Association of Flavor Perception With Blue vs Purple Cigar Packaging Among US Adults


 This survey study examines the association of cigar flavor perception with blue vs purple packaging among US adults.



Introduction
A leading US cigar brand Black & Mild recently emailed customers to promote its newest blend, Royale, in purple packaging. Previously, the company sold the same cigar in a blue pack (promoted on its website in [2011][2012][2013][2014][2015][2016]. This shift is notable since pack color influences consumer perceptions, including of flavor, [1][2][3] and certain colors are associated with specific flavors (eg, green with menthol). 2 We hypothesized that consumer flavor perceptions differ for blue vs purple cigar packaging.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License.

Methods
The Rutgers University Institutional Review Board deemed this online survey study exempt because of minimal participant risk. Participants provided consent before survey completion. The study followed the AAPOR reporting guideline.
We examined the association of cigar pack color with consumer flavor perceptions using data from 1 wave of the Rutgers Omnibus Study (a quarterly Amazon Mechanical Turk [mTurk] survey of US adults aged 18-45 years) collected in August 2022. Respondents were randomized to view a cigar with blue or purple packaging and asked if the cigar was flavored (yes or no) and, if yes, what flavor. We used multivariable logistic regression models to examine the association of condition (pack color) with cigar use, self-reported demographic characteristics (age, sex, and race and ethnicity), and flavor perceptions. Statistical significance was defined as P < .05 (2-tailed) and analyses were conducted in October 2022 using Stata/MP, version 17 (StataCorp).

Discussion
Although previous studies have investigated the association of cigar pack color with consumer perception, 1-3 our survey study is the first, to our knowledge, to report its association with specific flavor perceptions. The results suggested that purple communicated the product was flavored more so than blue. While this perception was universal regardless of respondent cigar smoking status, it was more common among cigar smokers and likely reflects their familiarity with the flavored cigar marketplace.
Cigar smokers tended to indicate specific flavors that reflected existing color and flavor combinations (eg, blue/vanilla). This is known as sensation transference, a marketing strategy used by tobacco companies. 4 Individuals who use the brand we studied reported higher odds of perceiving purple as wine (a popular flavor), whereas never cigar users and users of other brands rarely suggested wine. Grape, one the most popular cigar flavors, was the most endorsed perceived flavor for purple packaging regardless of cigar smoking status.
The use of mTurk is a study limitation, as mTurk is a nonprobability online survey and therefore may underestimate or overestimate prevalence. Indeed, current cigar use prevalence was higher in our sample compared with national estimates, 5 although definitions of "current use" differ. However, mTurk samples yield generalizable findings for splitsample experiments such as ours. 6 In addition, we focused on a single cigar brand; thus, our findings may not generalize to other brands.
Our findings are timely, given that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to ban flavored cigars. Pack color will likely become increasingly important for tobacco companies to communicate product attributes to consumers. Our study suggests that color can convey distinct messages to different audiences, including product users and nonusers, and to users of specific brands. Further, given the association of pack color with perceived flavor, the FDA should consider tobacco products with pack-color changes as new products that are subjected to rigorous product review. 2

Supplementary Material
Refer to Web version on PubMed Central for supplementary material.

Funding/Support:
This research was funded by the Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science under NCI and FDA award U54CA229973 and by the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey under NCI award P30CA07270.

Role of the Funder/Sponsor:
The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Data Sharing Statement:
See the Supplement. b Categories are mutually exclusive and were defined as follows: never use of any cigar product (ie, traditional or premium, filtered, or cigarillo), ever but not current use of any cigar product, or current use of any cigar product (use every day, some days, or rarely).
c Defined as those who reported B&M as their regular or last brand for any cigar product (ie, traditional or premium, filtered, or cigarillo); all B&M smokers were current smokers.
Delnevo and Ganz Page 6 a Adjusted analyses controlled for age and all variables presented here.
b Defined as follows: never use of any cigar product (ie, traditional or premium, filtered, or cigarillo), ever but not current use of any cigar product, and current use of any cigar product (use every day, some days, or rarely).