Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Tob Control. 2019 May;28(3):311-316. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054388. Epub 2018 Jul 10.
Marketing claims often have promoted specific perceptions that users should expect from acutely smoking that cigarette brand. Yet, little controlled study has determined the degree to which actual perceptions are based on the cigarette's tobacco constituents in the absence of knowledge about the brand's identity.
194 adult dependent smokers rated their perceptions on 'liking', 'satisfying', 'strong' and perceived amount of 'nicotine' after smoking ad lib one of their preferred brands of cigarettes. All did so either when blinded (n=118) or unblinded (n=76) to the brand they were given, with the blinding conditions from separate studies. These between-groups secondary analyses determined differences in perceptions based on blinding to brand, controlling for age and cigarettes/day.
All perceptions were lower for those smoking own brand under blinded versus unblinded conditions, as hypothesised. Consistent with lowered perceptions for smoking one's own brand obtained from the 118 blinded to brand, their 'somewhat' ratings for a 'how similar to own brand' item indicated uncertainty, just mid-way between 'not at all' and 'very much' on the 0-100 visual analogue scale. (The 76 unblinded were already informed it was their own brand.) CONCLUSIONS: Acute perceptions of one's own cigarette are substantially lower when smokers are simply unaware of brand, relative to those aware it is their preferred brand. Results support the notion that perceptions of smoking own brand are enhanced by marketing efforts to associate brands with expectations of pleasurable subjective effects, beyond the impact due solely to the cigarette's manufactured product constituents.
营销宣传经常会营造出某种印象，即消费者在吸食特定品牌的香烟时，应该会有某种特定的体验。然而，几乎没有经过严格控制的研究来确定，在消费者不知道品牌身份的情况下，实际感知在多大程度上是基于香烟的烟草成分。
194 名成年吸烟者在随意吸食一种他们所偏好的香烟品牌后，根据“喜欢”、“满足感”、“强劲”和感知的“尼古丁”量等维度对自己的吸烟体验进行评价。所有吸烟者都在两种条件下进行评价，一种是在不知道所吸食香烟品牌的情况下进行（n=118），另一种是在知道品牌的情况下进行（n=76）。这两种条件来自于两个不同的研究，我们通过组间的二次分析来确定在控制了年龄和每天吸烟量的情况下，品牌知晓度对感知的影响。
正如我们假设的那样，在不知道所吸食香烟品牌的情况下，吸烟者对自己品牌的所有感知都低于在知道品牌的情况下。与从 118 名不知道品牌的吸烟者那里获得的对自己品牌的感知降低相一致，他们对“与自己品牌的相似程度”的“有些相似”评分表明存在不确定性，正好处于 0-100 视觉模拟量表的“一点也不”和“非常相似”之间。（76 名没有被蒙蔽的吸烟者已经知道这是他们自己的品牌。）
当吸烟者完全不知道品牌时，他们对自己香烟的即时感知会显著降低，而当他们知道这是他们偏好的品牌时，他们的感知会更高。研究结果支持了这样一种观点，即消费者对自己品牌的感知是通过营销努力与对愉悦主观效果的期望联系起来的，这种影响超出了仅仅由香烟的制造产品成分所带来的影响。
