Cigarettes have negative health impacts that affect many of their consumers. This is a weakness of the industry for many reasons. Selling a product that is harmful creates negative feelings and is a public relations problem. Additionally, smokers who suffer from tobacco-related illnesses have incentives to stop using the product. All of the top tier firms, except CNTC, score a 1 for this factor, as to date, none of them have successfully found the “safe” cigarette.
CNTC scores a 2 because, again, their relationship with the state and the revenue they provide for the government allows them some level of protection. In addition to the sheer size and growing population of their protected market allows them to find new smokers. That being said, CNTC is still impacted by this weakness, and as the standard of living increases in China and consumers become more educated about the dangers of
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An EFE analysis of the top tier firms identifies the major opportunities and threats present in their external environment, weights the importance of these factors, and determines a score for each firm based on how well the company is taking advantage of opportunities in the marketplace, and responding to threats.
The following opportunities and threats were identified in the tobacco products industry. All of these factors are considered industry-wide opportunities and threats. Each firm is scored on a scale of 1-4 for both sets of factors, unlike the IFE where only 3s and 4s could be scored for strengths and 1s and 2s for weaknesses. An average score is still considered 2.5. Any score above this indicates success in taking advantage of opportunities, and mitigating or avoiding threats. A score below 2.5 means that a firm is below average in working within their external