U.S. Tobacco
INTRA-COMPANY CORRESPONDENCE

FROM: A.H. Cameron, Regional Sales Manager
TO: Mr. R.R. Marconi, National Sales Manager

January 21, 1980

RE: HAWKEN REVIEW

Tuesday and Wednesday was spent in the tri-city area (Briston, Tennesse; Bristol, Virginia and Johnson City, Tennessee) in an attempt to further evaluate Conwood's new item "Hawken." I spent this time working with Mr. C.E. Jordan, division manager. Factual information was hard to come by in some of the areas; however, I will attempt to cover what we found from consumers, retailers and distributors.

Consumers

We were only able to actually discuss Hawken with two consumers who have used the brand for any length of time. One of these was a convenience store manager (male about 55 years old). This man was supplied with samples on a regular basis for at least four or five weeks. By this time me had developed a taste for Hawken and now believes the flavor and taste last longer than SKOAL, the brand he used before Hawken. The second consumer was a 12 year old male and his mother. He states, and it was confirmed by his mother, that all other brands of mouth tobacco he had tried to use would make him sick. This included SKOAL, HAPPY DAYS MINT, and several brands of scrap. He felt the cause with SKOAL, and HAPPY DAYS MINT was the brands were too hard to use, he could never keep them together. Scrap produced too much juice and he swallowed too much. He also felt Hawken's flavor lasted longer. A very interesting observation -- his mother was delighted he had finally found a mouth tobacco he could use. During my questioning of this lady evident that she believes mouth tobacco is the least harmful of many habits her son could develop; therefore, she openly encourages him to chew. The price made no difference to these two consumers.

Retailers

....

These retailers all agree that the majority of Hawken is being used by young kids and young adults. The age of the kids is from 9 years old and up. I believe this to be true because outlets located close to schools (all grades) are definitely the heavier Hawken outlets we visited. Several retailers indicated that price was a factor with the young kids. Also, the people who knew about mouth tobaccos felt the sweet taste was a definite factor with the kids. No retailer expressed any problem with the lower price of Hawken. They all state their mark-up is the same percentage as on SKOAL and other tobaccos.

....

[see the documents at Tobacco Documents Online]

[thanks to Anne Landman for uncovering this]

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