[Intl-tobacco] Korea: KTGC to Market New Cigarette Nationwide (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

More evidence of how market openings push national companies to adapt by
becoming more aggressive at product development and marketing.

-- 
Robert Weissman	<rob@essential.org>
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KTGC to Market New Cigarette Nationwide
Source: Korea Times, Tuesday, 7/24/01

The Korea Tobacco & Ginseng Corp. (KTGC) said yesterday it will market its
premium brand Cima across the country beginning Thursday after a
one-and-a- half month test-marketing period.

  "We've decided to put Cimas on the shelves earlier than expected because
smokers have shown positive responses to the premium cigarettes which have
been sold in southern Seoul since June 4," a KTGC official said.

  The KTGC has sold 640,000 packs of Cimas since June 4, accounting for
4.6 percent of the premium cigarette market, the official said.

  The KTGC has test-marketed Cimas in a bid to get back some of the local
premium cigarette market dominated by foreign brands.

  Cima sells at 2,000 won ($1.5) per pack, the most expensive among Korean
brands.

  The KTGC spent two years developing Cima, which means "summit"  in
Spanish, in an ambitious project to compete with Mild Seven and Dunhill.

  Cima, with low nicotine, luxury filters and a milder taste, is supposed
to erase the low-quality image Korean brands currently have.

  More than 90 percent of foreign brands sell at over 1,800 won ($1.40)
per pack while the most expensive Korean brand sells at 1,700 won ($1.32)
per pack.

  Foreign cigarettes occupied 15 percent of the Korean cigarette market
for the first four months of this year, a sharp rise from 9.4 percent in
2000, statistics from the KTGC showed.

  The comparable numbers were 6.5 percent in 1999 and 4.9 percent in 1998.