Tobacco industry brand websites: Features and industry strategies

Background: In addition to their corporate websites, cigarette companies host websites for specific brands such as Camel, KOOL, Newport, and Doral. These websites provide the industry with an important means not only of promoting their brands, but also of communicating directly with consumers and building relationships with them. Methods: This presentation examines tobacco industry brand-specific websites, their utility to the tobacco industry, and the industry strategies and purposes behind them. Results are obtained through review of previously secret tobacco industry documents, general literature on Internet sites and strategies, and surveillance of six cigarette brand websites over a 2 year period. Results: Brand websites include promotional features, such as those intended to drive off-line sales (e.g., retailer locators) and promote industry-sponsored events, and relationship-building features. The latter, which add value to the site and encourage return visits, include games and other interactive mechanisms (e.g., message boards), rewards and incentives for frequent visits, as well as other lifestyle/experience content consistent with the brand's image. Websites also provide data gathering mechanisms (e.g., direct mail and sweepstakes sign-ups ) and a means of tracking the number of visitors to a site, the frequency of visits, time spent on the site and users' progress through it, all of which provide useful information to tobacco companies for future marketing efforts. Conclusions: Cigarette brand websites provide the tobacco industry with a highly interactive and involving mechanism for reaching and influencing consumers. Further study of the industry's purposes for these websites and surveillance of them is warranted.