Namibia must demarket tobacco - by Rosalia Ndafuda Fotolela
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• Demarketing of tobacco products can be one of the solutions in Namibia.
This contribution is based on the paper project I resea...
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• Demarketing of tobacco products can be one of the solutions in Namibia.
This contribution is based on the paper project I researched in India in 2008, under the topic “Demarketing of tobacco products and its impact on consumers: A case study in Mysore-India”.
Demarketing means to reduce marketing methods. The marketing of tobacco has reached saturation point, considering that there are no benefits in tobacco consumption.
The history of smokers started in the simplest and smartest ways. There is no concrete reason behind the attempt to start smoking in general.
Asian countries like India, Nepal and Vietnam use tobacco products during traditional festivals without consuming alcohol.
Unfortunately, in Namibia, 90 percent of smokers are also alcohol consumers, which is one of the serious health risks.
Many countries whose economies depend on tobacco products are left with no other option but to force governments to allow the production of tobacco by giving limited hectares of land to the farmers and quotas of raw tobacco to the manufacturers.
In the Namibian context, tobacco products are imported from other countries, which could give us proper control over maximum consumption and to avoid the most dangerous tobaccos products to enter Namibia.
There are many types of tobacco products, such as chewing tobacco, sweet or savoury flavour, piped tobacco and tobacco pipes. The smoker’s role starts from childhood when teenagers are responsible for buying tobacco products for their parents at the nearest shops (influenced) or they socialise with friends who are smoking (peer pressure).
The smoking habit is realised when people get addicted and by that time it’s already too late to make a U-turn.
The overall purpose of the traders of tobacco products was to maximise profits and nothing else. They knew very well that consumers would not have a happy ending due to health risks.
Although the government’s policies are there to increase sales tax; who suffers in that circumstance are still the family of the smokers because the smokers don’t give up smoking and instead they spend all the monies budgeted for buying food.
Some health workers say that another type of smoker is the second-hand-smoker – those who inhale the smell of the next person who smokes nearby, that’s why many countries have banned smoking in public places.
The Namibian policy-makers should have to look at it with “health concerned eyes” due to the fact that many diseases are caused by tobacco consumption, including lung cancer, bronchitis, etc.
The government is also urged to introduce tobacco day as a campaign, to show videos of people who are suffering from diseases caused by smoking.
In marketing terms, consumers should read the five Ps in the opposite direction: products (tobacco), price (levied with high %), promotion (No advertisements), place or distribution (to be sold with license), packaging (without attractive labels) and pace (restrictions to reach customers).
• Rosalia Ndafuda Fotolela holds an MBA.
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This contribution is based on the paper project I researched in India in 2008, under the topic “Demarketing of tobacco products and its impact on consumers: A case study in Mysore-India”.
Demarketing means to reduce marketing methods. The marketing of tobacco has reached saturation point, considering that there are no benefits in tobacco consumption.
The history of smokers started in the simplest and smartest ways. There is no concrete reason behind the attempt to start smoking in general.
Asian countries like India, Nepal and Vietnam use tobacco products during traditional festivals without consuming alcohol.
Unfortunately, in Namibia, 90 percent of smokers are also alcohol consumers, which is one of the serious health risks.
Many countries whose economies depend on tobacco products are left with no other option but to force governments to allow the production of tobacco by giving limited hectares of land to the farmers and quotas of raw tobacco to the manufacturers.
In the Namibian context, tobacco products are imported from other countries, which could give us proper control over maximum consumption and to avoid the most dangerous tobaccos products to enter Namibia.
There are many types of tobacco products, such as chewing tobacco, sweet or savoury flavour, piped tobacco and tobacco pipes. The smoker’s role starts from childhood when teenagers are responsible for buying tobacco products for their parents at the nearest shops (influenced) or they socialise with friends who are smoking (peer pressure).
The smoking habit is realised when people get addicted and by that time it’s already too late to make a U-turn.
The overall purpose of the traders of tobacco products was to maximise profits and nothing else. They knew very well that consumers would not have a happy ending due to health risks.
Although the government’s policies are there to increase sales tax; who suffers in that circumstance are still the family of the smokers because the smokers don’t give up smoking and instead they spend all the monies budgeted for buying food.
Some health workers say that another type of smoker is the second-hand-smoker – those who inhale the smell of the next person who smokes nearby, that’s why many countries have banned smoking in public places.
The Namibian policy-makers should have to look at it with “health concerned eyes” due to the fact that many diseases are caused by tobacco consumption, including lung cancer, bronchitis, etc.
The government is also urged to introduce tobacco day as a campaign, to show videos of people who are suffering from diseases caused by smoking.
In marketing terms, consumers should read the five Ps in the opposite direction: products (tobacco), price (levied with high %), promotion (No advertisements), place or distribution (to be sold with license), packaging (without attractive labels) and pace (restrictions to reach customers).
• Rosalia Ndafuda Fotolela holds an MBA.
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