Peter Stuyvesant

"The German campaign linked the notion of pleasure with international travel. It was enthusiastically promoted by Fritz Bühler, a marketing expert from Basle appointed by Reemtsma to design a dynamic German version of the ‘international passport’ theme. He encapsulated it in the slogan ‘Der Duft der grossen weiten Welt’ (The aroma of the great wide world). It was dead right for Germany. Here was a nation hemmed in by other countries on all sides, with only a short coastline in the north. For their holidays they poured across their borders. ‘As an escape from unpleasant wartime memories and the unpleasant past, Peter Stuyvesant conveyed to young and old the idea of easily achievable affluence and hope beyond their borders,’ relates Rupert. Aeroplanes became a regular feature of Stuyvesant ads at a time when air travel was little more than a dream to impoverished Germans."

"The launching of Peter Stuyvesant makes a perfect case study of marketing ingenuity. With the choice of the name, the design of the packet, and the advertising and marketing the aim was ‘to create a youthful and dynamic image for a new, young international product at home in the whole world’. Rupert tells that a team of bright young salesmen, with the right appearance and dressed appropriately, were selected to sell the dynamic new product. For maximum effect, each new town and city was invaded by a convoy of panel vans emblazoned with the Peter Stuyvesant packet and the slogan that became world-famous: ‘International passport to smoking pleasure.’ The new cigarette was so popular that during the launch in the Netherlands, the vans were besieged in the street by customers begging for stock for their local tobacconist. And the marketing was so effective that the group even received letters from customers wanting to procure the ‘international passport’!"

"The phenomenal success of Peter Stuyvesant helped Rupert to lay the foundations of a business empire that would stretch across the globe. An important development at the end of the 1950s involved the British cigarette company Carreras, which had been outmanoeuvred by Rembrandt when they bought Rothmans."

"Rupert made a thorough study of the post-war market. Apart from the preference for new brands, he identified three motives that were inherent in the ‘German character’: Heimweh (nostalgia for home), Lebenschmerz (lit. ‘existential sorrow’, melancholy) and Fernweh (longing for faraway places). Whereas the Peter Stuyvesant brand, with its cosmopolitan image, would clearly not appeal to Heimweh, it played right into the hands of Fernweh. Rupert emphasises that Stuyvesant’s theme radiated ‘joy of living’, something similar to the old motto Kraft durch Freude (Power through Joy)."

"Within days of the grand opening, most people in South Africa had heard of The Beverly Hills. It became an instant “must-see/must-visit” destination, even to the many who could not afford it. “If they can’t afford it, they can fucking dream about it,” Sol would mutter while lighting yet another Peter Stuyvesant."