Besides Promoting Smoking Cessation, What Other Marketing Tactics Do E-cigarette Companies Use?

What other marketing tactics do e-cigarette companies use besides promoting smoking cessation? During this year's 315 Gala, China Central Television exposed the potential risks associated with e-cigarettes and also pointed out that e-cigarette companies had made false and exaggerated claims about their smoking cessation benefits. This article looks at the overnight popularity of e-cigarettes purely from a marketer's perspective and explores what other marketing tactics e-cigarette companies are using.

The 315 Gala pointed out that e-cigarettes also release harmful substances, endangering the health of both users and passive smokers, and that long-term use can likewise lead to nicotine dependence.

This inevitably reminded me of a large gathering I attended during the Lunar New Year, where the usual “old smokers” were all pulling out boxes the size of power banks and talking about when they first started paying attention to this so-called high-tech product that was both “healthy” and satisfying—e-cigarettes. The high-end crowd had clearly begun their “premium” smoking lifestyle.....

If women can apply expensive eye cream while staying up late, why should men keep smoking deadly cigarettes? Under the banner of being “healthy,” e-cigarettes quickly swept through social circles, and many social sellers, daigou resellers, and manufacturers were eager to get a share of the market.

In the age of internet thinking, what other marketing tactics do e-cigarette companies use?

At first, most people were still unfamiliar with e-cigarettes. But if you want to understand why they suddenly became so popular, you have to start with your social feed. Scroll through your social circle and you will find that this new favorite among influential people stems largely from being associated with high-end and tech industry giants.

In January 2019, Luo Yonghao introduced Flow, an e-cigarette product created by former Smartisan executive Zhu Xiaomu, during the Chat Bao launch event, calling it a revolutionary product that was 95% less harmful than traditional cigarettes. Shouldn’t there have been applause here?

Also in January, former Tongdao Uncle founder Cai Yuedong posted on his Moments feed to announce that his e-cigarette brand YOOZ had officially started spot sales. Of course, this alone was not enough to create the huge wave of e-cigarette popularity—it was only a small trigger.

According to data provided by YOOZ, through reposting and promotion on social feeds, KOL channels, and influencer accounts, first-day sales of its available inventory reached RMB 5 million.

The YOOZ team also developed a gift-giving mini program: “One-click gifting with a fresh idea—give health and technology to friends and family.” By scanning a QR code, users could send e-cigarettes as New Year gifts to relatives and friends, making the process extremely convenient. Why e-cigarettes were able to win people over so quickly

In fact, e-cigarettes are not a product that only appeared this year—the earliest versions can be traced back to 1963. For a product that had long remained obscure to become wildly popular overnight, in addition to bringing in concepts like environmental protection and health, KOL-style marketing must also be mentioned.

By leveraging users themselves to create an advertising effect, the logic is actually quite simple. In the office, one of the most frustrating daily questions is what to order for lunch. At that moment, there is always a voice in your head telling you to ask: “XXX, what are you having for lunch?” Once you hear the answer, that person becomes your KOL in the food category. You may not necessarily like what they recommend, but you will consider it as one of your options.

A whole string of praise was shared among long-time smokers as part of their user experience: gradually quitting traditional cigarettes after switching to e-cigarettes, no open flame and therefore lower PM2.5 exposure, no more secondhand smoke harming others, a wide variety of flavors, stylish new designs, and so on.

“Since everyone else is starting to abandon traditional cigarettes, why can’t I?” This kind of messaging activates consumers’ psychological state or underlying needs, thereby triggering their desire to buy.

On top of that, today’s self-media ecosystem is highly developed. Content can spread directly through images, text, short videos, and livestreams. Seeing people in videos stylishly blowing smoke rings and sharing their experiences with different flavors can attract plenty of buyers simply through the novelty and fun factor.

I believe that even the 315 Gala’s exposé of e-cigarettes will not stop this industry from continuing to boom, because market demand has already been opened up. What this industry now needs is standardized development. As capital enters the space, the big fish will eat the small fish, and ongoing market competition and survival of the fittest will bring consumers better products and services.