. The shift to stand alone by PMI was considered by Altria Group as a chance for the company to earn its freedom beyond the constraints of the American corporate ownership regarding potential litigation and legislative restriction to compete effectively in the emerging markets. Despite the separation of the two companies, some shareholders in Altria had shares for PMI as documented on the London Stock Exchange and other markets. The paper herein is a debate on various aspects of PMI (Felberbaum & Tobacco, 2014).
PMI has its headquarters in Lausanne-Switzerland. The company does not majorly operate in the US as the Altria still owns its brands. The products in which PMI deal with are well known to be harmful to human health worldwide. Cigarettes and tobacco are factors that cause preventable deaths and addictive. With this in consideration, the company faces stiff competition, litigation and restrictive legislation from the governments bothered about the health consequences of its products. The commonly known brands of PMI products include “Marlboro, Dji Sam Soe 234, L&M, Long Beach, Marathon, Minak Djinggo, ST Dupont Paris, U Mild, Philip Morris, Red and White, Basic, Bond Street, Chesterfield, Parliament, Lark, Merit, Morven Gold, Muratti, Skjold, Multifilter, Virginia Slims, Benson & Hedges, John Player & Sons and Peter Stuyvesant” (Felberbaum & Tobacco, 2014).
The company has been well known as the tobacco giants, owning seven of the top 15 tobacco brands globally. The company showed their extreme ability on June 26, 2014 when it capitalized its production on the increasing appetite for alternatives to traditional smokes. The Marlboro is the world’s number one product since 1972. The product has highly sold out the company in nationally and internationally. The product is also produced in different flavors giving customers and opportunity to choose from a variety. Today PMI is working towards smokeless cigarettes. It is proper to argue that PMI is making good use of advancing technology to explore the markets and limit their litigation and legislative constraints. Extensively, PMI also sponsors some organizations such as the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One team (Richardson & Gosnay, 2010).
The venture in e-cigarettes is not only and advancement to the company but also an alternative to traditional smoking. PMI’s Marlboro Heat Stick in Italy and Japan is highly popularized and determined to be spread in the US in 2016 at a cost of $6 per pack. The Heat Stick has a look of a regular cigarette, but it is heated inside a battery powered pen, called iQOS. The heating takes place to a degree below combustion (up to 660 degrees F). The heat is sufficient in producing nicotine in vapor form inhaled through the mouthpiece. The holder in use is quite durable as it can be used to heat up to 20 sticks per charge. Despite the tremendous success, PMI is left on the verge to work so hard to be ahead of its competitors as they also invest in smokeless cigarettes (Richardson & Gosnay, 2010).
Question Two
The production of cigarettes and tobacco at PMI are considered to be in traditional and e-cigarette level. The standard of development e-cigarette suffers a threat to all cigarette producing companies. Negative perceptions have been accorded to the smokeless cigarette. It is argued that the commodity is a lifeboat of sorts that gives a smoking opportunity to people who do not want to smoke. The production of E-cigarette is at the stage of marketing. The manufacture of the product has taken place, and the products are available in different sizes, colors, and shapes. The sale of e-cigarette improves day-by-day and statistics show that in the next ten years it will be sold more than the traditional cigarette. It is for this reason that the companies such as R.J Reynolds, Altria, Lorillard and National Tobacco are heading the direction of e-cigarette (Paley, 2007).
Despite the commodity being at the selling stage, it faces several challenges based on the stubborn economy, unemployment, the rise in taxes and high prices at the pump. As much as the commodity faces such challenges, it has been proven by the Centers for Disease Control that 21% of adults have used e-cigarettes an increase of 10% compared to the last ten years. The increasing sales regardless of the constraints of the world economy are enhanced by the professionalism employed in the manufacture of the e-cigarette. Similar to an e-cigarette, a traditional cigarette is at the sales level. However, compared to the electronic cigarette, traditional cigarettes have gone beyond sales to the stage of critique and advancement. It is then arguable that e-cigarettes are birthed as an advanced technology of traditional cigarettes (Paley, 2007).
Regular cigarettes are known to produce enormous smoke whose visible danger can be envisaged publicly. The cigarette involves the direct inhale of tobacco burnt by physically lighting a fire. The use of traditional cigarettes can be considered embarrassing as the public would automatically know that one smokes. The constant research and advancing technology has lead to the production of smokeless cigarettes that seem to be secretive. However, as much as there is advancement in the manufacture of e-cigarettes, its effect and harmful nature to smokers is not improved. Though, improvement is experienced as smoke polluting the environment and the air breathed by those, not smoking is altered by e-cigarettes. Therefore, an improvement on e-cigarettes needs to be associated with reducing harm else no much difference will be recognized (Richardson & Gosnay, 2010).
Question Three
The process of new product development is a critical process for the sustenance and life of companies, small and large. The processes are of significance for a firm to survive in the competitive global and national markets. The new product development stages are a cycle that every new item needs to go through for a company to attain its desired goal. The stages involved in the process are a generation of an idea, screening, concept development, business analytics, marketability test, product development, commercialization and launching of the product. The first stage of generation involves sourcing for an idea about the new commodity. The idea is then screened to identify the viable ideologies. To test a sourced approach, the opinions of workers, consumers and other businesses are sought for a feasible idea. The approved ideas are then researched to identify potential costs, profits, losses and threats. Finally, the product is designed and manufactured (Richardson & Gosnay, 2010).
The processing of e-cigarettes by PMI together with other tobacco and cigarette process companies need to take the product through screening, concept development and product development and commercialization. The significance of the reviewing the product through the stages is to achieve the desired goals of the companies. Screening of the ideas of e-cigarettes will enable the firms to revise the expensive pump, litigations, government taxes and legal systems that increase the cost of producing the item. The reviewed ideas are then tested to examine profitability, loss, costs and revenues. To manage the stage of concept development, the company carries out a SWOT analysis to examine the stability of the commodity in the existing markets. Finally, e-cigarettes are then subjected to the stage of product development. Considering this, a prototype is tested in the markets. The results attained from testing the prototype provides a business to decide on whether to produce the cigarette in large-scale. Therefore, proper evaluation of e-cigarette through the stages mentioned above is essential for its success in the future (Richardson & Gosnay, 2010).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the e-cigarette is a technologically advanced smokeless cigarette produced by companies such as PMI. The manufacturer of traditional and e-cigarettes are monitored by the government as it is harmful to human health. For this reason, several litigation, legislation and cost production constraints are encountered by cigarette manufacturers. The adverse effects of traditional cigarettes led to the development of e-cigarettes that is at the marketing stage in the current times. Production of the e-cigarettes like that of any new commodity needs to be re-taken through the screening, concept development, product development and commercialization for cigarette producing companies to achieve their desired goals. Therefore, e-cigarette production is likely to achieve success years to come if the proper review is carried out.
References
Felberbaum, M., & Tobacco, A. (2014, Jun 26). Philip Morris Int’l to sell Marlboro HeatSticks. El Paso Times [Proquest]
Paley, N. (2007). Chapter 7: How to manage your product strategy. Marketing Strategy Desktop Guide (2nd Edition). London, GBR: Thorogood, London, GBR. [Ebrary]
Richardson, N. &Gosnay, R. (2010). Chapter 5: Product management. Creating Success: Develop Your Marketing Skills. Kogan Page Ltd., London, GBR. [Ebrary]
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