Phillip Morris, A subdivision of America's number one tobacco company, Altria group Inc, is maker of some very famous cigarette brands of the world. Altria group Inc is one of biggest tobacco companies of the world, headquartered in Virginia, United States of America. Phillip Morris is the proud owner of very famous cigarette brands like world’s number one, Marlboro along with several other brands like L&M, Bond Street, chesterfield, Phillip Morris and parliament. This paper discusses four old Ps i.e. Product, Place, Promotion, Price and fournew Ps i.e. People, Processes, Programs, and Performance of Philip Morris.
Product: Philip Morris has one of strongest product portfolios in tobacco industry that includes Marlboro, L&M, Bond Street, Sampoerna, Fortune, Bond Street, Red & White, Next, Belmont, Parliament, Diji Sam Soe, Philip Moris, Collector’s Choice, Bucks, Commander, Dave’s, English Ovals, Chesterfield, Lark, Players, Diana, Champions and Hope, and various other local brands. Company owns seven brands among top fifteen brands in international market with Marlboro holding top position. Philip Morris also involves in growing tobacco. Major types of tobacco produces by the company are: Oriental, Virginia and Burley (Phillip Morris Int., 2013).
Place: Philip Morris is an international company manufactures and sales products across the world. Company applies uniform standards across all manufacturing units to deliver excellent quality. Company with its headquarter in U.S. operates in different countries trough well established distribution network. Company sells its products through traditional large and small players, well established retailers and corners shops. Wholesalers and suppliers play major role in delivering product to small corner shops.
Price: Philip Morris products are developed keeping in mind different needs of people. Company has wide portfolio that fulfill needs of different lower, middle and affluent class. Brands like Marlboro, Parliament, and Philip Morris targets premium class whereas Next, Bond Street, Red and White target middle class. Various local brands are priced according to the local target market.
Promotion: Company adopted various strategies to promote its product by using social media, public relation activities, print and electronic media. Public relation activities that emphasizes on social welfare such as education, health care facilities and community empowerment help in building positive sustainable image of the company.
People: Philip Morris is doing several activities for the welfare of its internal and external stakeholders. Company issues warring on every product that smoking products are harmful for the health; company also runs programs on youth smoking prevention. Agricultural labor practices program emphasizes on welfare of partners involve in supply chain. Company also implemented technology to mitigate use of natural resources, carbon emission and waste for social welfare (Phillip Morris Int., 2013).
Processes: Company do benchmarking by establishing high standards for all processes to generate effective results. Production of tobacco, manufacturing of cigarettes, distribution, customer relationship management and corporate social responsibility are major processes of the company. Company conducts capacity development programs to train employees and supplier on quality and efficient performance. Company also utilizes lean production, just-in-time and waste minimization approach along with advance technology to make processes efficient.
Programs: Company runs variety of programs at different levels to benefit its stakeholders and environment such as Capacity building for employees and supplier, community development programs for social welfare, training programs for employees, employee benefits programs, customer satisfaction surveys, youth smoking prevention program and harm reduction program.
Performance: All initiatives and marketing strategies adopted by the company results in good financial performance and positive image of the company among society. In year 2012 company registers revenue of USD 31377 million (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2013). Company recently started emphasizing on promoting non-smoking products that will give returns in future. Company is registering steady growth.
References
Bloomberg Businessweek. (2013, Nov 1). Retrieved Nov 2, 2013, from investing.businessweek.com: http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/financials/financials.asp?ticker=PM
Phillip Morris Int. (2013). Retrieved Nov 3, 2013, from www.pmi.com: http://www.pmi.com/eng/about_us/how_we_operate/pages/how_we_operate.aspx
Phillip Morris Int. (2013). Retrieved Nov 2, 2013, from www.pmi.com: http://www.pmi.com/eng/our_products/pages/our_brands.aspx
