After a few days with Hepburn, Shen returned to Las Vegas and asked Tom Hagen to investigate the current situation of the world's tobacco companies, which he now prefers to stay in rather than New York.

The results of the investigation were a bit unexpected, the cigarettes that are selling well in the world today are not the ones he was familiar with, but Camel, Lucky and Chesterfield, Marlboro, which will become the world's No. 1 cigarette, is now just a less-known women's cigarette, and British American Tobacco products such as Hilton and 555 are now struggling to recover from the impact of World War II.

Among them, the camel cigarettes belong to the Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston, North Carolina, and the elder Reynolds is very good at influencing and promoting, making the desert camel pattern a household name, and it is the most well-known cigarette brand today.

Haocai cigarettes belong to another company in the United States, which is the oldest cigarette brand in the world, under the operation of the company's boss, it has become a special cigarette for the American army, and with the progress of World War II, like Coca-Cola, Haocai cigarettes have also traveled all over the world with the footprints of American GIs; In the TV series "Band of Brothers", those soldiers draw good luck.

Chesterfield, on the other hand, belonged to the Philip Morris Tobacco Company, which was founded in London, entered the U.S. market, survived the dismantling of tobacco trusts by the U.S. government, and launched affordable cigarettes during the economic crisis, and is now competing with Reynolds Tobacco and Myers Tobacco Co.

Marlboro is also a brand of Philip Morris, which has since become the world's number one tobacco company and has expanded its tentacles into other areas; In 2003, the company changed its name to Altria Group, which owns many well-known brands such as Marlboro cigarettes, Kraft Foods, Maxwell Coffee, Merlot Beer, etc., and 7-Up Beverage was once under the control of this company, and the company has long been in the forefront of the world's top 500 companies, which is an out-and-out behemoth.

Today, the main share of the United States and even the world market is Reynolds Tobacco Company, Morris Tobacco Company, British American Tobacco Company, Imperial Tobacco Company, Calaich Tobacco Company, etc., the latter of which are British companies, because of World War II, the company's performance has been greatly affected.

In other words, now is a good opportunity to enter the tobacco market, Shen Long knocked on the table, "Tom, go and ask Philip Morris Company, does the Marlboro brand sell?" By the way, what is the background of this company? He had seen a classic Marlboro marketing plan and felt that it was much more convenient to use it directly than to re-establish the brand himself.

"They have some ties to the Boston consortium and the Morgan consortium; Philip Morris is headquartered in Virginia, a Boston consortium of influences, and they have partnered with Morgan on a number of mergers and acquisitions. Tom reported that if you want to make the company bigger in the United States, you can't avoid these consortia, "Do you want to enter the tobacco industry?" This is a strange business, isn't it more cautious? ”

"The familiar industry has long been occupied, and companies such as British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco are in a period of decline, and now is a good opportunity to enter this field; Help me make an appointment with the Rockefeller Consortium and the California Consortium, and I'm going to talk to them. Since the other party has the shadow of the Boston Consortium and the Morgan Consortium behind him, Shen Long has brought in other consortiums to cooperate.

Philip Giannini, the representative of the California consortium, and George Tormond, the representative of the Rockefeller consortium, arrived quickly, and Shen Long took out cigarettes rolled in charr tobacco and handed them to them; The filter was invented as early as 1925, but it has not yet become mainstream, and it was not until 1955 that Marlboro changed to a filter version.

"It tastes good, it doesn't taste as choking as other tobaccos, and the taste is very fresh, which is very suitable for high-end occasions." George and Philip tried to take a few puffs and spoke highly of the cigarette, "Fredo, is this the capital you plan to enter the tobacco industry?" The Rockefeller consortium is willing to work with you, and it just so happens that we have a couple of small tobacco production plants in North Carolina that you can take a stake in if you can come up with a complete solution. ”

"If the plan is right, we have some tobacco fields in Kentucky that I can use to take a stake." George and Philip made a quick decision, they were more optimistic about the prospects of this business, and at the same time, they valued Shen Long's judgment more, since the two sides began to cooperate, Shen Long has never made a mistake.

North Carolina and Kentucky are the largest tobacco growing states in the United States, long before the founding of the United States, some immigrants began to grow tobacco in these two states, and today, these two states account for more than seventy percent of the total production of tobacco in the United States, and most of the famous tobacco companies in the United States are also gathered here, such as Reynolds Tobacco, which is now the number one in the United States.

"I have a report that I asked a few professors at Stanford to do, so you can take a look at it first." Shen Long threw over a document, which he commissioned several experts to do during his time in Hollywood, and the focus of the research was on the harmful substances contained in tobacco, and the object of the research was the most popular cigarettes such as camel and good color on the market today.

"According to scientific research, cigarettes contain nicotine, nicotine, tar and other harmful substances, which can easily cause lung cancer and many other diseases." If it weren't for Shen Long's reminder, in 1950, Reader's Digest would have posted a large number of articles pointing out that smoking was harmful to health, which caused a turmoil in the tobacco industry.

"And the new tobacco I got has a lower content of harmful substances than all kinds of tobacco on the market today, plus the filter filter, the harm is much less; I believe that with this, we can be invincible in the competition, and the only thing we need to consider is how big the cake will be. "In the real world, Shen Long can only rely on legal means to protect his tobacco varieties, and here, whoever dares to do this, his killers will have a good talk with each other.

Don't think that Shen Long is a serious businessman, well, it's not right, DuPont, Rockefeller, these big conglomerates did not do this kind of thing to kill people because of business competition at the beginning of their careers, and now he is just learning from him, this is an excellent tradition of big American capitalists, and it must be maintained.

"When I get back, I'll let our lab do the research, and if it's confirmed, I'll help you convince Morris to transfer the Marlboro brand to the new company we co-founded." George put away the papers, "By the way, Fredo, why do you have to Marlboro?" ”

。 Sogou