Chapter 48 Cigarettes (2)

  "These cigarettes, due to their different grades, have varying circumferences. This is the simplest way for tobacco companies to grade cigarettes. The higher the grade of the cigarette, the larger its circumference will be, and naturally, its price will also increase."

  For something as simple as common sense, if he doesn't even understand these things, how can Staudenmaier be considered a seasoned smoker. Not to mention that Staudenmaier used to work for British American Tobacco in the past.

  "Hehe! Ji Yuan is right, there's just a slight difference in thickness, but it's not obvious. The circumference of the cigarette is used by various companies to grade their cigarettes, and this is something that Shidao Mu didn't get wrong. However, as everyone can see, the 28mm regular cigarette and the 31mm high-end cigarette have circumferences that are almost indistinguishable if you don't look closely."

  Simma held up two cigarettes and said to everyone, indeed if you don't look carefully, no one will notice these subtle differences.

  "Now, whether it's British American Tobacco or other foreign and domestic tobacco companies, the length of their cigarettes is between 70mm to 72mm. The ring gauge specifications are quite chaotic, with different cigarette factories producing cigarettes with ring gauges of 25mm, 26mm, 26.5mm, 27mm, 27.5mm, 28mm, 29.5mm, and 31mm. To differentiate ourselves from them, the best approach is to think creatively in this aspect."

  At the very beginning when Sima decided to set up a cigarette factory, he had already thought of using this method to occupy the market. This method is very simple, but at the same time it is also very effective. Of course, the cost will increase by that much. Sima believes that whether it is the people of 1915 or the people of the 21st century, in most cases they will fall for this trick.

  "High-end cigarettes increase the amount of tobacco by increasing the circumference, but in fact, it is also possible to distinguish from the most common 25mm cigarette at a glance, and compared with 28mm, no one will notice. Who would carefully compare the thickness of two cigarettes when buying?"

  Sima, who was also a smoker in the past, of course knew that no one would compare the thickness of two cigarettes, and few people cared about these things. In contrast, smokers care more about taste and quality, not obvious differences, which wouldn't be noticed by anyone.

  "There is actually a simple and effective way, for Chinese people! The more affordable things are always better selling, right? So why not make longer cigarettes?"

  Lengthening the cigarette is a simple method thought of by Sima. The thickened feeling given to people is not very obvious, but if the cigarette is lengthened, even if it is made thinner and given to others, it will also give a very practical illusion.

  "We lengthened the ordinary cigarette to 84mm, so our cigarettes are obviously longer than others on the counter. At that time, this obvious extra length of cigarette is a metaphor for the temptation to smokers."

  Chinese people often choose goods that are more affordable, at least seemingly so, especially when their income level is not high. Chinese people's first consideration in choosing goods is whether they are affordable. Just like now, when buying cotton cloth, they will prioritize the fabric with a thicker texture, and it's the same when choosing cigarettes as a consumable item.

  "We lengthen the cigarettes, so the material increases, and the cost also increases."

  All merchants know that they can attract customers by lengthening cigarettes, but simply lengthening cigarettes brings the problem of increased cost, which is obviously not what businessmen want to see. Gao Chuanliang asked out of a businessman's instinct.

  "Haha! This is not a problem, our cigarette machine is the most advanced one currently being tested in the US, with air-jet spinning, and only 0.8 grams of tobacco are used for a 72mm cigarette, while domestic factories generally use around 1.2 grams per cigarette, even if we increase the length, our tobacco usage will not be higher than theirs, in fact, our tobacco cost is still lower than other domestic cigarette manufacturers, this point is not a problem at all."

  Recently, Gao Chuanliang and others did not dig up technical personnel, but they collected information on cigarettes currently on the domestic market. This information is precisely the basis for Sima's decision just now.

  "In the future, our cigarette factory will implement a grading system for cigarette products, dividing them into four levels: A, B, C and D. Within these four levels, we will only produce four brands, making these four brands become well-known products in the domestic cigarette market."

  As a later person, Sima certainly knows what a brand name means. If one brand is done well, it's much stronger than constantly introducing new brands just to be different, just like Sima, from starting to smoke to quitting, he only bought cigarettes of one brand, Marlboro and 555 are both decades-old cigarette brands that sell well all over the world.

  Nowadays, most domestic tobacco companies lack long-term plans, arbitrarily create new and unique products, often use new brand names, once the sales channel is opened, they will cut corners and reduce quality, resulting in a loss of credibility, unsold products, and finally, another new brand name is created, this is how it goes, what's the point of talking about establishing a brand?

  "Our top-grade cigarettes are completely different from others', take a look at these few."

  Simma took out a filtered cigarette, which was specially prepared by Simma. The original vinegar fiber filter tip had been replaced with a half-silk paper filter tip.

  "What... how did an extra paper slip get here?"

  Shi Daomu picked one up and took a look, saying that at the end of the cigarette, there was an additional section of yellowish-brown paper mouth, which was clearly not tobacco, but rather a paper stick similar to silk paper.

  "Young master... this thing looks a bit like a pipe."

  The high-quality dry snuff he often smoked had a slightly finer texture, and the extra paper mouthpiece that came with it was somewhat similar to the jade mouthpiece on his own dry snuff pouch.

  "It's just a cigarette holder, but it has an additional function compared to ordinary holders. It can filter out some toxic substances in the smoke, and more importantly, when people smoke with this filtered holder, they won't accidentally inhale the tobacco fibers that get stuck in their mouths."

  When smoking unfiltered cigarettes, accidentally getting tobacco shreds in his mouth made Sima feel extremely disgusted. Every two puffs of smoke would make him spit twice, which was really uncomfortable.

  "These high-end cigarette smokers are mostly people with status and prestige, they can afford to smoke sixty cents a pack of cigarettes, so it's not worth spending a few more cents to buy filtered cigarettes. These people with status and prestige must feel disgusted when they occasionally get tobacco fibers in their mouths."

  Simma thinks that those who can spend sixty copper coins to buy cigarettes, will not mind spending a few more coins. Spending a few more coins can save a lot of trouble, after all, this cigarette holder is not something that everyone carries with them every day.

  Made with half-crepe paper, it was probably invented by Europeans ten years later, but did not become widespread in Europe, mainly because smokers felt that this cigarette had a "paper taste", and seasoned smokers often disliked this.

  However, compared to the cellulose acetate widely used in later generations, half-silk paper is relatively cheaper, but has a stronger ability to remove tar and nicotine than cellulose acetate.

  In some high-end cigarettes of later generations, some manufacturers introduced a double-layer filter tip, with the front half using crepe paper and the rear half using acetate fiber. This is to remove the "paper taste" while maintaining the ability of crepe paper to remove tar and nicotine.

  But in 1915, before the invention of acetate fibers, this method was abandoned by Zhongnanhai and instead a simpler approach was adopted, leaving about half a centimeter of empty space at the tail end to avoid direct contact with the mulberry bark paper and eliminate the "paper smell" that veteran smokers found objectionable.

  In later years, if it were not for the cellulose acetate filters, paper filtered cigarettes might have been widely accepted as a means of reducing smoke.

  When the first batch of workers in the cigarette factory were receiving perhaps the first electric education in human history in Sima's small Western-style building.

  When Shidao Mu, Liu Jiyuan, Gao Chuanliang and others, along with the workers, saw the mechanical operation teaching on the curtain in Sima's underground room, they were just like Shidao Mu, Liu Jiyuan and the workers who had watched the movie.

  Stunned, they stared at the screen and listened to the sound, never thinking that movies could be used this way, and that movies could actually be used to teach techniques.

  The first time people accepted film education, they obviously didn't learn anything. Everyone was stunned. They didn't learn much from the movie at all.

  For the first time in nearly an hour of human history, through the movie "At least Sima said so, everyone thought so", remote education was conducted for the first time, and the only effect it had was to shock everyone at what they saw before their eyes, but it's a good start anyway. A good start is all that matters. What comes next can come slowly.

  A few days later, after receiving a few days of "remote education", the workers who were somewhat stiffly operating the already installed tobacco cutting machines and cigarette rolling machines produced their first cigarette.

  Simma lit his first cigarette, took a deep drag, and knew he had gotten what he wanted. This way of using teaching CDs to train workers was at least a victory in the first battle.

  This significance to Sima is much more important than producing cigarettes and the like, what's important is that Sima has found a new way to train workers, no longer worrying that although it can't make those workers proficient in the early stage, at least let them know how to use these equipment.

  "Cigarettes for sale! Gentlemen, come and buy a pack of cigarettes! Zhonghua Cigarette Factory's new Peony brand cigarettes, only ten copper coins per pack. This cigarette is at least one section longer than others, and its flavor is absolutely much stronger than those from British-American tobacco factories."

  A few days ago, in Beijing, Tianjin and Zhangjiakou, cigarette stalls, grocery stores and restaurants simultaneously put out two grades of packaged cigarettes launched by the China Tobacco Factory: Red Peony and Yellow Peony.

  At the same time, more than a dozen major cities across the country published a full-page advertisement on the front page of their newspapers on the same day: "Peonies are beautiful, but they rely on green leaves for support. Domestic goods are good, but they rely on fellow citizens to promote them. This is the name of our Peony brand."