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Cigarette stick as valuable communicative real estate: a content analysis of cigarettes from 14 low-income and middle-income countries

BACKGROUND: The current cigarette market is heavily focused on low-income and middle-income countries. Branding of tobacco products is key to establishing and maintaining a customer base. Greater restrictions on marketing and advertising of tobacco products create an incentive for companies to focus...

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Autores principales: C Smith, Katherine, Washington, Carmen, Welding, Kevin, Kroart, Laura, Osho, Adami, Cohen, Joanna E
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5574399/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27534777
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053148
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author C Smith, Katherine
Washington, Carmen
Welding, Kevin
Kroart, Laura
Osho, Adami
Cohen, Joanna E
author_facet C Smith, Katherine
Washington, Carmen
Welding, Kevin
Kroart, Laura
Osho, Adami
Cohen, Joanna E
author_sort C Smith, Katherine
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The current cigarette market is heavily focused on low-income and middle-income countries. Branding of tobacco products is key to establishing and maintaining a customer base. Greater restrictions on marketing and advertising of tobacco products create an incentive for companies to focus more on branding via the product itself. We consider how tobacco sticks are used for communicative purposes in 14 low-income and middle-income countries with extensive tobacco markets. METHODS: In 2013, we collected and coded 3232 cigarette and kretek packs that were purchased from vendors in diverse neighbourhoods in 44 cities across the 14 low-income and middle-income countries with the greatest number of smokers. A single stick from each pack was assessed for branding, decorative and communicative elements using a common coding framework. Stick communication variables included brand name, brand image/logo, brand descriptor, colour and design carried through from pack, ‘capsule cigarette’ symbol, and embellishment of filter end. RESULTS: Communication and branding on the stick is essentially ubiquitous (99.75%); 97% of sticks include explicit branding (brand name or logo present). Colour is commonly carried through from the pack (95%), and some sticks (13%) include decorative elements matching the pack. Decorative elements can be found anywhere on the stick, including the filter tip (8%), and ‘convertible’ cigarettes include a symbol to show where to push. CONCLUSIONS: Cigarette sticks are clearly valuable ‘real estate’ that tobacco companies are using for communicative purposes. Across all countries and brands, the stick communicates branding via text, colour and imagery.
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spelling pubmed-55743992017-09-06 Cigarette stick as valuable communicative real estate: a content analysis of cigarettes from 14 low-income and middle-income countries C Smith, Katherine Washington, Carmen Welding, Kevin Kroart, Laura Osho, Adami Cohen, Joanna E Tob Control Brief Report BACKGROUND: The current cigarette market is heavily focused on low-income and middle-income countries. Branding of tobacco products is key to establishing and maintaining a customer base. Greater restrictions on marketing and advertising of tobacco products create an incentive for companies to focus more on branding via the product itself. We consider how tobacco sticks are used for communicative purposes in 14 low-income and middle-income countries with extensive tobacco markets. METHODS: In 2013, we collected and coded 3232 cigarette and kretek packs that were purchased from vendors in diverse neighbourhoods in 44 cities across the 14 low-income and middle-income countries with the greatest number of smokers. A single stick from each pack was assessed for branding, decorative and communicative elements using a common coding framework. Stick communication variables included brand name, brand image/logo, brand descriptor, colour and design carried through from pack, ‘capsule cigarette’ symbol, and embellishment of filter end. RESULTS: Communication and branding on the stick is essentially ubiquitous (99.75%); 97% of sticks include explicit branding (brand name or logo present). Colour is commonly carried through from the pack (95%), and some sticks (13%) include decorative elements matching the pack. Decorative elements can be found anywhere on the stick, including the filter tip (8%), and ‘convertible’ cigarettes include a symbol to show where to push. CONCLUSIONS: Cigarette sticks are clearly valuable ‘real estate’ that tobacco companies are using for communicative purposes. Across all countries and brands, the stick communicates branding via text, colour and imagery. BMJ Publishing Group 2017-09 2016-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC5574399/ /pubmed/27534777 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053148 Text en Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/ This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
spellingShingle Brief Report
C Smith, Katherine
Washington, Carmen
Welding, Kevin
Kroart, Laura
Osho, Adami
Cohen, Joanna E
Cigarette stick as valuable communicative real estate: a content analysis of cigarettes from 14 low-income and middle-income countries
title Cigarette stick as valuable communicative real estate: a content analysis of cigarettes from 14 low-income and middle-income countries
title_full Cigarette stick as valuable communicative real estate: a content analysis of cigarettes from 14 low-income and middle-income countries
title_fullStr Cigarette stick as valuable communicative real estate: a content analysis of cigarettes from 14 low-income and middle-income countries
title_full_unstemmed Cigarette stick as valuable communicative real estate: a content analysis of cigarettes from 14 low-income and middle-income countries
title_short Cigarette stick as valuable communicative real estate: a content analysis of cigarettes from 14 low-income and middle-income countries
title_sort cigarette stick as valuable communicative real estate: a content analysis of cigarettes from 14 low-income and middle-income countries
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5574399/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27534777
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053148
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