Reinforcement of Smoking and Drinking

Business Research and It’s Purpose

The business research that I chose for my paper is the reinforcement of smoking and drinking and how tobacco marketing strategies link themselves with alcohol in the United States. The reason I chose this topic is because I see this issue increasing within our society. The purpose of this research is to investigate tobacco companies’ awareness about concurrent use of tobacco and alcohol, their marketing strategies linking cigarettes with alcohol, and the benefits tobacco companies pursued from these marketing activities.

Problems under Investigation

Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of premature deaths in the United States, accounting for more than 440,000 deaths yearly. Alcohol consumption is the third-leading cause of deaths in the nation. Each year, approximately 79,000 deaths are caused by excessive alcohol use. The concurrent use of cigarettes and alcohol further increases risks for certain cancers, such as cancer of the mouth, throat, and esophagus. In addition, the use of both tobacco and alcohol makes it more difficult to quit either substance.

The three basics issues are under investigation:

1. What tobacco companies knew about the association between drinking and smoking, especially about smokers’ drinking behaviors

2. How tobacco and alcohol companies developed cross promotions featuring cigarettes and alcohol

3. How tobacco companies linked cigarettes with alcohol in their marketing activities and the benefits they expected to gain from those activities

Data Collection Methods

The method used to collect the data was systematic searches. For a year the Legacy Tobacco Document Library was used to systematically search archived internal tobacco industry documents. Tobacco industry document research presents rare organizational challenges, and standard techniques were followed to conduct document research that combined traditional qualitative methods with search strategies tailored...