The Hindu Business Line : GTC withdraws cigarette brand Platinum Ignites

THE Rs 400-crore GTC (Golden Tobacco Company), part of the Dalmia Group, has withdrawn its premium filter cigarette brand - Platinum Ignites. The brand was launched in the Mumbai market last year to target the youth with the baseline, `Smoother Than Gold'. Pitted against ITC's Gold Flake, Platinum Ignites was expected to fill the lacunae in the premium filter cigarette market for youth.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Monal Desai, Vice-President (Sales & Marketing), GTC Industries, said, "When a brand is launched there is a time schedule attached to it, particularly in the cigarette industry where so many brands get launched. Platinum Ignites did not meet the targets and lasted in the market for a few months."

The company had also undertaken a market research exercise through AC Nielsen and its advertising agency Mudra before launching the brand.

"We had test marketed the brand in Mumbai, and had it succeeded, we would have launched Platinum Ignites at a national level as a cult brand," says Mr Desai.

Pegging it a notch lower than Gold Flake (Rs 19 for 10 sticks), Platinum Ignites was expected to appeal to the youngsters at Rs 17.50 for a pack of 10. Last year it also sponsored the Indo Brazilian carnival in Mumbai and took up an `experimental' marketing exercise for the brand.

Embarking upon a range of events from jazz concerts to paragliding, events associated with youth were being worked out by the company through its Mumbai-based direct marketing-cum-creative agency, Theory M.

Meanwhile, GTC is getting ready to face the ban on tobacco advertising. "We do not have any agencies working for us any more," says Mr Desai. The company has already set up an internal CRM (customer relationship management) team to reach out to its target audience although it is still not sure whether the ban would restrict its direct marketing initiatives as well.