‘The last line of marketing’: Covert tobacco marketing tactics as revealed by former tobacco industry employees

ABSTRACT

In countries with bans on tobacco advertising and promotion, tobacco companies have focused their promotional expenditure on business-to-business relationship marketing activities aimed at retailers. However, evidence of such activities has been obtained through secondary sources only, including surveys and interviews with tobacco retailers and analyses of tobacco industry documents. To understand the breadth of promotional strategies employed in the retail sector to enhance tobacco sales, 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of key informants who formerly worked for tobacco companies operating in Australia. A qualitative iterative approach was used to develop a thematic analysis of tobacco brand promotion and retailer marketing. Participants described tobacco retail marketing and promotion strategies that were categorised into three primary themes: (1) the provision of financial incentives, such as price promotions, cash payments and rebates; (2) the provision of experiential incentives, such as all-expenses paid vacations, exclusive parties and events, and (3) targeted marketing and education, which enabled retailers to market to consumers on behalf of tobacco companies. Such strategies had the ultimate objective of increasing market share and driving sales. For countries to comprehensively restrict all tobacco marketing, legislation must be introduced to outlaw these activities in tobacco advertising and promotion legislation.

KEYWORDS:

• Tobacco control
• health policy
• tobacco industry
• tobacco advertising and promotion
• commercial determinants of health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors. Ms. Watts reports being employed by Cancer Council New South Wales during the conduct of the study. Dr. Freeman has received research grants from Australia Department of Health, NSW Department of Health, Cancer Institute NSW, NHMRC Australia, Cancer Council Victoria, and honorariums from the Department of Health, Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and BMJ Tobacco Control. She has conducted consultancy work for WHO and Heart Foundation NSW.

Additional information

Funding

This work was conducted with funding from Cancer Council New South Wales, to cover the cost of the $50 gift cards provided to each participant for a reimbursement of their time, and for the interview transcription service.