Erich smokes again
Tobacco marketing With the reintroduction of the Club cigarette, JTI is also focusing on "Ostalgie" products. The self-deprecating relaunch campaign for this comes from Zurich.
Tobacco marketing With the reintroduction of the Club cigarette, JTI is also focusing on "Ostalgie" products. The self-deprecating relaunch campaign for this comes from Zurich.
Until the fall of 1989, the "anti-fascist protective wall" also divided Germany into two economic cultures: one of market-economy prosperity and freedom and the other of socialist imitations and aspirations. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dam for western products also broke. All East German products were suddenly considered outdated, even museum-worthy. Even competitive items were removed from the product ranges. The demise of the GDR world of goods seemed to be sealed, had it not been for the bitter aftertaste of humiliation among the many new German citizens. This caused the wave of enthusiasm after reunification to ebb just as quickly as it had swept over the 17 million ex-GDR citizens. The mood pendulum swung back - especially in the advertising and product world.
Club for the squads
Marketing strategists soon learned how to deal with the new sense of togetherness and "Ostalgie" and how to use it to their advantage. First and foremost the cigarette manufacturers, who did not see the market shares of their Western brands grow. Even Eastern brands that had been bought up and trimmed to Western standards at great expense lost customers. Instead of retaining them emotionally with familiarity and continuity, they were unsettled by the westernization of familiar cigarettes. In any case, cigarettes in the "classless" society were distinguished by price and availability: Karo and Juwel for workers and farmers, Cabinet or premium and top brands such as Club and Duett for the cadres.
After several years of above-the-line abstinence, Japan Tobacco International in Cologne has now decided to relaunch the DDR Club cigarette. Marcel Löffler, Head of Marketing at Japan Tobacco International, engaged the Zurich agency Bonaparte for the campaign. The agency succeeded in elegantly marrying nostalgia and zeitgeist and thus prevailed against local competitors in the pitch. "We deliberately avoided superficial Eastern nostalgia and opted for deeper self-irony," says consultant Lajos Vizner. CD Harry Sulzer's research was not limited to psychographics and Sinus-Milieus. He also met his girlfriend in an Internet chat room. And with his new understanding of the country and its people, he visited Dresden over Easter. "If you don't know the East, the language and the mentality, you don't understand anything," says Sulzer. He also seems to have acquired the street smarts typical of the GDR, namely making the best of what was available - little money and little time.
Self-deprecating ex-GDR citizens such as a self-confessed Thälmann pioneer, a member of the youth organization of the time, confidently smoke clubs again. The same goes for Erich's godchild, who, like many children from large families, had the last GDR regime leader Honecker as his godfather. The campaign conveys the idea of community, is likeable and spiced up with the necessary authenticity.
"Brothers, to the sun, to freedom": The GDR is rebuilt in Zurich, and as a reward there is the former cadre cigarette club.
Luca Aloisi
Until the fall of 1989, the "anti-fascist protective wall" also divided Germany into two economic cultures: one of market-economy prosperity and freedom and the other of socialist imitations and aspirations. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dam for western products also broke. All East German products were suddenly considered outdated, even museum-worthy. Even competitive items were removed from the product ranges. The demise of the GDR world of goods seemed to be sealed, had it not been for the bitter aftertaste of humiliation among the many new German citizens. This caused the wave of enthusiasm after reunification to ebb just as quickly as it had swept over the 17 million ex-GDR citizens. The mood pendulum swung back - especially in the advertising and product world.
Club for the squads
Marketing strategists soon learned how to deal with the new sense of togetherness and "Ostalgie" and how to use it to their advantage. First and foremost the cigarette manufacturers, who did not see the market shares of their Western brands grow. Even Eastern brands that had been bought up and trimmed to Western standards at great expense lost customers. Instead of retaining them emotionally with familiarity and continuity, they were unsettled by the westernization of familiar cigarettes. In any case, cigarettes in the "classless" society were distinguished by price and availability: Karo and Juwel for workers and farmers, Cabinet or premium and top brands such as Club and Duett for the cadres.
After several years of above-the-line abstinence, Japan Tobacco International in Cologne has now decided to relaunch the DDR Club cigarette. Marcel Löffler, Head of Marketing at Japan Tobacco International, engaged the Zurich agency Bonaparte for the campaign. The agency succeeded in elegantly marrying nostalgia and zeitgeist and thus prevailed against local competitors in the pitch. "We deliberately avoided superficial Eastern nostalgia and opted for deeper self-irony," says consultant Lajos Vizner. CD Harry Sulzer's research was not limited to psychographics and Sinus-Milieus. He also met his girlfriend in an Internet chat room. And with his new understanding of the country and its people, he visited Dresden over Easter. "If you don't know the East, the language and the mentality, you don't understand anything," says Sulzer. He also seems to have acquired the street smarts typical of the GDR, namely making the best of what was available - little money and little time.
Self-deprecating ex-GDR citizens such as a self-confessed Thälmann pioneer, a member of the youth organization of the time, confidently smoke clubs again. The same goes for Erich's godchild, who, like many children from large families, had the last GDR regime leader Honecker as his godfather. The campaign conveys the idea of community, is likeable and spiced up with the necessary authenticity.
"Brothers, to the sun, to freedom": The GDR is rebuilt in Zurich, and as a reward there is the former cadre cigarette club.
Luca Aloisi
