Japan Tobacco Changes its Popular Cigarette Brand

Published on January 16th, 2012 00:00

The giant tobacco company Japan Tobacco, which produces several of the top worldwide cigarette brands as Winston, Camel and LD announced recently that it will launch a renewed variant of its popular Pianissimo brand of cigarettes in the middle of January.

Pianissimo cigarette is the best selling cigarette brand in Japan’s100 slim menthol category and is rather popular among female smokers. Japan Tobacco says that Pianissimo brand has a mild, fresh and menthol flavor. Currently smoking rates in Japan are decreasing; however they still remain higher for both male and female smokers in comparison to data in Europe and North America.

Japan government increased taxes on smoking products by 30% in late 2010, which lead to a drop in the number of internal smokers, while there have been some advices that one more tax hike will be needed as the government is looking for ways to pay for the recovery of the affected region in northeast Japan by an awful tsunami in March 2011. As part of its new campaign to attract new customers – as well as keeping the existing ones - Japan Tobacco renewed its Cabin collection several months ago in order to make it a cigarette brand for real smoke lovers. Now it came the turn of seven Pianissimo products, which will be placed in new packages and for of them will be given new names.

Pianissimo One is said to be renamed Aria Menthol, a term that signifies an airy melodic solo. The company representative added that the innovative white packaging and special waterlines are elaborated to underline the tender and mild character of the product. The Pianissimo Super Slims Menthol One will be chanced to Precis Menthol, due to menthol flavor; the Icene Menthol brand will become the Icene Crista to underline the “cooling sensation of the menthol.” The Pianissimo brand appeared for the first time in Japan in 1995 and the latest addition to this brand was in November 2011. A pack of 20 cigarettes is sold for Y440 (RM17.90).

Japan Tobacco is the leading tobacco manufacturer in the domestic market and smokers will be expecting the reaction of other companies, mainly foreign ones as British American Tobacco. Japan Tobacco smoking products are available in more than 120 countries of the world; it also controls such well-known brands as Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut and Glamour brands. It owns 2/3 share of the domestic tobacco market. According to Japan Tobacco findings, about 24.95 million Japanese smoke. A recent survey has demonstrated that the smoking rate among men has dropped by about 37%, while the figure for women came to 9.1%.