From: Business Times (Singapore)
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The tobacco company is shifting a large majority of its 1,000-employee salesforce in Japan to target elderly smokers with direct appeals, discounts and money-back guarantees. The effort is an attempt by the Marlboro maker to sell its next-generation iQos smoking device to an older generation – Japan’s largest demographic that is more price sensitive and less responsive to social media.
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BAT this week named a new chief executive to take over the company’s transformation amid the industry’s upheaval. What happens in Japan is important because it is the most developed market for the heated devices, and has become a test case for how the high-tech segment could expand across the globe.