British American Tobacco: “A Better Tomorrow” Rebrand
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British American Tobacco: “A Better Tomorrow” Rebrand, Tobacco Tactics, updated 14 May 2024, accessed 17 September 2024.
In March, 2020 British American Tobacco (BAT) rebranded its website, with a new logo and the prominent strapline “A Better Tomorrow”.1
This phrase was originally trademarked by subsidiary Nicoventures in July 2019 and used to promote its newer nicotine products, notably in motorsports. It was also registered to cover conventional tobacco products.2
Image 1: BAT’s strategy in 2020 (Source: British American Tobacco, Capital Markets Day Presentation)
A statement on BAT’s website placed this slogan at the centre of BAT’s strategy (see Image 1):
“Our purpose is to build a better tomorrow by reducing the health impact of our business through offering a greater choice of enjoyable and less risky products for our consumers.”3
The company stated that cigarettes remained “at the core” of its business and key to growth, and it expressed only an “aim to generate an increasingly greater proportion of our revenue from products other than cigarettes” in order to reduce health impacts.3
Image 2: BAT’s “mission” in 2020 (Source: British American Tobacco, Capital Markets Day Presentation)
BAT stated that its new mission was about “stimulating the senses of New Adult Generations”.3 According to its investor presentation in March 2020, this includes stimulating senses through the use, not just of newer products, but also of conventional cigarettes and roll your own tobacco (RYO) (Image 2).4
Image 3: Identifying “occasions” to use for NGPs (Source: British American Tobacco, Capital Markets Day Presentation)
In its presentation, BAT developed the idea of “regaining moments”.4 It termed the times when smoking is restricted due to regulations, or social norms, as “lost occasions”, and that these were all occasions that could be “maintained” around the clock through the use of BAT’s newer products (Image 3).4
Image 4: The Market Opportunity (Source: British American Tobacco, Deutsche Bank Global Consumer Conference, 9 June 2021)
BAT’s 2020 Annual Report continued the theme, with reference to “the evolving and varied needs of today’s consumer who seeks sensorial enjoyment for different moods and moments”.5 In 2021, BAT also referred to “On The Go Wellbeing & Stimulation” in a presentation to investors, while predicting further growth in the nicotine consumer pool (Image 4).6
In 2024, BAT Chief Executive, Tadeu Marroco, explained that BAT was “refining our A Better TomorrowTM purpose, with a vision to ‘Build A Smokeless World’” (Image 4).7 This new wording was subsequently reflected across the BAT website.89
Image 5: Refining our strategy with new Strategic Pillars (Source: British American Tobacco, FY 2023 presentation, 9 February 2024)
- For more information on BAT’s products and strategy see Newer Nicotine and Tobacco Products: British American Tobacco
Tobacco Tactics Resources
- British American Tobacco
- Reynolds American Inc.
- Newer Nicotine and Tobacco Products: British American Tobacco
- Nicoventures
TCRG Research
- Tobacco industry messaging around harm: Narrative framing in PMI and BAT press releases and annual reports 2011 to 2021, I. Fitzpatrick, S. Dance, K. Silver, M. Violini, T.R. Hird, Frontiers in Public Health, 18 October 2022, doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.958354
For a comprehensive list of all TCRG publications, including TCRG research that evaluates the impact of public health policy, go to the Bath TCRG’s list of publications.
