Appealing characteristics of E-cigarette marketing in the retail environment among adolescents

Background: Nearly 3 million U.S. adolescents use e-cigarettes. E-cigarette marketing is associated with adolescent e-cigarette use; however, studies have not asked adolescents their perceptions about whether and which e-cigarette marketing in retail stores influences purchase and use.

Methods: Eleven 90-minute focus groups with 12-19-year-olds (mean age 15.7, 46.6 % female) from 11 U.S. states (n = 58) recruited through Instagram and schools (May 2021-Aug 2022). Photographs of e-cigarette marketing in and around retail stores were used to aid discussion. Thematic analysis identified themes related to appealing marketing characteristics.

Results: Adolescents indicated that e-cigarette marketing in and around retail stores arouses their curiosity, reminds them to buy, and normalizes using e-cigarettes. Adolescents identified specific e-cigarette marketing characteristics that they believed influence their decision to purchase and use e-cigarettes including the Tobacco Power Wall, free samples and flavor smelling samples, price incentives such as discounts and starter-kits, e-cigarette displays near checkout encouraging grab-and-go, displays near food, snacks or candy, and e-cigarette advertising through posters on store windows and stickers at checkout. Adolescents reported combining online and social media strategies to bypass age verification in retail stores (e.g., buying gift cards online and using them in stores). Adolescents suggested adding warning images on negative health effects of e-cigarettes, increasing prominence of minimum-age-of-tobacco-sale signs, and developing marketing education as counter-marketing strategies.

Conclusions: Adolescents indicate that specific e-cigarette marketing characteristics in retail stores influence their purchase and use decisions. Addressing such e-cigarette marketing exposures in retail stores through counter-marketing messages may bolster adolescent e-cigarette prevention efforts.