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{{#badges: tobaccowiki | GlobalCorpWiki}}
'''Altria Group''', formerly [[Philip Morris]], is the world's largest [[tobacco company]]. In the U.S. it controls about half of the tobacco market. In 2007 Altria spun off its food division [[Kraft|Kraft Foods Inc.]] (Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Maxwell House). <ref>[http://www.hoovers.com/altria/--ID__11179--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml Altria Profile], ''Hoovers'', accessed August 2007.</ref> Altria brand names include cigarette brands [[Marlboro]], Basic, Chesterfield, Lark, L&M, Parliament and Virginia Slims. Altria Corporate Services used to be known as [[Philip Morris Management Corporation]]. It provides services, including legal services, to all Altria group entities.<ref>United States Department of Justice [http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ozv07a00 Factual memorandum] Order #470, Section 5. August 16, 2004. Philip Morris Bates No. 5001083663/500108371</ref> Altria Group's primary holdings until 2007 included [[Philip Morris]] companies as well as [[Kraft Foods]]. Philip Morris International is an international tobacco company that has seven of the top 20 global cigarette brands. Click here to see a [[History of Philip Morris]]
==Conviction in U.S. racketeering lawsuit==
On Thursday, November 15, 2001 Philip Morris Companies, Inc. issued a press release saying the company intended to ask its shareholders to approve a change of the company's name to Altria Group, Inc. Philip Morris Companies operates Miller Brewing, [[Kraft]] General Foods, Bird's Eye, Louis Rich and other well-known food subsidiaries in addition to manufacturing cigarettes. PM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, [[Geoffrey C. Bible]], said he proposed the name change for two reasons: "a need for clarity," and "the evolution of Philip Morris Companies Inc." However, a corporate marketing strategy document was written by [[Landor Associates]] (a market positioning strategy consulting firm) for Philip Morris (PM) in December, 1993 by an "identity consultant" as part of PM's "Identity Development Program" provides early evidence that PM was attempting to escape the stigma of selling tobacco products by attempting to "re-position" its image in consumers' minds. The document concludes that the key to escaping the damaging association with tobacco was changing the name of the company.
According Landor Associates, chief among the problems caused by PM's close identification with cigarettes were the following:
* "As awareness of tobacco issues increase, Philip Morris increasingly reacts/defends."
The document also describes PM's "Future Business Focus" as "Away from declining, high risk, tobacco business" and towards the image of a "premier brand management company." According to the plan, the re-positioned company should be "Not tobacco related" and have "no negative connotations."[http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/qiv24e00]
Interestingly, the first "target audience" Landor listed for the corporate "re-positioning" was its employees, indicating that PM's employee morale was suffering, most likely possibly from the stigma of working for a tobacco company.
On January 27, 2003 Philip Morris (PM) officially completed the change of its corporate name to "Altria Group." PM claimed publicly that there were two reasons for the change, the same reasons CEO Geoffry Bible had stated earlier. One was to avoid public "confusion" between its two branches (the domestic company Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International, which sells cigarettes outside the U.S.), and the other was "to reflect the evolution of our enterprise and to set a platform for more evolution in the future." Privately, however, the name change was done for quite different reasons.