The Effect of Removing Point-of-Purchase Price Discounts on College Students’ Future Tobacco Use Susceptibility Depends on Price Sensitivity

Background

Tobacco companies use point-of-sale (POS) discounts and coupons to sustain demand and normalize tobacco use; removing price promotions could counteract these effects. Purpose: Investigate whether the impact of removing tobacco price discount information from retail POS on young people’s susceptibility to using tobacco products depends on price sensitivity, an individual difference that determines consumer reactions to price levels.

Methods

College students (N = 298) participated in an experiment in which they shopped in a replica convenience store that either retained or had removed price discount information from tobacco product advertisements. Before shopping, participants completed questionnaires assessing tobacco use history, susceptibility to cigarette smoking and smokeless tobacco use, and two facets of price sensitivity: price consciousness and sale proneness. Post-shopping susceptibility to smoking cigarettes and using smokeless tobacco were the outcomes.

Results

Previous analyses of these data showed that removing price discount information was associated with lower odds of susceptibility to both cigarette smoking and smokeless tobacco use. In this analysis, we tested whether these effects were moderated by price consciousness and sale proneness. Post-hoc probing of two marginally significant interactions (P = .06 and P < .08) indicated that removing price discount information was associated with lower odds of cigarette smoking susceptibility only among participants high in sale proneness, and lower odds of smokeless tobacco use susceptibility only among those high in price consciousness.

Conclusions

Removing tobacco price discount information from the POS may reduce the likelihood that young people are susceptible to tobacco use, although this effect may be less evident among those with low price sensitivity.