Goldflake was neither a brand nor a process of manufacturing cigarettes. The word «goldflake» refers to cigarettes made using ‘bright rich golden tobacco’. Brands other than Wills Gold Flake are Bacons’ Gold Flake, Hignett’s Golden Flaked Honey Dew, Salmon and Gulckstein’s Gold Flake.

Gold Flake was produced by the Bristol company of W.D. & H.O. Wills, from 1901 part of Imperial Tobacco.

Indian Launch and promotion edit

ITC launched the brand Gold Flake in India in the seventies. The source of the positioning of Gold Flake can be traced back to its early days. In the seventies, India was a country of the genteel rich. People aspired to be honourable and genteel. The lifestyle of the upper class was what the customers aspired for.

The initial ads said, «Wherever you go they are peaunut butter» clarification needed , «Having fun wish you were there» «Worth its length in gold»,then came the Gracious People Campaigns «for the gracious people» as the headline followed by, «A touch of Gold», with the headline «A tribute to the gracious people». Gold Flake had been traditionally positioned as a premium cigarette. It targeted adult, male SEC A category smokers. It was meant to be a cigarette for the elite and the rich the gracious people of India. It did not differentiate itself specifically from other brands. The brand was compared with Gold for the quality and purity of experience. Advertising emphasised this comparison to gold. The statement «For the gracious people» summed the core of the brand.

The gracious people as defined by the brand were the premium class they were successful, elegant, and responsible, and had a sense of purpose. The consumer was bounded in the Indian ethos and roots. He was perceived to be unapproachable and sociable only in his high class.

Market today edit

The brand was still positioned as a premium cigarette. However, the target consumer had changed. As of 2013 update , Gold Flake is targeted the adult as well as the youth smokers. It extended beyond the SEC A category to the SEC B as well. The product did not boast any USP. It still differentiated itself on the purity and quality of its experience. The comparison with gold stayed, but the target audience the brand was reaching out to, was supposedly larger. The brand stood for a celebratory attitude. «Celebrate the feeling» was the new message. This was simply an extension of the previous message «For the gracious people». The ITC has also launched its smallest size which is of 64 mm and price is 25 rs for 10 sticks.

One pack of 10 cigarettes cost accordingly (Price varies from time to time and place to place)

• Gold Flake Kings 170
• Gold Flake Kings Lights 96
• Gold Flake Premium FT 59

In the Republic of Ireland the market for Gold Flake has declined and it can be difficult to obtain.

References edit

France, land of gauloises, eyes no-brand cigarettes

PARIS May 30 (Reuters) France is considering a move to brandless packets to curb smoking, instituting one of the world’s toughest anti tobacco policies in the home of chain smoking singer Serge Gainsbourg and no filter Gauloises cigarettes.

Health Minister Marisol Touraine is due to present a law next month that would stop cigarette manufacturers from printing their distinctive logos on packages, Le Figaro newspaper reported on Friday.

Plain packaging, with the cigarette brand written in small lettering under a graphic health warning, would be among a raft of radical measures to curb smoking, including a ban on using e cigarettes, or «vaping», in public places, Le Figaro said.

Australia pioneered plain packaging for cigarettes in 2012 and Britain, New Zealand and Ireland all plan similar bans.

In a statement, France’s Health Ministry said it was studying several options to curb smoking.

«We are far from the point of taking any decisions and no particular course of action has been determined so far,» the ministry said.

With its cafe culture and chain smoking Nouvelle Vague movie stars, France earned a reputation as a smokers’ paradise after World War Two. Iconic dark tobacco brands like Gitanes, favoured by Gainsbourg, who smoked up to five packs a day, and Gauloises, preferred by philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, grew hugely popular, in part thanks to their stylish packaging.

While the reputation sticks, smoking rates in France have since plummeted. Less than a third of the population now lights up regularly, which is about average for the European Union and down sharply from nearly 60 percent in the 1960s.

Tough anti tobacco laws were introduced in 1991 which banned smoking in public places, forced cigarette manufacturers to display health warnings on packets and forbade large scale advertising on billboards and TV.

Advocates of plain packaging argue that stripping packets of eye catching logos is effective in reducing smoking among young people. Currently, one in three French people aged 15 to 19 is a smoker, according to the Health Ministry.

As French smoking rates have declined, so has the country’s once vibrant tobacco industry. The state owned Seita brand that produced Gauloises and Gitanes was bought by Britain’s Imperial Tobacco in 2008, and much of its production moved abroad.

In April, Imperial Tobacco announced the closure of the largest Gauloise cigarette factory in France, prompting the factory’s 327 workers to go on strike and hold five managers hostage on the worksite, near Nantes, this week.

The managers were released on Thursday after a day of captivity. (Reporting by Nicholas Vinocur Editing by Catherine Evans)