This interview is brought to you by Reynolds American, a NACS Hunter Club Member.
What stance does Reynolds American take when it comes to the modern vapor market?
Valerie Mras, Senior Vice President, Brand Marketing: As adult smokers increasingly seek innovative alternative smokeless products, the Reynolds American organization believes innovation must be paired with strong safeguards to help ensure vapor products end up in the hands of adult nicotine consumers only.
How has Reynolds American been working to ensure these products are marketed and sold to adults only?
Mras: The latest data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey shows underage vaping has declined 74% in the last six years. That’s real progress, but the job is not done. Underage individuals who vape overwhelmingly report using illicit disposable products that operate largely outside regulated, licensed and traceable channels.
We can’t control the illicit products proliferating the market or the bad actors who ignore the rules. But we can continue to do vapor the right way by working within the FDA framework and further raising the bar with our trusted retailer partners.
What are some of the ways you keep your marketing centered on adult nicotine consumers?
Mras: Our responsible marketing practices are centered on critical principles such as:
- Only marketing to adult tobacco and nicotine consumers through tailored advertisements that only use models who are aged 35 and older.
- Prohibiting the use of social media influencers.
- Partnering with national programs like We Card and TruAge, which offer retailers materials, training and technology to help them prevent and stop the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to underage persons.
Are these new initiatives and partnerships for Reynolds American?
Mras: While some of our technology and marketing practices are newer to keep up with changing landscapes, our commitment to preventing underage access is not new. We’ve been a founding partner with We Card for more than 30 years to bring age verification and underage access prevention measures to retailers across the country.
Accelerating that support is our investment in TruAge™, which serves to digitize age verification at retail, further preventing the potential for underage access.
How do you work with retail partners to ensure that only adults can access vapor products?
Mras: Our retail partners are a critical part of the underage access prevention ecosystem, and we’re proud that as we’ve further raised the bar to do vapor right, many have joined our push to keep vapor for adult nicotine consumers, period.
Through our newly instituted Responsible Vapor Retailer program, we’ve established additional requirements for contracted retail partners that choose to sell Vuse Pro Pods.
What does the responsible vapor retailer program mean for retailers?
Mras: In support of the Vuse Pro launch, we have instituted a Responsible Vapor Retailer program with additional requirements for contracted retail partners that choose to sell Vuse Pro Pods.
