A content analysis of website marketing for cooling flavored e-liquids in a sample of brick-and-mortar vape shops in the Greater Los Angeles area

Nichelle Brown; Heesung Shin; Simone Whooley; Nathan Tefilin; Olena Les; Sabrina L Smiley

doi:10.18332/tpc/150771

A content analysis of website marketing for cooling flavored e-liquids in a sample of brick-and-mortar vape shops in the Greater Los Angeles area

Tob Prev Cessat. 2022 Jul 25:8:29. doi: 10.18332/tpc/150771. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Nichelle Brown¹, Heesung Shin¹, Simone Whooley², Nathan Tefilin³, Olena Les², Sabrina L Smiley¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Health Promotion and Behavioral Science, School of Public Health, College of Health and Human Services, San Diego State University, San Diego, United States.
² Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States.
³ College of Letters and Science, University of California, Los Angeles, United States.

Abstract

Introduction: Menthol is a characterizing flavor in combustible cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). E-liquids are recognized as an important reason for ENDS use. Yet, compared to menthol cigarettes, menthol flavored e-liquids and other cooling flavors, including mint and 'ice' for ENDS, are an understudied area of investigation. The present study examined cooling flavored e-liquid website marketing among brick-and-mortar vape shops in Greater Los Angeles Area.

Methods: A total of 104 brick-and-mortar vape shops were identified, and 38 had active websites. Over a 30-day period (28 September - 28 October 2020), we collected marketing for all flavored refillable e-liquids (photos/images) from each website. Data were collected for 1330 products. Only refillable e-liquid bottles were selected for this study, excluding prefilled pod vapes and disposable vapes. Each e-liquid per website was coded (e.g. menthol or not) and grouped into categories (e.g. type of menthol). The three flavor descriptor categories that the e-liquids were grouped into were menthol, mint, or ice. An 'other' category was also created for identified e-liquids with flavor descriptors that did not mention menthol, mint, or ice.

Results: A total of 1330 e-liquid flavors were identified from 38 active websites. Among them, 219 were coded as menthol/mint/ice flavor e-liquids. Frequencies included ice/iced/icy (n=123; 56%), menthol (n=32; 15%), mint (n=23; 11%), and other (n=41; 19%). Of the 123 ice-flavor e-liquids, 70.3% (n=83) were in combination with fruit (e.g. 'Apple Ice', 'Grape Iced', 'Icy Mango'). Of the 32 menthol-flavored e-liquids, 63.3% (n=19) were in combination with fruit (e.g. 'Dragon Fruit Menthol', 'Blue Raspberry Menthol', 'Fresh Peach Menthol'). Flavors in the other category were ice-related flavor descriptors (e.g. 'Arctic Air', 'Brain Freeze', 'Frozen Hulk Tears').

Conclusions: Brick-and-mortar vape shops in the Greater Los Angeles Area market a variety of cooling flavor e-liquids on their websites. Such marketing focused largely on ice fruit flavor combinations. Future research is needed to understand how exposure to and appeal of cooling flavored e-liquid marketing differs among diverse consumer groups, including adult menthol cigarette smokers and non-smoking youth.

Keywords: e-liquids; flavors; marketing; menthol; vape shops; website.