Yet RJR was able to slow Doral''s steady decline in the fourth quarter by grabbing share from GPC through price and merchandising incentives. Popular product changes like packing more tobacco into sticks for a longer burn, as well as the Doral & Co. loyalty program, also helped. Still, some maintain that EDLP protected Doral by nudging cheaper brands off shelves. "A lot of cigarette companies have major problems with EDLP," said one retailer. "Commonwealth is one company made to suffer for it. If [Commonwealth] wanted us to put their Montclairs on deep discount, we''d have to turn them down because we''d go under the Everyday Low Price."The program has prompted fifth-placed Liggett Group to file an antitrust suit against RJR. Reynolds has also been on the plaintiff side of the court room, joining forces with B&W and Lorillard in a 1999 suit accusing Philip Morris of forcing retailers to give its brands choice shelf positions.PM and RJR contend their incentive programs enable retailers to better manage inventories while minimizing out-of-stocks. Neither demands exclusivity or takes away a store owner''s prerogative to carry competing brands.

Driving his and other retailers'' decisions are incentives given for top brands like Marlboro, with its dominant 38% market share in the first quarter, per company figures. Those who don''t receive some of the lucrative buydowns and promotions risk seeing consumers flock to participating stores where the brand is cheaper.A similar phenomenon is occurring with RJR''s Everyday Low Pricing program. EDLP stipulates that retailers stock a Reynolds deep discount brand, like Best Value or Monarch, and ensure that no other cigarette in the store will undercut its price. Doing so earns participants an extra dollar buydown on Doral, the branded savings smoke whose market share fell 0.5% to 6.2% last year thanks to cheaper, deep-discount brands, also dubbed "fourth-tier" cigarettes because they rank below private-label, branded savings and full-priced premium smokes.Fourth-tier cigarette producers, particularly foreign manufacturers not subject to huge MSA outlays, are discounted as low as $16 a carton, versus $21 a carton for branded savings cigarettes. While premium brands were able to boost market share slightly to 74.2% last year, branded savings cigarettes--including B&W''s GPC, RJR''s Doral and Philip Morris'' Basic--slid as consumers traded down to the cheaper alternatives.

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