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Where There’s Smoke, There’s Sales

January 29, 2015

And now there’s more data. From time to time, we all need to take a closer look at our Scarborough data, and now you will find that the smoking category has been opened up to provide more information on the smoking habits of your listeners, including how much and how often they smoke, as well as how many times they have tried to quit.

This added information provides tremendous opportunities for revenue growth, especially with the recent healthcare changes.

The Affordable Care Act has granted insurance companies greater latitude to increase premiums more for smoking than for any other factor, allowing them to charge as much as 50% more for smokers than for non-smokers.

This provides opportunity for growth on two fronts … Smoking Cessation and Health Insurance.

Due to these increased insurance premiums, and hence an opportunity to lower premiums by quitting, the demand for smoking cessation products and programs may be at an all-time high. This also presents an opportunity to connect with your listeners through tips to quit and messages of support. Perhaps one of your personalities is trying to quit and can take the journey alongside your listeners.

The other avenue for sales growth is with health insurance companies. Believe it or not, the smoking population is still quite large. Nearly 18 out of every 100 (17.8%) U.S. adults aged 18 years or older currently smoke cigarettes, which is an estimated 42.1 million adults. Due to this, some insurance companies are being more aggressive in attracting the smoker market than others, and will charge lower premiums in order to capture a larger share of the market.

The opportunities in the smoking arena are as limitless as your creativity, and now you have data to prove your worth.

Research Director, Inc. is here to help. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for assistance.

-Karen Blanks, Sales Research Consultant

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults—United States, 2005–2013.

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