Consumer Behavior Paper and Questionnaire
Constance Ordish
MKT/554
May 7, 2012
Ruby A Rouse, PhD

Consumer Behavior Paper and Questionnaire
Most of the negative publicity found on the Internet about flavored cigarettes centers on the marketing of the cigarettes and not the product itself. Among smokers between ages 18 to 25 the cigarettes are met with warm welcome. Smokers welcome the change from normal cigarettes and like more flavor options to choose from.
The previous methods of marketing flavored cigarettes are under fire. It is commonly believed that the tobacco companies are targeting children and teenagers to hook these customers at a tender age to create lifelong consumers. “Collier County Health Department says it’s a shameless ploy that’s gaining steam. “They know that children are attracted to sweet products, and if they get them hooked on the sweet products then they have a lifetime user,” Rachel Kleist of the Collier County Health Department….According to a 2010 statewide survey, the candy-flavored tobacco trend is catching on. 17.6% of Collier County youth between the ages of 11 and 17 have tried it and 19.9% in Lee County.” ("Cigarette Flavours", 2012).
To counter the previous reputation of flavored cigarette marketing to children, Exotic Smokes will make every effort to develop a marketing campaign directed to smokers within its targeted consumer group and not any younger than 18. The ads will be presented only in magazines generally read by the target group and on late night television when children are expected not to be an audience. The product line will only be sold in specialty smoke shops and in facilities not frequented by children. It is the hopes that avoiding exposure to children and young teens, the negative publicity surrounding the marketing of flavored cigarettes will be kept at a minimum where Exotic Smokes product line is concerned. The subject of the advertisements will be the cigarettes and the flavors with wording that would not lead the consumer to think the ads are directed at children.
The planned marketing survey will sample between 1,000 and 1, 500 smokers between the ages of 18 to 25. The sample group will be found by utilizing existing smoke shop mailing lists and online surveys found on sites frequented by smokers in the target group. Using these two methods will keep the cost down while making it easy to collect the data. Most mailing list can be purchased for as little as $50 and as much as $120 per thousand addresses ("Answers", 2012). with an expected answer rate of 10% and a need of about half of the answered surveys coming from the mailed surveys then at least 5,000 to 10,000 names and addresses are needed to be purchased. Online and e-mail surveys are virtually costless so the most expense will be in purchasing the mailing lists, printing and mailing costs. The professional fees to be charged will be $500 a week during the course of the data gathering expected to take a minimum of four weeks.
Survey Questionnaire and Explanation
The object of the survey is to locate respondents of the target age group and determine if they would be interested in purchasing flavored cigarettes and what flavors the group would find most appealing to smoke.
Target group determination:
What is your age?
Do you currently smoke?
How many cigarettes do you smoke a day? These questions are to set up the survey and to determine if the respondent is within the wanted target group, based on the answers to these questions it will be determined if the following data can be used for the purposes of this survey. The wanted sample is to be derived from tobacco users ages 18 to 25 years of age.
Attitudes and intentions:
How likely are you to purchase a flavored cigarette? Not likely___ Maybe ___ Most Likely___
How often would you purchase flavored cigarettes? Daily___ Weekly ___ Monthly___
How much affect would price have on your choice of flavored cigarettes over the more common type of cigarette? None ___ Little___ Somewhat___ Total___
Rate the following flavors in rank of interest with 1 being the top choice: Apple___ Strawberry ___ Blueberry___ Grape ___ Raspberry___ Cherry___ Coffee ___ These four questions will help determine whether the target group would be likely to purchase flavored cigarettes, how often, what affect price would have and what flavors they would find the most appealing.

References
Cigarette flavours. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.cigarettesflavours.com/category/flavored-cigarettes/
Answers. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/mailing-list