Tobacco Marketing
By exposing the tobacco industry’s current marketing strategies, we can stop them in their tracks.
“From the 1950s to the present, different defendants, at different times and using different methods, have intentionally marketed to young people under the age of twenty-one in order to recruit ‘replacement smokers’ to ensure the economic future of the tobacco industry.”
—U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler Final Opinion, United States v. Philip Morris
Tobacco Industry Marketing:
Making products sweet, cheap and easy to get
To successfully recruit new young smokers and keep as many current smokers as possible, tobacco companies need to keep their deadly products affordable, accessible and attractive. Understanding how they do that means taking a closer look at how they manipulate what is known as the Four P’s of marketing: Product Price, the Product itself, Promotion strategies and Place of sale.
Price
According to the Surgeon General, raising the price of tobacco products is one of the most effective strategies for preventing young people from starting, reducing the amount of tobacco used, and increasing the number of people who quit. Steps New York State has taken include having the highest state cigarette tax in the nation, sales tax on e-cigarette products (one of 23 states), and prohibiting retailers from accepting discounts and coupons for tobacco products.
Package size
The Food and Drug Administration requires cigarettes to be sold in pack sizes of no less than 20 which keeps the price per pack reasonably high. Other tobacco products (also known as OTPs) are not included in this regulation, leaving products such as cigars, cigarillos, smokeless tobacco, and loose tobacco to be sold at cheaper and more tempting prices such as the products pictured to the left: Swisher Sweets priced at 2 for 99¢ and the Show Cigarillos at 5 for $1.
Promising Practices Guide
To involve your local youth, find a local RC Coordinator
Resources
The tobacco industry understands the relationship between price and consumption so it has developed strategies including coupons and multipack discounts to make tobacco products more affordable. Coupons directly reduce the price of a product at the point of sale while a multipack discount is a promotional tool that includes the sale of multiple packages or products for one price such as a buy one, get one free offer.
Price discounting undermines the impact of tobacco taxes and New York’s strong tobacco control policies. New York City has passed legislation to ban the use of coupons and multipack discounts.
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