Wills Classic (or Imperial Classic as it is known in some countries) is a range of cigarettes in India, currently owned and manufactured by

ITC Limited ITC Limited is an Indian conglomerate company headquartered in Kolkata. ITC has a diversified presence across industries such as FMCG, hotels, software, packaging, paperboards, specialty papers and agribusiness. The company has 13 businesses in ...

. Outside of India, it is manufactured by

Imperial Tobacco Imperial Brands plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mo ...

Overview

Classic Filter Kings is a cigarette brand with a number of variants. The first Classic variant was launched in India by ITC Limited in 1979. At the time the Indian cigarette market was mainly dominated by plains and Regular Size Filter Tipped, with king size contributing barely 5% of the total

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...

History

Advertisement - Classic Filter Kings circa 1979

Classic was launched in 1979 and advertised as a premium brand. The company used nostalgic, anglicised language in its advertisements. It became popular in the metro areas in India, especially in the north and in the east.

1990s

During the late 1990s, the image was changed to become more global. The cigarette size was increased from 83mm to 84mm and the diameter from 24.5mm to 24.75mm. The paper quality was also improved upon. Classic Ultra Milds were introduced in 1997 The different brand variants were sold in packages with different colors. The brand was connected to sponsorships including

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific go ...

and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

. These were targeted at Westernized affluent smokers of the SEC A category. In 1996, the company began to incorporate music in their advertising, producing limited edition music packs, as well as other limited edition packs on the themes of polo and racing.

2000s

In the 2000s, ITC Limited launched new variants, including the slimmed version Classic Verve, as well as cigaretted flavoured with menthol, lemon, or tea. In 2015, the company started producing capsule cigarettes, which contained a capsule adds extra flavour to the cigarette. In 2016, the brand launched an innovation called Classic Low Smell

Markets

Wills Classic is mainly sold in India, but has also been sold in Paraguay, United Kingdom, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia, Albania, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, and Australia.

Products

Classic brands marketed in India include * Classic Rich Taste (formerly Classic Regular) * Classic Balanced Taste (Formerly Classic Milds) * Classic Refined taste (formerly Classic Ultra Milds) * Classic Blue Leaf * Classic Verve * Classic Verve Low Smell * Classic Ice-burst * Classic Double Burst * Classic Low Smell * Classic Connect

References

{{Imperial Tobacco Indian cigarette brands Imperial Brands brands Companies based in Kolkata 1979 establishments in West Bengal ITC Limited