth.
Now, as the -- at the time when you were the Chief
Executive Officer, President, then you would be
receiving through the Vice-President Marketing the
combined efforts of all these brand managers?
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de Pierre V;Io~re ~ Associ~s LtCe

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QD
Am
Qm
Yes, I would.
And would you just tell me again what .was,-in fact, your
role during the time when you were C.E.O. in dealing
with these forecasts, these requests?
It can be summarized by saying it would be, a) an
evaluator...
Hm, hm.
... to determine the credibility, depending on the
evidence put forth, of the proposal. Can you really
grow this brand or have you really given up on this
brand and so forth.
I'm sorry, when you say: "Can you grow this brand", do
you mean...
Share.
... "Can you increase your share of market"?
Yes.
Yes, okay.
Because, normally, such a commitment would be in
parallel with a fairly large request for increased
funds... So you would be the evaluator,.and having
evaluated, it was finally my decision, my responsibility
to allocate corporate resources accordingly.
Hm, hm. And in reality now, and during the time you
were the C.E.O., were you ever able to...
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de Pierre Vilalre & Associ~s Ltge

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THE COURT:
When you say.C ....
Me IRVING:
Chief Executive Officer, My Lord.
THE COURT:
Oh, Chief Executive Officer.
Me IRVING:
President.
Q - Were you ever in a position to approve everything that
was requested by all of your brand managers?
A - No. Fairly typically, the total sum of that requested
exceeded by far available resources. Always the problem
was one of cutting and pruning and protecting those
projects that you had a belief could succeed, but the
demands always exceeded the resource supply.
Q - Does the -- did the extent and nature, or the extent
anyway, of competition relate at all to whether the
overall market is in decline?
A - No. The extent of competition had had -- has an effect
only on. the distribution of share between-the different
companies.
Q - But when the overall market is declining, Mr. Hoult,
does that make competition less severe or more?
A - Oh, it makes it more severe, for two (2) reasons: a)
there's a smaller pot, and therefore the slices are
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de Pierre Vilaire & Associgs Lt@e

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capability.
THE COURT:
Q -
really fought for, and it's not insignificant that
expenditure has increased very-dramatically over the
last three (3) years and that's a company in a period
when the industry has declined more severely than in the
past. Secondly, and very importantly, with the industry
decline, there has been an over-capacity of production
And if you are...
Do.you have -- I'm sorry, I missed -- I missed you --
have a smaller share to -- part to share and then you
have what?
A - And then the other side, in terms of costs, is the
production over-capacity that currently exists in the
Canadian market. Given the market decline, we have
facilities and capabilities of producing significantly
more cigarettes than the consumer is demanding. And
when you have this situation your costs escalate very
rapidly.
Me IRVING:
Q - Now going back to Tab 1 just for amoment, just to refer
to the competitive situation, Mr. Hoult, would you look
at page nineteen (19) of the strategic business plan?
Looking at that second (2nd) paragraph on the page, is
that a reference to the competitive situation you've
just been describing? Down at the bottom of that
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de Pierre Vilaire & Associgs Ltee

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paragraph.
A - Yes. Yes,~it does.. It describes.the.competition
between the companies and specifically the competition
between two (2) very strong brands, Players and
DuMaurier in this case.
Q - Now, you spoke a few moments ago about ongoing research,
Mr. Hoult, and I'd like you to look, if you would, at
Tab 3 of the...
THE COURT:
Are you -- I'm sorry, Mr. Hoult -- Mr. Irving, are you
going to put an exhibit number on this?
Me IRVING:
I will, My Lord, but I have one other exhibit which is
not in here to put in and I thought that since we'll be
spending virtually the rest of Mr. Hoult's evidence on
this book afterwards, I'd wait and then we could number
these consecutively. I thought it might be easier.
THE COURT:
Okay.
Me IRVING:
There's one more exhibit I'm going to put in. I'll give
it to my friend at the end of the day today, so he has
it, and then there won't be anything left except the
book, and tomorrow we'll simply give consecutive numbers
to these, simply.
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de Pierre Vilaire & Associgs tt4e

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THE COURT:
SO we are moving to Tab 3..now?
Me IRVING:
We are, just for the moment. Yes, My Lord. In view of
the time, this will be the last subject today, I think,
and I just wanted Mr. Hoult, not first with specific
reference to this tab, but to tell the Court the kind of
general research, market research that you carry out on
a regular basis.
A - On a regular basis, we carry out product testing, which
is the monitoring of how the consumer sees our products
versus the competition. And product testing involves
giving the consumer the product and coming back a couple
of days later and say: "Tell me what you thought of it"
on rating scales. We carry out regularly image studies
of our brands, again always versus the competition, what
our strengths are, what their strengths are, what the
weaknesses are and the opportunities.
Of course, we have the Neilsen information on an
ongoing:basis.and, we have ~many.specific studies which I
know we'll get into -- you referred to them earlier --
on individual projects. But those are the sorts of
basic monitoring studies that we do, and at periodic
intervals, every one (i) or two (2) years, we will carry
out what is described as a total market evaluation,
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de Pier,, Vilaire & Associ~s U~e

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segmentation study, where you will look at your market
as a totality, and divide it into segments, so you~can
focus on each individual segment and understand --
understand more about it. And you will monitor how the
market has changed over time, like comparing one
segmentation study with the past studies.
Now, we've already looked in Tab 1 at the seven (7)
segments of the marketing, so far as they relate to
cigarettes, segment 1 being the highest tar and nicotine
and so on. Would you explain to the Court the other
kinds of market segmentation which exist?
A - Well, the first, as you rightly described, is segmenting
the products. Essentially, it's as simple as sorting
the products into those products against which they're
competing. The other major method of segmentation,
which is a little newer in the market, it does require,
you know, certain techniques that have been borrowed
from the Social Sciences, is consumer segmentation.
And in consumer segmentation, you will look at your
total universal.smokers~and by means of a series of
attitudinal questions, behavioural questions,
demographic questions, you will, using various
statistical techniques, group the smokers into segments.
THE COURT:
Q - Attitude, behavior and...?
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de Pierre Vil(}ire & Associ~s Ll4e

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Demographics. Social class, age, sex and so forth. I
would like_~to.just..add-one.more.word about.the ~so-called
consumer classification. This can be done in several
ways, but two (2) of the most common are just taking
them as they are, without regard to their smoking
behavior and seeing what they are like as general
consumers. And these are very general questions of the
sort that relate to consumer behaviour, like: "I like to
experiment a lot in the products I buy".
And the other type of consumer classification and
segmentation is where you will take particular cigarette
or tobacco dimensions and you will classify them as
cigarette smokers more specifically than consumers. So
that's very refined, very tight, and the other is more
general.
Me IRVING:
Q - Now, if we look at Tab 3 now, Mr. Hoult, which is called
"Family Segmentation -- Segment Descriptor Study." And
my friends won't mind my saying, My Lord, since they
have -- havethis~and.have the other document, that this
comes from a survey which runs to some three hundred and
fifty (350) pages which we don't intend to put to the
Court ...
Me BAKER:
What number Exhibit was it?
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, D~,~oo cle Pierre V~lalre & Assoc~s Ll@e
