Reaching consumers: How the tobacco industry uses email marketing

Abstract

Tobacco companies are restricted from engaging in many traditional forms of marketing. Direct marketing is one way tobacco companies can reach consumers while complying with regulation and avoiding negative public perception. There is little research on this type of opt-in marketing, which includes mail marketing, email marketing, web marketing, and mobile marketing, and its impact is not well understood. This study examined 6990 tobacco company emails received by individuals living in the state of Minnesota, US between January 2010 and May 2015 to determine email frequency by brand. These emails were gathered as part of ongoing surveillance of tobacco industry direct marketing. A subset of these emails received between October 2014 and May 2015 (n = 1646) were content analyzed to identify the purpose of the email communication along with type of product promoted. Tobacco companies use email to communicate with consumers on a regular basis. This communication was observed to be as frequent as nine times per month. Emails are most commonly used to promote contests (54.1%), content on tobacco company websites (39.1%), and tobacco coupons (15.7%). Email promotion of menthol-flavored tobacco products was common and was associated with promotion of coupons. Emails promoting menthol had a 1.9 times higher prevalence of also promoting coupons (95% CI: 1.52-2.37). Little is known about tobacco company email marketing and this study fills an identified research gap. A deeper understanding of this type of marketing is needed in order to counter tobacco industry messaging and advance tobacco control.

Keywords: Marketing; Menthol; Smoking; Tobacco; Tobacco industry.

Fig. 1

An email from Grizzly received on April 21, 2015 by an individual living in Minnesota, US. The subject line of this email was: “Enter the Experience DARK Challenge for Chances to Win.” This is an example of an email promoting multiple purposes. The DARK Challenge was a contest with a chance to win prizes such as a Polaris Ranger 6 × 6. Further down in the email is a coupon promotion. The majority of emails from tobacco companies are HTML emails, meaning they feature graphics, images, and are visually appealing to the reader.