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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Rachel C. Gross, PhD, CHES¹, Susan E. Middlestadt, PhD², and Jesse Gelwicks¹. (1) Center for Applied Behavioral and Evaluation Research, Academy for Educational Development, 1825 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009, 202 884 8786, rgross@aed.org, (2) Applied Health Science, Indiana University, 116 HPER, Bloomington, IN 47405-4801

Background: As the Hispanic population in the U.S. has grown, so have tobacco industry efforts targeting this segment. Analysis of previously secret internal industry documents can illuminate marketing strategies targeting Hispanics.

Purpose: The purpose of this presentation is to describe research R.J. Reynolds (RJR) conducted to understand Hispanic Americans and strategies they used to market cigarettes to segments of this market.

Method: Internal Tobacco Industry documents containing RJR documents made public through the Master Settlement Agreement were searched online at http://tobaccodocuments.org using terms about consumer research, advertising and segmentation. This presentation focuses on a subset of documents that describe marketing research and strategy techniques aimed at the Hispanic American market during the 1980's and early 1990's.

Results: Analysis revealed that RJR concentrated their research on cities with large Hispanic populations such as Los Angeles, San Antonio, Miami, Chicago, and New York. RJR research included qualitative studies and tracking studies. RJR also devised an Assimilation Index based on six variables in their tracking study. Based on this research, RJR decided to de-emphasize national advertising campaigns and emphasize local retail promotions and promotional activities held at Hispanic festivals, "fiestas" and other music venues. RJR tailored marketing strategies to cities based on the Hispanic population's different countries of origin and different assimilation rates. In addition, RJR used psychographic categories such as Recent Seekers and Young Strivers to market to Hispanics in Houston, Dallas and Chicago.

Learning Objectives:

• At the conclusion of the session, the learner will be able to identify marketing techniques R.J. Reynolds used to market their cigarettes to Hispanics.
• At the conclusion of the session, participants such as health professionals will be able to learn techniques from tobacco industry marketing and research and apply them to their own work.

Keywords: Tobacco, Hispanic

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered