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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Charlene Melcher, PhD¹, David E. Nelson, MD, MPH², Linda Pederson, MA, PhD², Kristen Betts, BHS², Rachel Gross, PhD, CHES³, and Thomas Clarke, MPH³. (1) Center for Health Communication, Academy for Educational Development, 1825 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009, 202 884-8730, cmelcher@aed.org, (2) Office of Smoking and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, NW MS-K50, Atlanta, GA 30341, (3) Center for Applied Behavioral and Evaluation Research, Academy for Educational Development, 1825 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009

Objective: To describe tobacco industry marketing strategies for Potentially Reduced Exposure Products (PREPs) using industry documents. Methods: Tobacco industry documents databases (TIDD) are being searched to identify materials that discuss marketing strategies for PREPs. The search focuses on documents written after 1985, and includes documents such as 1) market research reports; 2) advertising campaign planning and briefing documents (e.g., focus group research); 3) strategy and planning documents (e.g., audience segmentation); and 4) Internal memos and correspondence. A combination of research strategies, including snowball sampling, use of Bates index numbers, and searches of multiple sources (e.g., project names, selected industry individuals) are being employed. Results: As of February 2006, over 8,000 documents have been located and reviewed in searches of the RJ Reynolds, Philip Morris, American Tobacco, Brown and Williamson, and Lorillard collections. This has yielded over 200 industry-authored documents that detail industry strategies and techniques related to PREPs. Code names used in product development, such as Sigma and Table for Philip Morris (Accord brand) and Spa for RJ Reynolds (Premier) have been identified and used to facilitate searching. Conclusions: We have uncovered numerous documents with relevant information about marketing strategies and goals for PREPs in the tobacco industry documents. A careful review of the most promising PREPs-related documents will be conducted over the next few months, and a summary of tobacco industry-related PREPs marketing strategies will be summarized by summer 2006. This information may assist counter-messaging efforts.

Learning Objectives:

• List three strategies employed by the tobacco industry to market PREPs.
• Articulate effective strategies for searching tobacco industry documents

Keywords: Tobacco Industry, Marketing

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered