One of the strategies Philip Morris international uses is joint venturing. In 2009 they entered into a joint venture with China National Tobacco. It helped them introduce Marlboro to China. Sales jumped !3% to 26 billion and profits rose 14% to 7 billion. Another strategy they've used is direct investment in Indonesia. They came in with a gorilla marketing strategy and placed ads everywhere.
On billboards, held events plastering the logo. Made 2.7 billion and only invested 220 million. Philip Morris now makes up 84% of Indonesian tobacco sales. Japan and Europe are other areas of interest. Plus China alone has 1/3 of the worlds tobacco users, so it would be advantageous to tap into that market. Philip Morris only has 16% of the global market. Some of their competitors are Altria Group, and British American Tobacco. With Altria being their biggest competition at 42% of the global market. The barriers are the governments in these countries are starting to recognize the bad effects of smoking. So what the governments are doing is issuing tax hikes and marketing restrictions. Also dealing with the anti smoking campaigns funded by billionaires.