NEWS
The Consumer
Behaviour
Journey from
Smoking to
Vaping.
by Dr Marina Murphy, Head of Scientific Media
Relations, Research & Development at British
American Tobacco
A Culture of Cool!
What is it that makes a smoker switch
to an e-cigarette and stick with it? What
are the key consumer and product
drivers behind a major change like this?
What is it that has driven the creation
of this entirely new subculture of vaping
aficionados? It’s a question worth
knowing the answer to, given the many
decades and millions of research dollars
spent trying to create effective smoking
cessation products. NRTs or nicotine
replacement therapies have been around
for many years, but have had limited
success or appeal. Consumers certainly
did not take to them in the same way
as they have taken to e-cigarettes. As
Professor Gerry Stimson, Director of
Knowledge, Action, Change, said at
a lecture in London in April this year:
‘We’ve all heard of VapeFest, but who
ever heard of NRTFest?’ VapeFest
and other get togethers like it, entirely
dedicated to e-cigarettes and the life
that goes with it, are part of a ‘scene’
that runs deep and wide. Vaping
represents a fiercely passionate and
informed subculture with its own jargon
and its own technology, a culture of cool.
Vaping is trending!
The feel good factor of being part
of such a community combined with
the satisfaction, for many vapers, of
having succeeded in quitting smoking
is surely part of the success story. But
16 ISSUE 05 VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE
there is also a
personal story.
Every one-time
smoker who has successfully switched
to e-cigarettes has gone through their
own journey from behaving like / being
a smoker to behaving like / being a
vaper. Understanding this journey and
those behavioural changes along the
way will help researchers to understand
how consumers use their products, a
key factor in understanding the role
e-cigarettes play and will continue to
play in tobacco harm reduction. An
understanding of those behavioural
changes will also inform the innovation
process so that it continues to meet
the evolving needs of vapers. This is
especially important given the speed
of change. There is after all no point
developing a product with the potential to
be substantially safer than a cigarette if
nobody wants to use it.
Millions and Millions
E-cigarette sales continue to rise.
Many millions of consumers now use
e-cigarettes, with 2.6 million e-cigarette
users in the UK alone according to ASH.
According to ASH, the principle reason
given for using e-cigarettes is to cut
down or quit smoking. Of the 2.6 million
vapers in the UK, nearly two out of five
or 1.1 million are ex-smokers and three
out of five or 1.4 million users are current
smokers. A recent estimate from the
Office for National Statistics revealed
that, in 2014, 836,000 people in Great
Britain (38% of all e-cigarette users)
switched completely from smoking
tobacco to only vaping e-cigarettes.
ASH have conducted similar surveys
over the past few years and found that
the vast majority of regular vapers are
either ex-smokers or current-smokers.
Interestingly in the most recent survey
(2015), the increase in numbers of
people using e-cigarettes between
2014 and 2015 came entirely from
ex-smokers. Does this mean that
e-cigarettes are getting better at helping
people to quit?
Another study by Robert West showed
that, since 2013, almost 1 in 3 quit
attempts involve electronic cigarettes
and that e-cigarettes are now the most
commonly used product for quitting
smoking, while sales of other smoking
cessation products have decreased..
So what is it about e-cigarettes that is
driving these trends and how has that
impacted upon the behaviour of smokers
who use them to quit?
Tanks and Mods
The e-cigarette market has evolved quite
considerably since their emergence onto
the market just a few years ago.