Tobacco companies’ use of retailer incentives after a ban on point-of-sale tobacco displays in Scotland

Correspondence to Martine Stead, Institute for Social Marketing, Faculty of Health Sciences & Sport, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK; [email protected]

Introduction

With most tobacco marketing now banned, retail outlets are increasingly central to tobacco company marketing activities.¹ A key objective for tobacco companies is to achieve brand visibility and maximise potential marketing opportunities at the point-of-sale.² Tobacco companies offer tobacco display unit contracts to retailers, whereby retailers receive a free regularly maintained storage unit in return for stocking and displaying the company’s brands in optimal positions.³ Retailers are encouraged to participate in ‘loyalty’ or ‘reward’ programmes which incentivise them for having products in stock, positioning and sales.^{4 5} Manufacturers’ representatives (or ‘reps’) visit retailers regularly to check availability and sales and encourage participation in new promotions.⁶ Incentives and rewards offered to retailers include volume rebates, in-kind payments such as free stock,⁷ cash payments and ‘points’ which are redeemable for cash or goods.^{4 6}

In countries where visible displays of tobacco are prohibited, incentive schemes might be expected to decline. However, news reports from Canada and Australia, where open displays of tobacco products are banned, suggest that tobacco companies are continuing to engage retailers in financial incentive schemes.^{8 9} To date, there has been limited academic research concerning retailer incentive practices following a display ban. In Scotland, all point-of-sale displays of tobacco products were prohibited in 2013 in supermarkets over 280 m² of retail space and in 2015 in small stores. We examine small retailers’ experiences of incentives to promote tobacco in the 2-year period after displays were prohibited in small stores.

Methods

Design and sample

The data reported here form part of the DISPLAY study, which is designed to evaluate the impacts of the legislation prohibiting the open display of tobacco products at point-of-sale in Scotland.^10–13 This study includes annual interviews with a cohort (n=24) of small independent high-street tobacco retailers to explore their experiences of implementing the display ban and their relationships with tobacco companies over the period. The retailers interviewed were from four Scottish communities selected to match the main DISPLAY study communities in terms of levels of urbanisation and social deprivation, assessed using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation...