Camel cash

Camel tries to smoke out new customers; marketers try to build brand loyalty while they still can - R.J. Reynolds Tobacco's Camel brand

Camel tries to smoke out new customers

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Few industries have been harder hit by federal regulations on advertising than the tobacco business. And the assault probably isn't over. So the marketing departments are putting in overtime trying to build brand loyalty while they can.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s Camel brand is the latest to employ some loyalty/frequency/direct techniques to gain share, which stands at a paltry 4 percent. The company is reaching out to smokers - literally - via an interactive pop-out that ran in October issues of Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Penthouse, People, and Hunting.

The four-page ads feature the ever-popular Smooth Joe spokescamel who "hands" the reader Camel Cash, or C notes. On the last page is a Camel Cash Limited Edition Catalog which offers "Smooth Stuff" merchandise like a shower curtain, boxer shorts, a neon sign and flip-flop sandals, all sporting the Smooth Joe character and the Camel name. In case the catalog has already been pulled off the ad, a catalog request card is also in Smooth Joe's pop-up hand.

Creative was handled by Camel's former agency, Young and Rubicam. RJR recently moved the $40 million Camel account to startup agency Mezzina/ Brown, formed by two former Y&R executives, John Mezzina and Bill Brown.

Consumers save up the C notes and redeem them for the catalog merchandise. Orders are being taken through the mail - there is no 800 number. Why? Federal regulations require that a retail customer be at least 18. "People have to use the order form inside the catalog," says Peggy Carter, manager of media relations for R.J. Reynolds, "because we need the verification of age, that they are smokers, and a signature."

Camel also mailed an undisclosed number of pieces identical to the magazine spread to its mailing list which is "made up of anyone who has called us and asked us to send them promotions, or who have answered previous promos and told us they wanted to receive more," explains Carter.

Camel is also distributing C notes on packs of filtered Camels, and is making the catalog available at retail locations. It is also giving out C notes with point-of-purchase promotions. Fulfillment is being handled by Young America Corp., Young America, Minn. Camel is keeping response and budget figures close to the vest.

Camel has traditionally been viewed as an older man's cigarette, so the company introduced the Smooth Joe character in the eighties to try to reposition the brand. "We've been trying to tell smokers that it's not the harsh cigarette that your grandfather smoked," Carter states. The brand is targeted to smokers in their mid-twenties.

While the company has spent a small fortune plastering the Smooth Joe spokescamel all over print media and on billboards, trying to project a hip image to youngsters, the strategy hasn't been successful as yet. A typical Camel smoker is still male, and in his mid-thirties or older.

According to John Maxwell, a tobacco industry analyst with Wheat, First Securities in Richmond, Va., about 25 percent to 30 percent of the population smokes - but it's fair to say that almost no one begins to smoke after age 18. That means Camel has to work hard to keep its current smokers while winning younger new ones.

Catalog consultant Herschell Gordon Lewis contends that Camel is "going mad in an attempt to get their recognition re-established," as a younger man's cigarette. Offering a catalog is a smart way to do that. "When the market share remains low, the obvious answer is premiums, and a catalog is a good answer," Lewis says.

Camel tried its hand at a smaller merchandise catalog in the early eighties, but it is far from a pioneer. Several other brands have offered catalog promotions in the past, including Salem, Dakota, Winston and Bel-Air. The catalog technique was first introduced by Raleigh cigarettes in the 1940s, Lewis recounts, "and it was wildly successful when first introduced."

PHOTO : Camel hopes its C notes and a catalog will attract a younger crowd.