Demarketing tobacco through governmental policies – The 4Ps revisited

Governments in many developed countries are increasing their efforts to reduce smoking. In line with their commitment for action, governments use anti-smoking advertising to highlight the health risks of smoking and regulatory measures to dissuade consumers from consuming tobacco. In the past, governments tended to take these steps in isolation, now they are more likely to combine these strategies as part of a demarketing mix. However, relatively little is known about the differential impact of these demarketing mix elements in relation to consumers' intention to quit smoking and other important outcome variables. This article presents a conceptual model linking the 4Ps in a demarketing context with three outcome measures: consumers' attitude toward the tobacco industry, consumers' attitude toward smoking, and consumers' intention to quit smoking. The authors use empirical longitudinal data to test the model and the results suggest that the four demarketing mix elements affect smokers' attitudes toward the tobacco industry and smoking, as well as their intention to quit over time. Further, the results from structural equation modeling analysis indicate that not all four demarketing mix elements are equally effective in inducing consumer behavior change.