Jay Levinson

Our plan was clear: Use marketing to change the identity of the brand from female to male while increasing sales of the brand

This would not be easy. “Cathexis,” a word with Greek roots, relates to the degree of emotional attachment people feel to something. Cigarettes are a very high cathexis product. Getting women to switch shampoos because of marketing is easy because the majority of women do switch shampoo brands during the year. Shampoo is a low cathexis product. But smokers rarely switch

But nothing has changed with the marketing, other than cigarette advertising being banned from radio and TV, and the price of cigarettes soaring. The same marketing campaign that appeared to fail has succeeded to the point that Marlboro is now known as the best-marketed brand in history.
How did that happen? It happened because of the power of the first secret of guerrilla marketing. It’s the same secret as the secret of a good marriage or a great golf game or a successful business. The word is “commitment.”

COMMITMENT