Online Tobacco Marketing

Most countries have banned tobacco advertisements, and one way through which tobacco companies manage to reach their clients is through the internet. Tobacco.1.com for instance, is an international website for the tobacco industry. The website is an active website of tobacco organizers, institutions, and publishers, business to the business website of tobacco companies and suppliers of cigarettes. Publishers of books related to tobacco are being encouraged to register and add their books to the company's website, and this is actually done for free.

Advertisement on tobacco was introduced in the 1990s, and this has made tobacco companies to be more and more creative. Majority of cigarette retailers are using facebook pages to recruit people to habits of smoking. It is evident that the tobacco industry is using the internet to circumnavigate the ban on cigarettes. The top five brands of cigarette i.e Marlboro, Winston, L&M, Mild seven and Benson and Hedges use the internet to yield smoking returns. Arguably, "Of 163 YouTube videos viewed, from the first 20 pages of the search, 71 per cent of the content was classified as being 'pro-tobacco', 20 per cent was neutral and four per cent was 'anti-tobacco" (Knowles 2004). 70% of these cases had videos of people smoking products of tobacco and names of manufacturers in their titles.

Researchers argue ""Tobacco companies stand to benefit greatly from the marketing potential of Web 2.0, without themselves being at significant risk of being implicated in violating any laws or advertising codes (Knowles 2004As already noted, tobacco companies use web 2.0 such as You Tube to market tobacco products , especially to the young people . Tobacco companies target the YouTube because it has a large market share on the online market. This makes it easy for companies to reach their potential customers.

Some consumers prefer buying cigarettes through the internet mainly because of the lower prices. The lower prices generally occur because internet vendors sell cigarettes without paying taxes to the destination state. Majority of the internet cigarette buyers get to learn about on-line market sales of cigarettes through interpersonal sources purchasing them on-line. Smokers who purchase cheap cigarettes through the internet increase the consumption of cigarettes over time as opposed to those buying cigarettes on full price at traditional retail stores.

This notwithstanding, however, when cigarettes though the internet, the quality of the product is sometimes compromised. For instance, if you buy a cartoon of cigarettes from an internet vendor, you may not know how old the cigarettes are and whether they are stale or not. Generally, smokers are concerned about the barriers of buying cigarettes on-line. They are particularly concerned about their personal information and credit card on-line. Nonetheless, purchasing cigarettes through the internet has increased the rate of smoking. Interestingly, most of these buyers ware initially concerned about the delivery and legality of buying cigarettes on- line. However, after doing searches across multiple websites, participants get necessary confidence with on-line buying, and even recommend it to family members and friends, who will then buy cigarettes through the internet.

Just recently, the British American Tobacco unveiled a new corporate website. This was the most comprehensive cutting edge for the company's objectives in improving the image of the company and reaching its clients.The website was launched by the British American Tobacco to help it boost its drive for more openness. The site has been praised for its "straight talking" on controversial issues. The Head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Fran Morrison alleged "Like many globally spread and culturally diverse Groups, the company has faced huge amount of 're-inventing the wheel' by our companies as they increasingly went online. Our custom-built 'One Web' solution enables a consistent global online identity but local autonomy, allows national webmasters to build high quality local sites quickly, simply and cost-effectively, and will enable consumers to easily surf our world" (Knowles 2004). The website enables consumers to look into the snapshots of the company, history and brands. Moreover, the website offers thoughts and history of the company necessary for marketing and solving key global trade issues such as tracking counterfeits and contrabands.It also provides key information on the risk of smoking, health habits and alternatively safer cigarettes.

The tobacco companies have adapted to advertisement restrictions on television and print. They have achieved this by turning to other methods of marketing such as sending mails through the internet. Direct mailing is aimed at getting into close contact with customers. Tobacco companies heavily rely on direct mailing to advertise its products and provide incentives for its users to continue buying its products. More often than not, young people get on to the company's mailing list after giving out their personal information in the exchange of smokeless samples at a bar promotion or for tobacco the related coupons. Direct mailing is a marketing procedure that uses images and themes, which are appealing to the youth. A good example of this approach is the RJR's "Camel Break Campaign, "This marketing approach was first launched in 2010, and it uses the "names and images of "cool" U.S. cities, including San Francisco, to market Camel cigarettes to appeal to the adventurous and rebellious spirit of young people".

It is evident that Tobacco companies have turned to the internet to market their products. Indeed, this is an effective way of reaching the youths who consume much of their media through the new technology. On-line marketing has added a lot of benefits to tobacco companies, most of which are largely invisible to casual viewers. This is particular true in the interactive forms of the digital media, such as the social network sites and search engines. The tobacco companies have benefited greatly from the marketing potential of web 2.0, without getting implicated or violating any laws or the advertising codes. According to George Thomson "there is no functional difference between exposure to tobacco in movies outside the Internet, and exposure to video and film material on the Internet.

The pro-tobacco content in YouTube and Facebook has glamorized the smoking habits among the young generation. Consequently, the health organizations have sounded an alarm on how the internet is being used to promote smoking. Some of the employees of the British American Tobacco have established fan sites on twitter and facebook for the company's Dunhill and Luck Strike brands. The company, however, claims that this was done without its knowledge. It is therefore, a high time that the company conducted a damage limitation exercise.

The company can also hire an online marketing firm to promote is brands. In conclusion, tobacco companies have opted for the use of internet marketing because it is difficult to market their products using other modes of advertisement. These companies mainly targets the youths, who makes the majority of consumers. Although the top management of the Tobacco companies has in several occasions insisted that it is not their policy to advertise their brands by using social sites, most of them together with their employees have been using the social media to promote their brands.

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Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/online-tobacco-marketing-306326

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