Barbara Loken, professor of marketing, is a recognized expert in the fields of branding and consumer psychology. Loken and her co-authors recently released a headline-grabbing National Cancer Institute monograph reporting that there are causal links between tobacco marketing, smoking in movies, and adolescent smoking.

Q > Your work has revealed some of the many ways that tobacco marketing affects consumers, particularly teens. When it comes to smoking, can marketing become part of the solution?
 

A > Absolutely! We're facing a huge challenge, but creative marketing affords public health advocates a wide array of approaches to fighting the "tobacco wars." The new Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will be instrumental in curbing tobacco-related advertising in sports and entertainment venues, for instance. It also changes tobacco packaging and warnings and forces the disclosure of cigarette ingredients.
 

Limiting the 4P's - product, place, promotion, and price - is just one piece of the puzzle, though. Marketing techniques such as branding strategies that create consistent health messages and market segmentation that can identify and target high-risk groups can come into play to shape perceptions about smoking and inform the public of its dangers. The *truth campaign, for example, is a public health initiative that aims to reveal the questionable practices of the tobacco industry. It has successfully used social marketing techniques to reach its target audience. Other media campaigns might focus on the health benefits of quitting smoking, reaching consumers at the point of purchase, or influencing policy makers.

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