Unless a recent court ruling is overturned, cigarette makers will be forced to change the name of some of their best-selling brands, a challenging marketing task that could damage any brand. Last week
a federal court ruled that companies like Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. can no longer use adjectives like "light" and "low-tar" in advertising and brand names. As a result, PM must
rename its Marlboro Lights and Ultra Lights brands, while Reynolds will have to rename its Camel Lights. PM may decide to call its Marlboro brands Marlboro Gold (for Lights) and Marlboro Silver (For
Ultra Lights), both of which are used in Europe. But whatever they do, the task is daunting and poses major risks; repositioning a brand could alienate loyal consumers who may think aspects of their
favorite brand have changed. "It's a Herculean task," says Rita Rodriguez, chief executive of Enterprise IG US, a branding firm that works on behalf of marketers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and
American Express Co. At stake is the future of the tobacco industry's single most important product. Cigarettes with tar ratings of 15 milligrams or less--those generally marketed as "light" or
"low-tar"--constituted 84.9 percent of the 367.6 billion cigarettes sold in 2003, up from 60.5 percent in 1991.
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