Marketing and promotion of potentially harmful products: the case of hookah pipe smoking in South Africa

MBA thesisAn increasing phenomenon in South Africa is hookah pipe or “hubbly bubbly” smoking among young adults. It is not uncommon to see groups of young people in restaurants, bars, cafes and campus corners puffing at hookah pipes and passing them on to the group. The purpose of this research was to ascertain from a selected group of hookah pipe smokers (specifically, a sample of university students in Johannesburg, South Africa) what common marketing and promotional factors influenced their uptake of hookah pipe smoking. . A total of 96 students from two universities in Johannesburg participated in the study. They completed a short anonymous questionnaire requesting their basic demographic details, as well as selected hookah and cigarette smoking knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. Using the marketing mix approach, ten common factors that could influence hookah pipe smoking activity among this population were identified. The participants were required to indicate how these factors influenced their uptake of hookah pipe smoking on a five-point Likert scale. The results of this study present two factors of key importance – the communal nature of the hookah smoking experience (p value 0.001) and the perception that the bubbling and movement of the smoke through water removes the “bad” stuff (p value 0.046) - as significant factors in the marketing and promotion of hookah pipe smoking among this group of post-secondary students in South Africa. Lastly, the participants disagreed that the price of hookah tobacco influenced their use of hookah pipes (p value 0.030).It is recommended that educational, regulatory, as well as marketing and promotional interventions that target and address these factors be carried out to arrest the increasing popularity and uptake of this harmful product. Suggested areas of further research include large scale studies which target high school students with a view to prevention and early intervention