Smoking Cessation: How to get 20 to 25 year old Canadians to consider quitting.

SMOKING CESSATIONHOW TO GET 20-25 YEAR OLDS TO QUITA REPORT BY SONIC BOOM, 2013

This report examines the smoking habits of Canadians aged 20-25 from a sociological perspective to identify the underlying beliefs, values, and meanings that guide both smoking behaviour and the triggers to quit.

Developed by Sonic Boom, this report aims to answer the question:

“What do marketers need to do to get 20-25 year old Canadians to consider quitting?”

SMOKING CESSATION

COPYRIGHT SONIC BOOM, 2013. [email protected]

Sonic Boom used a combination of primary and secondary re-search in the development of this report. The goal in conducting and publishing this research was to understand the role smoking occupies in people’s lives by looking at the world from their per-spective.

Our research process involved:

Primary Research: Proprietary Digital Ethnographic research methodology was used to analyze thousands of online conversa-tions and the identities of people having them, in the context of smoking and associated activities such as going out to a bar with friends or taking a lunch break.

Secondary Research: An analysis of published research across numerous industry and academic journals in the past decade in Canada.

METHODOLOGY

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Our research identified three dominant belief systems guiding smoking behaviour in the target age group. Each of these belief systems was organized into archetypes (or personas) that drew a connection between the beliefs and values of the audience and their motivations to smoke.

The construction of archetypes also took variables such as edu-cation, location, socio-economic background, and various mani-festations of “peer pressure” into consideration.

The following pages will take you through each of these arche-types, explaining at a high level what smoking means to people that fall within these groups, and what we would need to do as marketers to engage smokers and get them to consider quitting.

INTRODUCTION

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Based on our analysis, the following archetypes have been or-ganized based on their relationship to the act of smoking.

• Activists: Smoking is identity driven, for the purpose of rebel-lion.

• Socialites: Smoking is socially driven, for the purpose of build-ing relationships with peer groups.

• New Blue Collars: Smoking is stress driven, for the purpose of taking a break from routine tasks and activities.

Activists

Activists construct their self-image of rebellion through art and politics-based content, and are innately urban. They create and consume the city. They are intellectually sharp, informed, and quick to sniff out what’s cool and what’s not in culture. They are trendsetters and are therefore marketed to heavily by cigarette manufacturers.

ARCHETYPES:

WHY THEY SMOKE

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Activists’ identities centre around alternative cul-ture and creative originality. They scoff at "good", "earnest", "civic-mindedness" and laugh in the face of state-directed notions of health and well-being. They live life on their own terms.

Activists are likely to have struggled (or know someone who has) with some form of depression or low self-esteem, and so project a cynical atti-tude towards the world.

To Activists, smoking symbolizes creativity (art, poetry, music) and cynicism. It works as a way to reject the control that is seemingly exerted by the government, by society’s social norms, and other cultural entities.

Socialites

Socialites are predominantly in post-secondary education environments (college and/or univer-sity), and smoking amongst them occurs for so-cial conformity. As a result, many Socialites do not even identify themselves as ‘smokers’.

Socialites are looking to ‘fit-in’ with their peer groups and want to look good while doing so. They are typically looking for relationships at this stage in their lives and consider social-smoking as an attractive quality in a mate.

Above all else, Socialites seek confidence: They are young, still “finding themselves”, and enjoy-ing a new-found sense of freedom, having re-cently moved out of their parents’ home. So to them, smoking is a way to show others that one is self-assured, in control, and slightly edgy.

New Blue Collars

New Blue Collars (NBCs) come from lower work-ing classes and do not have university level edu-cation (but may have attended a technical col-lege). NBCs are embedded in networks of smok-ers at the family (had parents who smoked), friend, and co-worker level.

They have a low sense of personal control over their lives and futures, and are riddled with stress - related to money and the fact that they are al-ready out in the "real world" having to deal with the daily grind of work-life.

Smoking helps relieve some of that pressure.

Apart from dealing with stress, men in particular, also use smoking to reduce negative emotions such as anger and depression.

NBCs live for their weekends. They love to party, drink and smoke, and work through their weeks with the weekend’s reward in mind.

To the New Blue Collars, smoking provides a break from the daily grind, and a way to exert control of one’s seemingly routine life.

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Generally, this age group feels invincible. They believe they’re not addicted and can easily quit when they decide to. They are aware that negative health affects can be prevented if they quit before the age of 30, and therefore feel they have plenty of time in hand.

Activists

Activists are undeterred by the physical risk of death associated with smoking. In fact, research suggests anti-smoking tactics that focus on the health consequences of smoking are especially inef-fective, as the ‘forbidden fruit’ quality can stimulate smokers to identify more strongly with the act.

Socialites

Socialites worry a lot. They worry about their future, and about how their smoking affects people around them, particularly in so-cial situations that aren’t conducive to smoking.

The right kind of health messages may trigger this group to quit, but will need to empower them to take action themselves - as this

EFFECT OF HEALTH MESSAGES

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group is already lacking in confidence and self-esteem.

Socialites are particularly affected by messages that pertain to health consequences in the now.

New Blue Collars (NBCs)

Like the Socialites, NBCs are also most affected by conversations pertaining to current health problems, rather than something they may have to deal with in the future. Interestingly, unlike the other archetypes, NBCs do not currently see themselves as being healthy. Health doesn’t be-come a concern for them until later in their lives.

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Activists

Activists are less likely to quit out of future concern and worry (like the socialites) unless it becomes an issue for them NOW. They do not expect to see themselves smoking a year from now and typically quit when undergoing transitions in life, such as get-ting married, having a child, or even entering into a relationship with someone who doesn’t smoke.

Getting Activists to quit requires a focus on breaking the mean-ings they currently associate with the act of smoking. That is, breaking the illusion that smoking allows them to express their creativity, reject norms in society, or even express a sense of cyni-cism for the world they live in.

It requires one to draw attention to the fact that smoking is an ac-tivity that allows cigarette manufacturers to control Activists and their behaviour. Smoking, in fact, takes away an Activist’s free-dom.

HOW TO GET THEM TO QUIT

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Socialites

Like the Activists, Socialites do not see them-selves smoking in a year from now, and often quit when going through life-transitions such as having children or getting married.

Getting Socialites to quit requires a focus on breaking the illusion that smoking makes them friends, and gives them a self-assured, free-spirited persona. For this archetype, it is particu-larly important to focus on the positive social out-comes that can result from activities that don’t in-volve smoking.

New Blue Collars

Unlike the other two archetypes, NBCs see them-selves smoking in a year from now. And that is because they are surrounded by smokers across their lives and communities.

Getting NBCs to quit requires breaking the illu-sions of stress relief and relaxation (associated with smoking). Most importantly, it requires a fo-cus on positive life outcomes that can result from not smoking. For example, having more money to enjoy the weekends, or having the confidence to try new things or learn new skills that can break the routine and help achieve better social and economic status.

The Ultimate Illusion

Audiences in this age category are very aware of the long term effects of smoking, but that doesn’t deter them from smoking today. This audience operates under the impression that they can quit when they feel like it. That is the ultimate illusion.

Messages to this age category must address this reality.

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Reaching Canadian smokers between the ages of 20-25 requires a specific approach. One that focuses on addressing the mean-ings they associate with the act of smoking, rather than on its ill effects.

Gaining audience attention requires content and programs that are culturally relevant to each archetype. It also requires soft-sell tactics in order to limit the barrier to engagement.

Getting smokers to consider a behavioural change requires a focus on breaking the various illusions each archetype associ-ates with smoking, and ultimately creating new cultural meanings in the marketplace through interesting content, programs, and campaigns.

For more information on how our insights can be applied to reach audiences with strategic programs and content, contact us at [email protected].

CONCLUSION

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In order of appearance:

Cover: Valentin.Ottone

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saneboy/3595175373/

Page 2: Bhumika.B

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bhumikabhatia/6199726283/

Page 3: Jonathan Kos-Read

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathankosread/6921210104/

Page 6: Helga Weber

http://www.flickr.com/photos/helga/3235419647/

Page 8: Kris Krug

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kk/62915790/

Page 10: Ed Yourdon

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/2905906295/

IMAGES USED UNDER CREATIVE-COMMONS LICENSING

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