Study examines how e-cigarettes' reputation declined over time

Efforts to promote e-cigarettes as a healthier alternative to combustible cigarettes have instead backfired, resulting in a product with a reputation as bad or worse than the existing cigarette category, according to new research.

A review of press releases, news and retail coverage, research, and other documents on e-cigarettes between 2007 and 2018 found that the e-cigarette category of tobacco suffered in reputation over time.

"As the U.S. e-cigarette market has grown and producers have tried to increasingly differentiate from cigarettes, value-based distinctions between the two categories have eroded and social valuations of e-cigarettes as a whole have become increasingly negative," said Greta Hsu, professor at the University of California, Davis, Graduate School of Management, in her latest research.

Published in the journal Administrative Science Quarterly, the article is co-authored by Stine Grodal, professor at Boston University, Questrom School of Business.

Researchers collected more than 1,200 documents from different groups with interests in e-cigarettes, including producers, retailers, financial analysts, government and public health officials, and anti-tobacco organizations.

Early e-cigarette entrepreneurs framed their product as a virtuous alternative to the older, existing category of cigarettes, in a manner similar to touting the benefits of wind power energy, organic produce, and grass-fed meat compared to existing products, researchers said.

Before 2012, when the industry consisted of small, independent producers, the media discussed e-cigarettes in relatively positive terms and even promoted them as a way to help smokers quit smoking.

"E-cigarettes were initially introduced as a healthier alternative to combustible cigarettes," researchers said.

Producers also portrayed e-cigarettes as a product that would "not offend non-smokers" and avoided "the social and health concerns that smoking entails."

Research in product categories has shown that businesses should ensure that their claims of distinction or tradition are both clear and legitimate, the authors said.

"Studies of oppositional categories such as French nouvelle cuisine, biodynamic wine, wind energy, and grass-fed beef have found that new category proponents expend considerable effort elaborating how a new category is different from and normatively superior to an existing category," the researchers said.

The lack of a clear distinction between cigarettes and e-cigarettes allowed tobacco companies to enter the e-cigarette market and grow their market share, but this lack of distinction also blurred boundaries between the two products, the researchers concluded.

-ANI

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