Effect of tobacco loyalty programmes on low-income smokers

Abstract

The tobacco industry sustains itself in two ways: by maximizing the number of people who start smoking and by minimizing the number who stop. The health lobby has placed much emphasis upon understanding how the industry uses marketing techniques to recruit new smokers, particularly underage smokers; yet, given that it costs the industry less to keep existing customers than it does to find new ones, there is a strong case for expanding the scope of current investigations to establish the marketing techniques used to maintain the existing customer base. This study focuses on one such technique, the tobacco loyalty programme. It examines the impact of loyalty programmes on low-income smokers, since the evidence indicates that the cessation rates in this group are particularly low.