Purchase Intent and Product Appeal of Velo Nicotine Pouches Among Current Tobacco Users and Nonusers of Tobacco

Abstract

Summary Background and objectives Oral nicotine pouches is a rapidly growing product category that potentially offers less risk than combustible tobacco products. Nicotine pouches may provide harm reduction for smokers because they contain no tobacco and have reduced harmful constituents compared to traditional tobacco product categories. Any potential public health benefit must weigh the likelihood that current tobacco users will switch to the lower-risk product against the likelihood that nonusers will start using tobacco products. To our knowledge, no existing studies provide population-level estimates of purchase intent or product appeal across tobacco user groups or how product characteristics might affect those variables. Methods This paper presents population-level estimates of purchase intent and product appeal for multiple Velo nicotine pouch products (including different flavors, nicotine strengths, format, and packaging) among five adult tobacco user groups (current established cigarette smokers, current established non-cigarette tobacco users, current tobacco experimenters, former tobacco users, and never ever tobacco users). Over 49,000 respondents were surveyed across twelve analytic samples. Results Results for the pooled sample as well as for each individual sample were remarkably consistent for every product. Ratings of purchase intent and appeal are higher for current tobacco users (current established cigarette smokers, current established non-cigarette tobacco users, and current tobacco experimenters) than for former and never ever tobacco users. Conclusions and scientific significance Variation in product characteristics had little or no effect on purchase intent or appeal ratings across tobacco user groups, suggesting that product characteristics do not materially affect public health.