Impact of Little Cigars and Cigarillos Packaging Features on Product Preference

Abstract

Background: We conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE) among young adult cigarette smokers in the period July–August 2018 to examine their preference for cigarillos in response to various packaging-related attributes, including flavor, flavor description, quality descriptors, pack size, and prices. Methods: A convenience sample of 566 US young adult cigarette smokers aged 18–34, among whom 296 were current little cigar and cigarillo (LCC) smokers, were recruited using Facebook ads and invited to participate in an online (Qualtrics) tobacco survey containing DCE and tobacco use questions. In the experiment, participants chose among two cigarillo products or “neither” (opt-out). Results: We analyzed preferences for LCCs using multinomial, nested, random parameter logit models. Results showed that young adult cigarette smokers preferred grape over menthol, tobacco/regular, and wine flavors; “color only” and “color and text” flavor depictions over text only; “smooth” and “sweet” quality descriptors over “satisfying”; and larger pack sizes and lower prices. Conclusions: Regulating packaging-related features will impact LCC choices among US young adult smokers. FDA regulation over these packaging-related features may impact LCC use among young adult smokers.

Trends in Overall and Menthol Market Shares of Leading Cigarette Brands in the USA: 2014–2019

“…An analysis of Spain’s tobacco regulation indicates that the country’s stringency has, over time, made tobacco brands’ differentiation through marketing impossible and has resulted in the “homogenizing” of the diffusion process, negating tobacco brands’ ability to differentiate or innovate based on marketing alone [ 32 ]. Compared with many countries that adhere to the WHO Framework, the US has comparatively lenient regulation of tobacco products, and US tobacco control researchers and advocates continually call for more regulation to restrict the product attributes on which brands compete, such as flavors, color, pack size, price, and a variety of descriptors, in an effort to have an impact on smokers in the US [ 33 ]. The contrast between a country such as Spain that has stronger tobacco regulation than that of the US illustrates clearly that when governments impose a near-total prohibition of advertising and promotion of tobacco, as well as require large pictorial and text warnings on cigarette and smokeless tobacco products, enforce a prohibition on misleading packaging and labeling, and bans on characterizing flavors and a variety of problematic ingredients [ 34 ], there can be almost no differentiation between the products.…”

Factors Influencing Smoking among Multicultural Adolescents

“…Thus, in terms of the fact that stress acts as a cause of drinking [ 18 ], it is thought that stress indirectly will affect smoking through drinking. Since the ages at which drinking and smoking begins among adolescents are starting to decrease gradually and the use of various types of cigarettes such as e-cigarettes among adolescents has increased recently [ 19 ], education to prevent drinking and smoking, which threatens the health of adolescents, should be conducted early.…”