Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco

Blackwell and his company's tactics with the brand paved the way for other corporations to succeed through the acquisition of the Bull Durham trademark.

The two owners partnered in 1878 with Julian Carr, a North Carolina native and UNC graduate, to create one-third ownership for each man.

Blackwell, Day, and Carr's success can be attributed to the use of sound business practices, the creation and implementation of new technologies, and an extremely innovative advertising campaign.

In the beginning years of the Blackwell Company, they did not have enough of a work force or big enough facilities to fulfill the huge demand for their product.

The factory brought more jobs to the city, creating a need for increased housing, public services, and other necessities.

[5] No longer needing to ship tobacco from Virginia, the company expanded easily,[1] continuing to boost commerce in Durham.

An example of this is the invention and implementation of the “Bull Jack,” a machine that fills, labels, and weighs bags of tobacco.

[1] Blackwell sold his shares next for a total of 300,000 dollars in 1883 to larger companies that would continue to promote the “Bull Durham” brand.

[1] Large advertising campaigns at the time were considered to be extremely risky and fruitless in meriting more sales.

Bull Durham ads proved this theory wrong, however, as the various campaigns became some of the most successful of the time and paved the way for modern-day advertising.

Green and later the Blackwell Company established the bull as the logo for "Genuine Durham Smoking Tobacco" in order to help do this.

This helped to protect against trademark infringements, a very common occurrence due to the wild success of "Genuine Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco".

The repetition of the bull and the wide circulation of these advertisements in a single newspaper or magazine quickly made the product a household name.

The campaign came at an ideal time, as product sales were low due to the competition against the emerging pre-rolled cigarette.

[12] These ads appeared around the time of the Great Depression and showed the low price of only a nickel per bag as well as an elegant scene with finely dressed, upper class looking people.

The Blackwell Company also ran a coupon campaign that offered “free” goods to the consumers of the Bull Durham brand.

This advertising style was unique for its time and increased sales as people had double the incentive to buy the product.

When the brand was in American Tobacco’s control, they continued Blackwell’s success with advertising and implemented even more innovative campaigns.

It is believed that this close link between Bull Durham and Tobacco may have triggered the creation of such words as bullpen.

[14] American gave a 50-dollar prize to any player that hit the bull sign set up within the walls of the outfield.

[14] This advertising campaign generated much publicity and was highly successful, despite American Tobacco having to give away over $23,400 worth of goods.

This, while a large sum of money for the time, is only about 5 cents given away to the baseball players for every 700 sacks of Bull Durham that were sold.

[15] The target audience, publicity generated, and consistency proved to make the “Hit the Bull” campaign an extremely successful venture.