Woman smoking a cigarette

Publishing: 11 February

Advertising deadline: 2 February

Submissions deadline: 27 January

Contact: Ronan Hegarty (ronan.hegarty@thegrocer.co.uk)

Download full synopsis here.

The Story

The timing of Marlboro owner Philip Morris boss André Calantzopoulos’s pledge to do ‘everything he could’ to get smokers to switch to smokeless cigarette IQOS leaves little doubt: the age of the traditional fag is coming to an end. And the final regulatory nails – a ban on flavoured products and the sale of cigs in anything but unbranded tar brown packs of 20 (or 30g of RYO) featuring graphic images of the damage smoking does – will be hammered in May. So, with smokeless products already available in other parts of the world, what are their prospects here? Could such products take the wind out of e-cigs? What other tactics can the brands do to protect their business?

This piece will be chiefly an analysis of how smokeless products are performing in other countries they’ve been launched in and whether they could impact the growth of e-cigs.

Also, how have the big brands have performed and are we likely to see larger packs introduced to attract price sensitive smokers.

Innovations: We identify four new products or product ranges that have ideally not appeared in The Grocer before, including launch date and RSP, and source a hi-res picture of each.

Key questions the feature is likely to address:

  • What consumer trends have impacted the category over the past year?
  • How have promotional strategies (both in terms of price and marketing) evolved?
  • How have individual retailers’ strategies impacted the market?
  • How has merchandising changed in the market?
  • What’s next for the category?

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