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Plain Packets Help Smokers Quit by Killing Brand Identities

posted by mrpg on Monday February 27 2017, @07:12AM   
from the smoking-is-bad dept.

charon writes:

The proof is in the packaging. Making all cigarette packets look the same reduces the positive feelings smokers associate with specific brands and encourages quitting, Australian research shows.

The findings come ahead of the UK and Ireland introducing plain tobacco packaging in May.

Australia was the first nation to introduce such legislation in December 2012. Since then, all cigarettes have been sold in plain olive packets with standard fonts and graphic health warnings.

The primary goal was to make cigarettes less appealing so that people would not take up smoking in the first place. But an added bonus has been the number of existing smokers who have ditched the habit.

Between 2010 and 2013, the proportion of daily smokers in Australia dropped from 15.1 to 12.8 per cent – a record decline. The number of calls to quit helplines also increased by 78 per cent after the policy change.

Hugh Webb, et al. Smoke signals: The decline of brand identity predicts reduced smoking behaviour following the introduction of plain packaging, Addictive Behaviors Reports, DOI: 10.1016/j.abrep.2017.02.003

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Original Submission

• Re:knew it would work -- let's do it for pot Re:knew it would work -- let's do it for pot (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 27 2017, @08:35AM (1 child)

  by c0lo (156) on Monday February 27 2017, @08:35AM (#472168) Journal

  Think about how Virginia Slims are marketed to a certain kind of woman, and Newports to a certain kind of black, and so on. That camel on the Camels, the Marlboro man... all of it is about getting you to buy into an image about your lifestyle, either real or what you aspire to.

  Not in my case, I'm not sensitive to this. I won;t deny others may be/actually are, but I'm beyond it.

  Without the lifestyle branding, the customers just shop by price and many won't even bother.

  Or by both price and quality. No, branding and lifestyle doesn't matter to me, just the quality that can be afforded at the price. The bnrand? Just an identifier for me - make/model in a car analogy.

  How I define quality? Simple, the beans and way of preparation ending in a product that my taste buds/nose enjoy means quality for me (and the coffee they serve at starbucks or "gloria jeans" - another francise downunder - does not qualify for quality; thus I'm not a coffee-branded person).

  --
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

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• Re:knew it would work -- let's do it for pot (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday February 27 2017, @06:50PM

  by nitehawk214 (1304) on Monday February 27 2017, @06:50PM (#472439)

  Sure, people that wanted it anyhow will buy it anyhow.

  But branding matters. Why do you think McDonalds is the most popular restaurant chain in the world. The quality of their food? The prices? There are better and cheaper options. Often both. It is branding.

  I used to think that this kind of branding was kids stuff, that the cigarette and beer marketing was targeting kids. But no, adults are mostly just as stupid as kids. Even old people go for marketing and branding.

  --
  "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh

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