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"Point of Purchase" Tobacco Marketing Action of the Month
The activity will: 1) Help you compare and contrast advertising methods used in your and your partner's countries. 2) Generate data relevant for future advocacy campaigns and media work. 3) Provide information that could be useful to an international team of researchers that is about to embark on a systematic study of this topic. 4) Assist Essential Action's development of a module on conducting local surveys. Note: A friend recently sent us a top 10 list titled "Only In America..." No.9 is relevant to this month's action: "Only In America...Do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front." Let's find out if this is really the case!
In the U.S., Canada, and around the world, tobacco companies rely heavily on point of purchase marketing techniques to boost their sales. This includes in-store advertisements (e.g. clocks sporting cigarette logos), marketing gimmicks such as "2 for the price of 1" deals, and the positioning of cigarette displays on or behind store counters. Example: Recently a woman in Georgia, USA lost her job working with Eckerd's drugstores because she refused to adhere to a new orientation manual with rules on how to push customers to buy more cigarettes. As she explained to the media, "When a customer asks for a pack of cigarettes, [Eckerd's wants] the cashier to take out two packs of cigarettes, place them in front of the customer with a lighter perhaps . . . and tell the customer they can save a little with a two-pack special." Example: In Dakar, Senegal Philip Morris provides stores with large red counters, bedecked with a prominent Marlboro logo, a lifesize eye-level image of the infamous Marlboro Man smoking a cigarette, and the phrase: "The cigarette sold most in the world." If you have access to Globalink, you can view the photo at: http://www.globalink.org/gt/af-docs/9909/ There is relatively little cross-cultural research on point of purchase marketing, despite its large importance in affecting the brands and quantities of tobacco products that people buy. Because we are so used to seeing this type of advertising, we sometimes miss it, e.g. in the U.S. we rarely question why the candy display is always next to the check out line! DIRECTIONS 1. Print out, make copies* of, and study the survey
form. If you have any questions about the information you should gather,
please contact Essential Action. 2. Decide the type, number, and location of tobacco vendors you will survey. This decision should be made with your partner so that the data generated can be compared better between your countries. For this activity we recommend that you survey 5-15 stores and/or street vendors. You might choose stores/vendors according to the following criteria: a) proximity to a school or university. b) all stores/vendors along 1-2 blocks of a popular street. c) a geographic sampling of vendors, e.g. rural, suburban, urban. d) choose your own criteria according to your groups interests! 3. Conduct the survey. If more than one person is participating, e.g. a group of youth, make sure that everyone is clear on what is being counted. It is up to you whether or not to explain to the store owner or vendor what you are doing. Sometimes it is easiest to get pertinent information, such as cigarette prices, by simply asking -- often store owners are quite willing to oblige. Other times they may be suspicious and choose be secretive. Use your judgment. Fill out one form for each store/vendor. Be detailed in your observations and record any extra information that might be useful later. 4. Tabulate your results, and share them with your partner and us! How do they compare and contrast with the results of your partner and groups in other countries? How might you use this information? Let us know if you need ideas! Essential
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