Cross-Country Specifics of Marketing Strategies of International Tobacco Companies Launching Reduced Risk Products on Developed and Emerging Markets: the Case of Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco on the Japanese and Russian Markets

Tobacco industry is one of the largest industries worldwide, for the last decades it faces with challenges connected with the new trends in tobacco industry. These trends are connected with the decrease in the demand on their main product: cigarettes. The stable decrease in volume of sales in different markets raised a challenge for leading tobacco companies, the companies found a way of solving such a challenge with invention of Reduced Risk Products that now gain more and more popularity in the world. Top leading companies implemented Heated Tobacco Products, it allows them to frame the tobacco industry and find new direction for the companies for the visible future. The launching of the products on the markets leads to the analysis of marketing strategies applied by the companies, and then it leads to the specifics that occur on the markets depending on their peculiarities. The study analyses the cross-country specifics of emerging and developed markets, and Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco performance on the Japanese and Russian markets. It reveals that in modern globalizing world there are some differences of the markets, that bring to the different performance of the company.