Our Target Is (More) Downscale; Typically They Are:

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This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Our Target Is (More) Downscale; Typically They Are:

This marketing document from the R.J. Reynolds site (Target Market Study - Salem Soundwaves) summarizes RJR's "target market," mostly "young adults," who do not attend college (to whom the document refers as "kids").

The paper offers a bleak description of RJR's young "targets" for cigarettes advertising:

"Our target is (more) downscale; typically they are:

  • less educated than others...
  • not necessarily in college
  • into escapism because they have no intellectual diversions
  • There's lots of stress in their lives because of the absence of long-term goals...nothing to look forward to

and

  • They have a tunnel vision of the future because there's no college/greater opportunities to look forward to.

The marketers zero this group's susceptibility to advertising:

  • They're more impressionable to marketing/advertising...
  • ...they're more susceptible.
  • They are less formed intellectually...more malleable.

The marketers seek sexually-oriented ways to appeal to these young people:

Is there anything about the interest in sex that we can leverage?...Should we be more involved with skin events?

Title OUR TARGET IS (MORE) DOWNSCALE; TYPICALLY THEY ARE:
Date 19890920
Bates 515603998/4000
Collection RJ Reynolds
Pages 3 URL: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/pbs92d00 <tdo>search_term=downscale confidential</tdo>

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