[Intl-tobacco] Philip Morris test-markets smokeless tobacco product]

[robert weissman]

Philip Morris test-markets smokeless tobacco product

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Public-health advocates fear Taboka might keep smokers from quitting

BY JOHN REID BLACKWELL
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Jul 22, 2006


Philip Morris USA's newest tobacco product is available at some retail
stores in the Indianapolis area.

The cigarette company this month started test-marketing its first
smokeless tobacco product, named Taboka. It could also be the first of
many new brands marketed as alternatives to cigarettes, which has raised
concerns among public-health advocates that Taboka and similar products
will keep smokers from quitting.

Philip Morris is only test-marketing Taboka for now, and the company
hasn't indicated when it might be sold outside the Indianapolis area.
"We are using this test market to really understand adult smoker
acceptance of the product," said Michael Neese, a company spokesman.

Taboka consists of small pouches of flavored tobacco that are placed
between the user's cheek and gum. Unlike most oral tobacco, it is
designed to be spit-free and discreet. The pouches are discarded after use.

The company did not say how many stores are carrying Taboka, but a
spokesman said the test market includes the Midwestern convenience store
chains Speedway and Gas- America.

"We feel like guinea pigs," said Karla Sneegas, executive director of
the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Agency. "This is the second
time in four years that a tobacco company has decided to test market a
product here."

As smoking rates slowly decline in the United States, Philip Morris is
pursuing what it calls an adjacency strategy of diversifying into other
tobacco products. Its largest U.S. competitor in the cigarette market,
Reynolds American Inc., also is test-marketing a smokeless brand. It is
called Camel Snus and is available only in Austin, Texas, and Portland, Ore.

Like many other states and cities, Indianapolis recently adopted
stricter laws against smoking in restaurants and other indoor, public
places, Sneegas said.

"One of the added benefits of smoke-free environments is that a
substantial number of smokers will decide to quit," Sneegas said. If
Taboka gives smokers a way to continue using tobacco in smoke-free
places, "it will curtail our efforts to increase the numbers of smokers
that quit."

Philip Morris acknowledges on its Web site and on the Taboka packaging
that smokeless tobacco is addictive, causes diseases and is not a safe
alternative to smoking.

Taboka, which is manufactured in Richmond, comes in packs of 12 and
costs $3.55 in Indiana, about the same price as a pack of Marlboros.


Contact staff writer John Reid Blackwell at jblackwell@timesdispatch.com
<mailto:jblackwell@timesdispatch.com> or (804) 775-8123.