Social Media's Influence on Tobacco Consumption: A Marketing Analysis

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PORTFOLIO
ANALYSIS
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Table of Contents
ARTICLE 1 HOW SOCIAL MEDIA IS HELPING BIG TOBACCO HOOK A NEW GENERATION OF
SMOKERS..................................................................................................................................3
ARTICLE-2 RESEARCH: ACTUALLY CONSUMERS DO BUY THE SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS..........5
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................. 7
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ARTICLE 1 HOW SOCIAL MEDIA IS HELPING BIG TOBACCO HOOK A
NEW GENERATION OF SMOKERS
SUMMARY OF ISSUE
Tobacco smoking has captured a huge part of the population all over the world, the main
target in the current scenario is the youth. Through social media advertising, these cigarette
companies have been switching their ways to advertise and promote their brands. Once in
1971, the US Congress has banned cigarette advertisements on television and radio
channels but then also these companies used magazines and posters for their
advertisements. The changing technological environment has created difficulties for the
government to stop and restrict the companies to attract the youth for smoking (Duke et al.,
2014).
IMPORTANCE OF KEY ISSUES
To smoke a cigarette and other tobacco products is very dangerous for health because
everyone knows these can cause lung cancer and also blood cancer. The advertising
companies of cigarettes and alcohol have been trying to target the young generation who
can become their potential customers, thus to top these companies from reaching to the
youth it is very important to control their social media applications and their content. The
Tobacco-free- kids group have seen the youth is posting their pictures with cigarettes on
online social media platforms, this has created a terrifying image of future generation and
current generation. Tobacco-free kids group through netnography qualitative approach
have found that the influencers, celebrities, endorsers etc. have used the potential effect of
social media to earn money and promotes these tobacco and cigarette brands, thus there is
a boundary-less endorsement which faster than any other channel and has created a very
negative impact on the youth. The increasing rate of smoking and tobacco usage have
questioned the work of world health organization and US federation thus to improve the
same this channel of communication is an important issue to discuss (Dunlop et al., 2016).
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IMPLICATIONS OF ISSUES FROM MARKET PERSPECTIVE
As most of the youth (88%) have been rigorously using social media applications like
Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and anyone at and above 13 years of age can create an
account on these applications which promote and advertise cigarettes. The skirting
advertisement techniques used by the cigarette companies have created a lot of buzz in the
market. Through surrogate branding, these tobacco companies have been successfully
expanding their customer base all over the world. In surrogate branding the companies are
advertising for music CD’s and promoting the cigarette or alcohol brand, thus this branding
technique is very powerful and non-offensive.
The marketing technique used by targeting the youth through indirect means is called
stealth, undercover or guerrilla marketing technique has influenced millions of people on
the globe. Thus it can be observed that social media have the power to influence people to
do the things they aren’t aware of. The big cities especially are targeted for these cigarette
brands as in these cities people are more influenced by the current social media trends
(Liang et al., 2015).
The social media application platforms can be used for branding cigarettes but also can be
used for negatively branding the use of Tabaco and cigarettes. The results and the problems
through these harmful products can be highlighted in the advertisements on social media
applications to minimize the effects. The companies have used social media to endorse their
brand from the youth (Nano influencers) who have high number of followers (2000-3000),
by inviting them to the parties and making them post their pictures with the specific
cigarette brands on Facebook or Instagram. The same technique can be used for spreading
awareness of the ill effects in the new generation, just by posting videos, photos of saying
no to cigarettes and tobacco on social media by the celebrities who have thousands of
followers (Aven et al., 2014).
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ARTICLE-2 RESEARCH: ACTUALLY CONSUMERS DO BUY THE
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS
SUMMARY OF ISSUES
There is uncontrollable use of plastic and plastic products around the world which have
ruined earth so the sustainable products come into the picture, but the question do people
use the sustainable products, most of the people have the thinking that very few people use
these sustainable products to prevent the environment but that’s not the real case, many
people have used the suitable product. The companies have the excuse that people don't
have any interest in the sustainability of the product so the companies don't bother to make
their products sustainable. The researches have shown that there is a 50% growth in buying
tendency of sustainable products (Young et al., 2010).
IMPORTANCE OF KEY ISSUE
There is an increase in the buying preferences of the people for the products that have
sustainability claim on them by 2.3 % approx. in the last 5 years thus the consumer
behaviour is changing according to the environmental conditions. The managers at the
corporate level are creating an escape towards building sustainability in their products by
blaming the consumers that they don’t buy the products that are sustainably fit. Thus the
issue of managers is to be discussed so that the corporate leaders have to build
sustainability in every part of their product specification even in apparels. The companies
like Unilever have been suppressed by the world and their stakeholders that sustainability is
not the option to increase or maintain the profit for every company so to prove them wrong
this issue is having a very greater significance (Grunert et al., 2014).
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IMPLICATIONS OF ISSUES FROM MARKET PERSPECTIVE
The sustainable products are marketed very widely and aggressively, the most sustainable
marketed products are toilet tissues, facial tissues, and 36 other categories of sustainable
products that have accounted 40% of consumer packaged goods and have accounted to
$114 billion sales this is all because of the good marketing techniques used to promote
these products. This shows that marketing has the power to change the perception as well
as the market trends of the country. The products that were not sustainably fit like laundry
care and sanitary napkins because the customer was having doubts on performance of
sustainable laundry care and sanitary napkins, these products have also gained tremendous
growth of 150% due to marketing techniques.
The company Unilever has shown that the tendency that the sustainable product doesn't
lead to growth and profit-making opportunities for the big and small brands that this
statement is untrue. The sustainable living theory of Unilever has led to 70% of the turnover
growth in this industry. This means sustainable products need to be marketed perfectly to
gain the customer attention and confidence of the consumers. The marketing technique for
giving the consumer what they want and integrating the same with their values, like for
example Hellman’s market their eggs as the eggs that are 100% cage-free thus the
consumer values are taken care of through a sustainable product (Sanyé Mengual et al.,‐
2014).
The sustainable trend is highlighting the small businesses and giving this sustainable small
business to partner with the big brands in their industry. The companies can use social
media marketing channels to create awareness and positive side of the sustainable products
as this medium helps in covering a very large audience worldwide in no time. Through
marketing, the product with sustainability claim has created differentiation for these
companies and have created a competitive advantage for these companies in front of other
competitors and big leaders in the industry (Hanss et al., 2016).
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REFERENCES
1. Aven, B.L., Burgess, D.A., Haynes, J.F., Merino, J.R. and Moore, P.C., Yahoo! Inc,
2014. Using product and social network data to improve online advertising. U.S.
Patent 8,843,406.
2. Duke, J.C., Lee, Y.O., Kim, A.E., Watson, K.A., Arnold, K.Y., Nonnemaker, J.M. and
Porter, L., 2014. Exposure to electronic cigarette television advertisements among
youth and young adults. Pediatrics, 134(1), pp.e29-e36.
3. Dunlop, S., Freeman, B. and Jones, S.C., 2016. Marketing to youth in the digital age:
The promotion of unhealthy products and health promoting behaviours on social
media. Media and Communication, 4(3), pp.35-49.
4. Grunert, K.G., Hieke, S. and Wills, J., 2014. Sustainability labels on food products:
Consumer motivation, understanding and use. Food Policy, 44, pp.177-189.
5. Hanss, D., Böhm, G., Doran, R. and Homburg, A., 2016. Sustainable consumption of
groceries: The importance of believing that one can contribute to sustainable
development. Sustainable Development, 24(6), pp.357-370.
6. Liang, Y., Zheng, X., Zeng, D.D., Zhou, X., Leischow, S.J. and Chung, W., 2015.
Exploring how the tobacco industry presents and promotes itself in social media.
Journal of medical internet research, 17(1), p.e24.
7. Sanyé Mengual, E., Pérez López, P., González García, S., Lozano, R.G., Feijoo, G.,‐ ‐ ‐
Moreira, M.T., Gabarrell, X. and Rieradevall, J., 2014. Eco designing the use phase of‐
products in sustainable manufacturing: The importance of maintenance and
communication to user strategies. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 18(4), pp.545-557.‐ ‐
8. Young, W., Hwang, K., McDonald, S. and Oates, C.J., 2010. Sustainable consumption:
green consumer behaviour when purchasing products. Sustainable development,
18(1), pp.20-31.
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