An analysis of Factors Contributing to the Increase of Tobacco Consumption in Bangladesh despite Restrictive Anti-Smoking Policies

This paper examines an emerging issue rising up in a developing economy like Bangladesh “Indirect Marketing of Tobacco Products”. This indirect marketing activity is currently moving under the radar of various government monitoring cells. As a result, there is an increase in the number of both underage and legal smokers in the country. The health risks due to the consumptions of the tobacco related products are now one of the widely discussed topics. Worldwide tobacco products are highly discouraged by both medical experts and governments. Governments in both developed and developing countries heavily regulated “Above the Line Marketing Activities” (ATL) utilized by the tobacco companies. Therefore, tobacco companies now employ “Below the Line Marketing Activities” to promote their products. Such activities include point of sale merchandizing, retailer advocacy and various discounting mechanisms. Tobacco companies in Bangladesh also employ such activities to advertise their brand portfolio. Although from a legal point of view, these marketing efforts are only employed to encourage the consumers to switch brands. However, the ripple effect of such marketing activities, growth of cigarette selling outlets (side effects of socio-economic condition of Bangladesh) and inefficiency in rigorous implementation of tobacco laws are encouraging underage/matured population of the country to become occasional smokers, who later on develop habitual smoking despite the restrictive anti-smoking laws. In this research, primary analysis is done through set questionnaires in the Sample Retail Universe (556 retailers randomly chosen from various parts of Bangladesh) along with “Retail Audit” data used to obtain the industry trend analysis. A strong positive correlation can be observed between the industry growth and the different parameters used in the study such as effects of Below the Line Marketing Activity, growth of cigarette selling retail universe and weak implementation anti-smoking policies by the government. The research gives us an insight into the true picture of tobacco industry’s surge with respect to the tobacco consumer behavior and the remedies needed to close the gap.