Blowing the lid off: an analysis of interior cigarette pack features and marketing strategies

In the face of increasingly restrictive policies regulating how cigarette companies can advertise, the pack itself has become one of the industry’s primary promotional tools.^1,2 A large body of research demonstrates that pack features, such as size, colour and descriptors, can implicitly communicate product information and influence perceptions of taste, smoking experience and health risks.^1,3,4 To date, 13 countries have fully implemented ‘plain packaging’ laws to reduce the attractiveness of cigarettes, but millions around the globe are still exposed to packaging elements that may increase consumer demand. While exterior pack characteristics and their impact on product appeal have been studied previously,⁴ the ways in which the tobacco industry may leverage pack interiors to communicate with smokers remain obscure. Prior research has documented the ubiquity of branding on the cigarette itself—another form of marketing ‘real estate’⁵—but little is known about other forms of communication inside the pack. These direct messages may theoretically influence smoking behaviours, such as brand loyalty, quit attempts and cessation. We conducted a content analysis of the top-selling cigarette packs in the USA to characterise the extent and nature of these ‘under-the-radar’ practices.

METHODS

The 50 cigarette packs with the highest unit sales in 2018 (US convenience store market) were identified using Nielsen’s Scantrack data⁶ and subsequently purchased from convenience stores in the New York City metropolitan area between January and March 2019. All packs contained 20 cigarettes, per US law. Because this project was exploratory, we first used ‘open coding’ to note all observed interior features. Then, through group consensus, we developed a final coding guide to capture the most common and relevant features (eg, websites, rewards programmes, inserts, cigarette branding) in a subsequent round of coding by two team members. Inter-rater reliability was high (kappa >0.9) across all measures. Descriptive analyses, weighted by each pack’s 2018 sales, summed total pack sales and documented the market share of popular features overall and by brand.

RESULTS

The 50 packs in the sample constituted over half (59%) of the 2018 cigarette market share in US convenience stores, reaching nearly 5 billion packs sold (table 1). The most common brands were Marlboro (54.6%), Newport (15.5%) and Camel (10.4%). Nearly all packs (88.4%) directed smokers to brand websites. Over half (53.5%) provided a rewards code that could be redeemed online for prizes and coupons, but this practice was exclusive to Marlboro. Promotional inserts were less common (5.9%), only appearing in two Marlboro and two Camel packs, and they encouraged consumers to access interactive features on the brands’ websites (online supplementary figure 1). Silver was the predominant inner foil colour across all brands except Camel, whose pack interiors had greater colour variation.

Table 1.

Prevalence^* of interior pack features among the 50 top-selling cigarette products in the USA^†, 2018

	Overall	Marlboro (Philip Morris USA)	Newport (RJ Reynolds)	Camel (RJ Reynolds)	Pall Mall (RJ Reynolds)	L&M (Philip Morris USA)	Other brands‡
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Interior pack text
Any text under lid	91.5	98.1	100.0	100.0	100.0	0.0	85.0
Brand website	88.4	98.1	100.0	100.0	100.0	0.0	37.0
Age restriction (21+)	69.8	98.1	100.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	12.9
Rewards code	53.5	98.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Company phone number	18.6	0.0	0.0	100.0	100.0	0.0	24.1
Anti-littering messaging	5.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	87.1
Packaging inserts§	5.9	5.1	0.0	30.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Inner foil colour
Black	4.9	8.9	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Blue	3.0	0.0	0.0	28.8	0.0	0.0	0.0
Green	1.9	0.0	0.0	18.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Red	3.4	0.0	0.0	32.9	0.0	0.0	0.0
Silver	84.7	91.1	100.0	20.3	100.0	100.0	66.7
White	2.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	33.3
Inner foil material
Shiny/metallic foil	93.0	91.1	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	66.7
Matte foil	4.1	7.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Waxy paper	2.9	1.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	33.3
Brand name (text) on cigarette	93.4	100.0	100.0	57.4	100.0	100.0	66.7
Brand logo (icon¶) on cigarette	13.5	1.6	0.0	100.0	0.0	0.0	33.3
Brand market share (unit sales)	100.0	54.6	15.5	10.5	6.6	6.5	6.4
Total unit sales (in millions)	4858.5	2651.1	751.3	507.9	321.8	317.9	308.5

^*Analyses weighted by unit (pack) sales.

^†The top 50 packs constituted 59% of the total US convenience store market in 2018.

^‡Other brands represented among the top 50 products included: Natural American Spirit, Kool, Maverick, Parliament, Winston.

^§Removable paper cards providing additional details about loyalty programmes, website features or other information.

^¶Icons included Marlboro chevrons, camels and Native American silhouettes.

DISCUSSION

In the same way that tobacco companies communicate with smokers and establish brand loyalty through direct mail and email,^7,8 in the USA, pack interiors are also frequently used as communication vehicles to achieve similar goals. The marketing of rewards programmes is particularly problematic: these programmes often include coupons or monetary prizes (eg, gift cards) that circumvent policies by countering the effects of high tobacco prices.⁹ The display of brand websites, which also leads consumers to promotional content, was even more prevalent. While some countries have enacted measures to standardise cigarette packaging, and most have prohibited in-pack promotions, many of the characteristics identified in this study are still visible to smokers worldwide, largely due to industry legal challenges or the threat thereof.¹⁰ ‘Plain packaging’ regulations—which also cover pack interiors—would prohibit these ‘hidden’ practices and other attractive features that may encourage continued smoking. Policymakers should prioritise this promising tobacco control strategy to reduce product appeal.