The importance of building a brand is something that just doesn’t sink in to many people, while many spend years chasing that elusive something that makes a brand work. Then of course there are the brands that are so simple that their success is legendary. The Marlboro brand is one such image.

The tobacco industry has taken a pretty hefty beating over the past few years, as lawmakers have forced tobacco companies to stop advertising in all sorts of venues. Through all of this, most of the cancer stick people have packed up and gone home. Not Marlboro though, as their brand image is one of the strongest in history.

Just as we all recognize Pepsi without the words, people around the world don’t need to see the word Marlboro to recognize the red and white logo. With that in mind, Marlboro will continue to sponsor the Ferrari F1 team, without the name. Chances are, that this technique will work for years to come and it should be close to impossible for the legal teams to legislate against colour schemes. Think about it. Anyone who was even remotely interested in racing 20 years or more ago still equates black and gold with the JPS brand and they’ve been out of the sport for 2 decades.

Now if some of the world’s car manufacturers could just figure this out, they’d do a much better job selling cars.

Via GrandPrix.com