Premium Cigars Patterns of Use, Marketing, and Health Effects (2022) / Chapter Skim
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4 Cigar Marketing and Perceptions
4 Cigar Marketing and Perceptions
Pages 135-196
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From page 135... ...
" or "cigars in general" are used in this report, they refer to all cigar types (filtered cigars, little cigars, cigarillos, and large/traditional cigars [which include premium cigars]
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. The committee found no evidence to suggest that the effects of advertising and promotion of premium cigars would differ from that of other tobacco products.
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. Cigar Aficionado expanded the popularity of cigars, helped launch new magazines, and promoted premium cigars in news stories and at social events.
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, these terms may impact harm perceptions, intentions, and use of premium cigars. MARKETING Tobacco marketing, which includes a range of strategies used by the industry to promote its brands and products, is central to how the industry develops positive perceptions to persuade nonusers to initiate use and current users to continue (NCI, 2008)
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. Premium cigars (along with other tobacco products, such as nonpremium cigars, hookah, pipe tobacco, and electronic cigarettes [e-cigarettes]
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Marketing in Print Media Premium cigars have been presented to the public through promotional and marketing activities in print media, which includes direct mailers, magazines, and newspapers. Premium cigars are widely promoted in print and, in recent years, digital cigar lifestyle magazines (e.g., Cigar Aficionado, Cigar Journal, Cigar Snob)
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From page 141... ...
Some of these e-mail ads featured only the brand logo with an image and a description of DJs and musicians without the mention of any premium cigar products. These promotional efforts that highlighted DJs and musicians were part of a larger tobacco industry movement to use music to appeal to consumers.
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states. With higher price points associated with premium cigars, these may be marketed in other venues not obtained 6 Coupons were not identified in the Mintel data, but this does not imply that they do not exist for premium cigars.
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SOURCE: Mintel Comperemedia, 2021 (available in the project's public access file and upon request from the National Academies Public Access Records Office at PARO@nas.edu)
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Although premium cigar brands are generally not using DTC ads, evidence suggests that they are using similar marketing strategies as other cigar brands, such as e-mails to promote non-cigar-specific themes that appeal to young people -- music festivals, urban lifestyle, and hip-hop and rock music. Additional evidence indicates that third-party retailers that primarily sell premium cigars are using DTC to market these products using discount strategies similar to those used by the nonpremium cigar industry, and also alluding to premium cigars as a higher-class product.
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These observations led the committee to conclude that there is conclusive evidence that third-party cigar retailers are using DTC methods to market premium cigars similar to strategies used by the nonpremium cigar industry. Based on its review of print and electronic media advertising data, the committee concludes: Conclusion 4-1: Based on the committee's primary data collection, there is conclusive evidence that third-party cigar retailers use direct-to-consumer methods to market premium cigars using similar strategies as the nonpre mium cigar industry.
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to how the taste of wine is companied by a touch of ripe fruit sweetness" described New cigar trends and innova- Changes to premium cigars, such as the size, tions tobacco source, wrapping techniques, or new 5 (18%) blends of tobacco SOURCE: Commissioned magazine analysis (data available in the project's public access file and upon request from the National Academies Public Access Records Office at PARO@ nas.edu)
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. The frequency of each theme did not differ between ads that featured premium cigars and noncigar products, so the findings present the overall frequency in which these themes appeared (Table 4-3)
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Profession Other (e.g., notable military figures, pundits, writers, CEOs 9 (50%) of premium cigar brands)
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Based on the articles, advertisements, and covers sampled, cigar lifestyle magazines appear to target middle-aged to older white men, featuring themes that emphasized high quality of the product; a luxurious lifestyle that involves premium cigars but also other products, such as vehicles, coffee, and travel, as well as masculinity and success; and cigar use as a fun social activity. New cigar trends and innovations were less frequently featured.
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However, emerging data indicate that nonpremium cigar products (e.g., little cigars and cigarillos) are heavily marketed on social media platforms,
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; one for a premium cigar users advocacy group (Cigar Rights of America) ; and a "Cigar Smoker" app (the authors did not differentiate cigar type, but the example images included premium cigars)
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. Environmental Scan of Premium Cigar Companies' Online Presence Given the dearth of published literature on premium cigar products, the committee conducted an environmental scan and content analysis of premium cigar companies' social media and webpages12 to document and describe the presence of their advertising of their products.
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; • Music content and the genre of music (e.g., pop, hip-hop or rap, dance or electronic, alternative, R&B rock, or other genres) ; • Taste: content that implies smooth taste and/or satisfaction; • Harm reduction: content that implies that premium cigars are safe or less harmful to use than others or are an alternative to quitting smoking; • Quality: content that implies that the product is of high quality, historic, or longer lasting; • Masculinity: content that feature themes, activities, and settings stereotypically considered masculine, such as the outdoors, and activities, such as manual labor or hunting; • Femininity: content that includes encouraging female use of pre mium cigars, such as hashtags like #girlswhosmoke or #girlssmo ketoo; and • Sex appeal, including images or content that shows a "beautiful, glamorous, sophisticated, handsome, or cool-looking individual using tobacco." A descriptive analysis was conducted to assess the online presence of each premium cigar brand and capture the most common selling propositions.
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These findings led the committee to conclude that there is conclusive evidence that premium cigar companies have online and social media presences not captured by traditional methods of tracking marketing expenditures. TABLE 4-4 Online Presence of Premium Cigar Brands (n = 47)
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content analysis of cigar lifestyle magazines; and (4) environmental scan of premium cigar brands' web and social media presence, the committee finds: Finding 4-1: Cigar Aficionado, the first magazine to specifically pro mote premium cigars as a lifestyle, was associated with the rapid increase in premium cigars in the early 1990s and, along with other cigar lifestyle magazines, continues to promote premium cigars.
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Articles that examined premium cigar products are described first in each section. Given the absence of published literature focused exclusively on premium cigars, the literature search and subsequent article review were broadened to include those that described cigar products but did not specify type (such as premium, nonpremium, cigarillo, little filtered cigar)
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Premium cigar events were featured in 12 percent of the articles and included social events, such as cigar smoking, eating gourmet meals and dinners (i.e., Cigar Aficionado's "Big Smoke" dinners) , drinking "premium" alcohol, and the openings of cigar bars, lounges, and shops in the United States and other countries.
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Advertising Promotions for Cigar Brands In response to the lack of articles on advertising promotion and selling propositions for premium cigars, the committee broadened its search to include cigar products in general (i.e., not specifying premium, nonpremium, cigarillo, or little filtered cigar but instead using the broader term "cigar")
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content analysis of Cigar Aficionado and Smoke examined the presence of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) or scientific research and the health effects of premium cigars.
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. Advertising Promotions and Selling Propositions for Non-Large-Cigar Products While the peer-reviewed article described next focuses on non-largecigar products, such as cigarillos with brands like Black & Mild and
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Similar to what has been documented for nonlarge cigars, premium cigar advertising content has also sought to shift consumers' focus from health risks to positive product attributes, including using premium cigars as an essential component of a successful or luxurious lifestyle. The content in Cigar Aficionado and Smoke reduces consumers' ambivalence about the health risks by including older celebrities who appear healthy.
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; these estimates include a range of large cigar products, including premium cigars. This increase did not match the prevalence of current cigar smoking by U.S.
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. Premium cigar users were least likely among all cigar users to identify "they are affordable" as a reason for cigar smoking (22.7 percent premium versus 66.4 percent nonpremium)
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(94.4–95.4) Where buy tobacco product 35.4 (28.4– Cigar bar *
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is greater than 30 percent. ^ = PATH included 8.9 percent of premium cigar smokers who reported that their regular brand was flavored or mentholated.
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, these data suggest that approximately 33 percent of premium cigars were purchased online in 2017. Survey data do not currently capture online purchasing behavior in premium cigar users.
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Data from online cigar retailers show that a large propor tion of premium cigar sales occur online, though this is not directly captured in current surveys of cigar users. Premium Cigar Retailer Density An exploratory analysis commissioned by the committee (Kong, 2022)
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Examination of data at the census tract level found that premium cigar retailers were present in a small proportion (1.7 percent) of tracts, with a median density of 0.0 retailers per 1,000 people and a maximum density of 8.2.
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CIGAR MARKETING AND PERCEPTIONS 169 TABLE 4-6 Total Count and Retailer Density of 2019–2021 Premium Cigar Association Member Retailers by State, United States Total Density per State Count Population 1,000,000 Residents Alabama 17 4,876,250 3.49 Alaska 3 737,068 4.07 Arizona 40 7,050,299 5.67 Arkansas 13 2,999,370 4.33 California 70 39,283,497 1.78 Colorado 15 5,610,349 2.67 Connecticut 11 3,575,074 3.08 Delaware 24 957,248 25.07 District of Columbia 4 692,683 5.77 Florida 220 20,901,636 10.53 Georgia 29 10,403,847 2.79 Hawaii 3 1,422,094 2.11 Idaho 6 1,717,750 3.49 Illinois 60 12,770,631 4.70 Indiana 35 6,665,703 5.25 Iowa 3 3,139,508 0.96 Kansas 12 2,910,652 4.12 Kentucky 23 4,449,052 5.17 Louisiana 11 4,664,362 2.36 Maine 2 1,335,492 1.50 Maryland 27 6,018,848 4.49 Massachusetts 17 6,850,553 2.48 Michigan 32 9,965,265 3.21 Minnesota 8 5,563,378 1.44 Mississippi 6 2,984,418 2.01 Missouri 19 6,104,910 3.11 Montana 3 1,050,649 2.86 Nebraska 13 1,914,571 6.79 Nevada 15 2,972,382 5.05 New Hampshire 14 1,348,124 10.38 New Jersey 31 8,878,503 3.49 New Mexico 6 2,092,454 2.87 continued
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analysis of data on consumer purchasing behavior; and (3) analysis of data on premium cigar retailers, it finds: Finding 4-2: Large cigar retail outlets include smoke shops/tobacco specialty or outlet stores, convenience stores (Corey et al., 2018)
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Data from online retailers suggest that a large proportion of premium cigar sales occur online, but this is not currently captured in national surveys of cigar users. Data provided to the committee show that all but two U.S.
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(2016) assessed awareness by asking participants whether they had ever heard of various tobacco products, including "large, premium cigars," before the survey.
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were shown photos of tobacco products without packaging and asked to identify whether it was a cigarette, little cigar, cigarillo, cigar, or roll-yourown cigarette. The products did not include premium cigars.
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The participants were a small, nongeneralizable sample, but the results suggest that the youth studied associate products that likely include premium cigars with older, adult smokers.
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None have specifically investigated whether and how consumers identify or distinguish "premium" cigars. This is a research gap that would need to be filled to better understand consumers' knowledge of premium cigars and how they view them relative to other cigar products.
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was used to categorize smokers' usual brand as filtered cigar, cigarillo, or traditional cigar, which was further categorized as premium or nonpremium. Overall, comparable proportions of premium cigar, nonpremium cigar, cigarillo, and filtered cigar smokers indicated that cigars may be less harmful than cigarettes (see Table 4-10)
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TABLE 4-11 Perception That Cigars May Be Less Harmful Than Cigarettes by Cigarette Smoking Status (%, 95% CI) Premium Nonpremium Cigars Cigars Cigarillos Filtered Cigars Current cigarette 14.1 (6.0–22.1)
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(2019) surveyed adult patients enrolled in addiction treatment centers on demographics, tobacco use, and perceived risks; 77 percent were cigarette smokers, 8.3 percent were cigar smokers, 15.3 percent were little filtered cigar/cigarillo users, 11.4 percent were smokeless tobacco users, and 26.3 percent were e-cigarette users.
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Compared with never-tobacco users, all youth tobacco user groups reported significantly lower perceived addictiveness of cigars. Despite some variability, these associations were relatively consistent across perceived harm and addictiveness of tobacco products examined (i.e., susceptible youth and youth tobacco users tend to perceive tobacco products as less harmful and addictive)
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adults perceive that cigars have associated risks of health harm and addiction similar to those of cigarette smoking. Among adults, men, those with higher education, current cigar users, and former tobacco users TABLE 4-12 Perceived Absolute Risk of Tobacco Products Among Youth Ages 12–17, 2013–2014 Tobacco Product % Indicating a Lot of Harm Cigarettes 84.8 Smokeless tobacco 61.4 Cigars (traditional cigars, cigarillos, 60.2 and filtered cigars)
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Premium cigar users were more likely to indicate that they smoke them when they socialize. For the data stratified by cigarette smoking status, many point estimates could not be provided for premium cigar users due to small sample sizes.
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From the description, this setting appears to be one where premium cigars are sold and consumed, but this is not explicit in the paper. The analysis included coding and synthesis of transcripts from individual interviews and group interactions and showed that cigar shop patrons supported six common pro-cigar arguments: 1.
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. In total, 7.3 percent of cigar users indicated that they smoked cigars to reduce health risks, compared with 5.1 percent for little filtered cigars/cigarillos, 6.9 percent for smokeless tobacco, and 11.2 percent for e-cigarettes.
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. The findings indicate adult premium cigar users are more likely than those who use other types of cigars to indicate socializing as a reason for use, and they are less likely to indicate smoking premium cigars for reasons related to cigarette smoking, such as smoking them in places where cigarette smoking is not allowed or to cut down cigarette smoking.
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and waterpipe (17.8 to 13.6 percent) were less harmful than cigarettes declined, but there was little change in perceived harm of other noncigarette tobacco products.
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youth aged 12–17 from PATH Wave 1 to Wave 2. The authors examined whether perceived harm and addictiveness of tobacco products changed over time, whether perceived harm and addictiveness at Wave 1 predicted initiation at Wave 2, and whether trying the product between Wave 1 and Wave 2 predicted decrease in perceived harm and addictiveness at Wave 2.
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The median effect size across products for the association between low perceived addictiveness and initiation was OR: 4.82. For traditional cigars, these results suggest that lower perceived harm and addictiveness among youth is associated with higher odds of subsequent initiation, a pattern that was consistent across the tobacco products examined.
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The measurement of risk perceptions needs to be improved, including using more specific measures of perceived risks following expert recommendations (Kaufman et al., 2020a,b) and measures that distinguish between premium cigars and other cigar products.
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The research reviewed did not distinguish between people's perceptions of premium cigars and other types directly; however, studies reviewed assessed perceptions of products that likely include premium cigars. Improved measurement of perceived risks of premium cigars is needed, including more specific measures that follow expert recommendations for risk perception measurement (Kaufman et al., 2020a,b)
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Marketing occurs through channels that are unique to premium cigars, such as lifestyle magazines and festivals, and through channels that are common to other tobacco products, such as DTC and online marketing. Premium cigar marketing uses strategies to increase product appeal by emphasizing
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Online premium cigar sales are prevalent, though not captured in national surveys of cigar users. Finally, despite limited direct evidence on consumers' awareness, knowledge, and perceived benefits of using premium cigars, consistent with research on other tobacco products there is evidence that lower perceived risks of cigar products in general promote initiation and current use of cigars.
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2019. Health risk perceptions and reasons for use of tobacco products among clients in addictions treatment.
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2016. Deeming tobacco products to be subject to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act; restrictions on the sale and distribution of tobacco products and required warning statements for tobacco products.
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Paper commissioned by the Committee on Patterns of Use and Health Effects of "Premium Cigars" and Priority Research (Appendix D)
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2009. Assessing consumer responses to potential reduced-exposure tobacco products: A review of tobacco industry and independent research methods.
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2021. Purchasing patterns and demographics of online premium cigar customers.
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