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In the face of continuing long-term decline in the total number of cigarettes sold, 49bn in 2006 compared to 51bn in 2005, sales of cigarettes at the budget...

As smokers can no longer show off their 'status' packs of Marlboro or Camel in the pub, many are turning to cheaper ones, writes Mark Choueke.

For anti-smoking campaigners, it may prove the ultimate victory: the last vestiges of glamour are being extinguished from an industry that has long prided itself on powerful brands and savvy marketing.

The imminent smoking ban in England and Wales is encouraging tobacco companies to chase each other downmarket with cut-price brands - even own-label varieties from shops such as Spar are being launched. If no one can see what you smoke in the pub, why bother paying a premium for an aspirational label?

It is a far cry from the days when Marlboro man ruled the roost. But smokers, a once loyal and resilient bunch, are switching to these brands rapidly to avoid being out of pocket as UK cigarette prices approach the ?6 mark for a pack of 20.

The trend toward "downtrading" has accelerated as marketers feel the impact of the advertising ban slapped on the tobacco industry in 2004. Few companies expect to launch high-end brands at all.

An industry executive admits: "It is now much harder to launch a premium brand with no way to communicate the brand's strengths and no heritage to use as leverage. At least a budget brand can find a position in the market using its cut-price as the draw."

Instead, all recent brand launches into the tobacco industry have come at the value end of the market where there is plenty of market growth and brand-building is minimal - Imperial Tobacco's Windsor Blue and Gallaher's Sterling brands are cases in point. Both have been leapt upon by consumers wishing to save their money. Price has replaced brand identity and smoothness of taste as the main driver of cigarette sales.

In the face of continuing long-term decline in the total number of cigarettes sold, 49bn in 2006 compared to 51bn in 2005, sales of cigarettes at the budget end of the market grew by three quarters between 2001 and 2005 while sales in the premium category fell.

Those premium brands traditionally dominated the sector but now account for just 28 per cent of the market compared to value and economy brands which hold a 42 per cent market share.

Expensive brands will survive however and continue to make profit for retailers through innovation. Gallaher introduced 14-cigarette packs for its Benson & Hedges and Camel brands, believing the average smoker to get through 14 sticks a day. The company also recently introduced line extensions such as Silk Cut Graphite and the enticing sounding Camel Natural Flavour.

While one wonders what Camel smokers will make of this tacit admission that their cigarette brand has lacked in natural flavours all this time, it is clear the trading of new products under established names will continue, albeit under attack.

The ban on smoking in public places, which already exists in Ireland and Scotland and hits Wales within weeks and England in months, will continue to harm the cache of the tobacco industry's top cigarette brands. Though cigarette makers admit that downtrading has happened and is on-going, they insist that the trend has not eroded brand loyalty, which they say is still "significant". But anecdotal evidence from the Scottish experience and other cities such as New York where the smoking ban is already in action suggests while smoking may have gained in visibility due to more people smoking on the street, brands are less visible and perhaps therefore, less important.

Smokers are said to be moving between pubs more frequently when they go out and having a drink in each place rather than staying in one bar all night. This way they can have a quick smoke en route to their next chosen venue. In a pleasing twist of irony, this will probably result in smokers getting more exercise than non-smokers on an average night out, but another outcome is cigarette packs won't be on show as much. Rather than your pack of Marlboro Lights, Lucky Strikes or Silk Cut sitting proudly on the pub table alongside your mobile phone, it will probably stay in your coat pocket most of the night.

If such "badges" as branding expert Graham Hales refers to cigarette brands, aren't going to be on display, you might as well switch to Australian brand Winfield or Sky, Spar's own-label fag brand, both of which retail at under ?4, rare bargains in today's market.

Hales, an executive director of branding consultancy Interbrand, says: "Cigarette brands traditionally said a lot about you, as did your beer or jeans brand. Brands had distinct tastes and smokers trained themselves to enjoy a certain type. Smokers belonged loosely to clubs according to what pack they carried.