Bracing for the fight to bland out cigarettes
Greens Senator Rachel Siewart posted a note on her facebook page last month indicating the tobacco industry is gathering ammunition for their next assault against government measures to curb smoking. Grand. I for one am getting the popcorn ready with anticipation as I’m reminded of the “Alliance of Australian Retailers” campaign! Did anyone else find the last onslaught brilliantly amusing??
If you’re not familiar with these campaigns, they are the ones where the big tobacco companies pretended to be small shop owners pleading with the Australian sense of battler solidarity. The ‘Alliance’ was outed, their site hacked and their spokeperson jumped ship in a seamless display of how efficiently inauthenticity is sniffed out by today’s discerning viewer.
The impetus for all this activity is of course the Federal Government’s announcement earlier this year that cigarette packaging will be sold in plain packaging from July 2012 – a decision which seems largely to have been met with high skepticism but I am inclined to believe it has a real chance of sucking the cool out of the category.
It’s arguable that plain packaging may not inspire existing smokers to quit, they are presumably addicted after all. It is likely however that their purchasing behaviour will change; brand loyalty will wane and brands will be favoured out of habit, name recognition and price in the short term.
Tobacco companies will then undoubtedly find sly and fascinating ways to soldier on. Perhaps they will rebuild their tribes via social media networking or seek differentiation through printing directly onto the cigarettes, they could use their marketing budget to set up good will medical clinics in developing countries or add a choice of flavours to the tobacco.
But looking at the long term, these consumers are a dying audience (forgive the pun) and new adopters may be difficult to grab in this choked environment.
Years of global research studies focused on teenage views of smoking clearly indicate a strong emotional need for the badge to be a part of the package, and removing the badg’ability would render the product itself significantly less appealing.
Let’s be honest, without the emotional pay off – the cool factor – what you have is an expensive, foul tasting and foul smelling snack that is likely to rob you of your good looks then ultimately kill you. Tobacco needs to be cool because it doesn’t have much else going for it.
However, cool without recognition is like a flame with no oxygen. Your teen dollar would clearly be better spent on the latest igadget badge, eight bottles of alcopop or any one of a hundred other brands falling over themselves to gain a sliver of your elusive youth acceptance. Thus harking the end of the smoking consumer’s family line and smothering demand at the mains.
It seems the tobacco companies are in some agreement with me as they scurry in prep for their next defensive.
