AI Article Synopsis
- Online e-cigarette retailers in California use email marketing to directly promote their products, which could encourage e-cigarette use among consumers.
- A study analyzed 749 promotional emails over a year, revealing that the most promoted products were second-generation and disposable e-cigarettes, with fruit and sweet flavors being the most common.
- The emails often included promotional discounts and social media links, while age warnings were rarely present; further research is needed to assess the impact of these marketing strategies on consumer attitudes and behaviors toward e-cigarettes.
Article Abstract
Introduction: Online e-cigarette retailers use e-mail communications to promote products directly to consumers, which may facilitate e-cigarette use. Little is known about the content of these e-mails. As such, this study collected e-mails from online e-cigarette retailers in California to conduct a content analysis.
Aims And Methods: This study included 13 online e-cigarette retailers in California using Yelp. To be included in the study, e-cigarette retailers needed a live website, physical retail location (ie, vape shop), and e-cigarettes available for purchase online. The research team entered each website and signed up (if possible) for an e-mail newsletter. Data were collected from the Gmail Application Programming Interface over a 1-year study period (November 1, 2021-November 1, 2022). Members of the research team coded e-mails for the presence of e-cigarettes, other products, flavors, marketing categories, and promotional activities, among other variables.
Results: Seven hundred and forty-nine promotional e-mails (2.1 avg/day) were received over the 1-year study period. Second-generation e-cigarettes (n = 581, 77.6%) were the most observed product in e-mails followed by disposable e-cigarettes (n = 391, 52.2%). The most common flavor profile was fruit or sweet or liquor (n = 424, 56.6%). E-mails included links to social media pages (n = 366, 48.9%). Online coupons were found in 53.1% (n = 398) of the e-mails. Age warnings were displayed in 8.0% (n = 60) of the e-mails.
Conclusions: E-cigarette retailers' e-mails promoted new products, flavors, and contained promotional discounts. Future research should examine the impact of exposure to such e-mails on e-cigarette-related attitudes and behaviors.
Implications: Findings from this study may help inform prevention programs and interventions focused on increasing tobacco-related digital media literacy (ie, evaluate tobacco advertising messages on digital media) among gender and ethnic minorities. Future research should examine if exposure to e-mail marketing is causally linked with e-cigarette use among gender and ethnic minorities.
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Source |
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntae046 | DOI Listing |
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