HB (cigarette brand)
| HB Classic Blend | |
|---|---|
| Brand logo | |
|
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| Ingredients of a cigarette | |
| Condensate / tar : | 10 mg |
| Nicotine : | 0.8 mg |
| Carbon monoxide : | 10 mg |
|
Tobacco additives : |
Invert sugar , glycerine , propylene glycol , flavor |
| As of 2008. The information applies to cigarettes available on the German market. | |
HB is a brand name for cigarettes from British American Tobacco (BAT), the world's second largest tobacco company. The name HB is derived from the name of the Dresden cigarette factory H from B ergmann , which was bought by BAT in 1932.
Products
The British American Tobacco Group now sells the Classic Blend and Aromatic Burley brands under the HB family label , the former having tar / condensate values of 10 mg, nicotine 0.8 mg and 10 mg carbon monoxide, the latter (in the same order) the values 6 mg, 0.5 mg and 7 mg. The Classic Blend brand was available as a standard pack of 17 cigarettes at vending machines and in sales outlets until May 2009; Since the summer of 2009, the “small” parcel has been available from vending machines in a pack size of 20 cigarettes, in sales outlets with one of 19 cigarettes. The other Classic Blend products (Big Pack with 24 cigarettes, 100 cigarettes with 17 until May 2009, since then 19 cigarettes and fine tobacco products as 40 g, 100 g or 170 g) are only sold through sales outlets. The latter applies to the Aromatic Burley brand in general, which is only sold in standard packs of 19 (up to May 2009: 17) cigarettes.
Market share
Historical
In their original year, 1955, the HB cigarettes only achieved a market share of 0.4%. This value could already be increased in the following year to 5.6%, in 1958 to 12.9%. In 1959 the brand climbed for the first time the top position among the cigarette brands sold in Germany with a market share of 17%, which it was able to defend until 1984; In 1975 HB cigarettes were even the best-selling in Europe. Since 1985, the Marlboro brand cigarettes have been the undisputed number 1 in the German sales market.
Todays situation
Today the HB cigarette family is still one of the most sold cigarette brands in Germany; however, their market share fell from 4.7% to 3.5% between 2002 and 2007, for example. This development is due, among other things, to the fact that the HB parent company BAT mainly focuses on international premium brands such as Lucky Strike or low-price brands such as Pall Mall , but not on typically German such as the HB family. Nevertheless, the HB family, with its market share of 3.5%, is still represented in the top ten of the most sold cigarette brands in Germany.
history
HB cigarettes were first launched in 1955. The brand was initially advertised with the slogan “A filter cigarette that tastes good”. This was an innovation on the German market in which filter cigarettes could only achieve a market share of 7.2% at the time of the introduction of HB cigarettes; the introduction of the HB significantly accelerated the process towards filter cigarettes. The HB cigarettes spread quickly on the German market and, because of their simple design, on which the brand is still based, were considered young and dynamic and therefore attractive to young people.
In the 1970s, BAT circumvented the international trade embargo against Rhodesia and brought HB onto the market there. In the mid-1990s - Rhodesia had long been independent and was now called Zimbabwe - Marlboro had not managed to position itself in the country's local market, which was still dominated by HB.
Advertising and Marketing
HB male
The HB male is a cartoon character that BAT used to advertise HB cigarettes. Bruno, the unofficial name of the HB male, is one of the most famous advertising figures in the history of German advertising television.
The advertising films in the cinema and on television with Bruno always ran according to the same pattern: everyday situations were shown in which something always went wrong, whereupon Bruno was terribly upset, raging with incomprehensible language (it was Arabic, which was backwards with double or, accordingly the increasing excitement, was played at a higher speed) and literally "blew up". The slogan that followed - spoken from the off in a soothing voice - was: “Stop, my friend! Who's getting mad so fast? Better reach for HB! ”And Bruno floated back to the floor in a good mood and relaxed as“ HB King ”, accompanied by the voice:“ Then everything will go by itself. ”The cigarette was advertised as a problem solver and relaxation agent, a concept that is still used today in many products.
Commercials with Bruno were produced from 1957 to 1984, but only shown in the cinema after the advertising ban on cigarettes on television (1974). In the 1960s, the HB male was known to 96% of viewers. At that time HB was the most famous cigarette brand in Germany.
The creator of this figure, which was initially drawn in black and white, was the animation director Roland Töpfer .
Printing units
In 1977 the series of HB picture atlases was established. The travel guide series in A4 format published as HB-Bildatlas dealt with travel destinations in Germany and around the world. The series has had a new design since January 2010 as dumont picture atlas .
Starting in 1979, a nature magazine was published outside (1979 price: 6.50 DM), which in each volume dealt with a landscape area from Europe. It was discontinued in 1987.
In 1983 the HB art guides were added, in which various regions and art landscapes of Germany and Europe were presented in words and pictures. The series existed until 1997.
All series appeared in the HB publishing and distribution company in Hamburg, based on the name of the cigarette brand.
Special series on cigarette packs
As is customary in the industry, cigarette packets with special designs that deviate from the standard design appear and continue to appear with the HB brand from time to time, which are intended to arouse customers' curiosity and bind them to the brand. For example, at the beginning of the 1990s, HB had the "Undercover" special series, in which the cigarette packs were kept completely black, and in 2004 the "Growing Regions" special series, through which tobacco growing areas were presented to the consumer and - Suitable for the European Football Championship 2008 - the “We are Partyland” series, for which the cigarette packets are in the German national colors of black, red and gold and with one of the slogans “We are Partyland”, “We are Party Land”, “We are Jubelland ”or“ We are Freudeland ”.
swell
- ↑ BMELV: Tobacco additives in cigarettes
- ↑ http://www.bat.de/OneWeb/sites/BAT_677KXQ.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/EDD807DA8099E568C1256F63003C0F82?opendocument&SID=D3ABEC00BFED55EC40C59C7E5E63E992&DTC= ( page no longer available , searching web archives ) Info: The link is automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.bat.de/OneWeb/sites/BAT_677KXQ.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO6M3DFD?opendocument&SID=D3ABEC00BFED55EC40C59C7E5E63E992&DTC=&TMP= ( page no longer available , searching web archives ) Info: The link is automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Christian Haas: "Print is no longer sexy". In: Focus Online . February 3, 2010, accessed October 14, 2018 .
- ↑ http://www.zigsam.at/B_HB.htm
