Imperial Brands’ Paola Pocci bats for consumer-centric approach to tobacco harm reduction

Consumer acceptance is essential for the success of tobacco harm reduction, Paola Pocci, chief consumer officer of Imperial Brands, said, emphasising the critical role of consumer insights and innovation in driving tobacco harm reduction.

In her keynote address at the 2024 Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF) in Athens, Pocci underscored the company’s commitment to offering potentially less harmful alternatives to adult smokers, driven by a deep understanding of consumer needs.

“We all have different perspectives, but we are united by a single purpose – reducing harm through the transformation of our sector”, Pocci told an audience of industry peers and experts from public health, government and finance.

“I would like to focus on the person at the centre of this great endeavour – the adult consumer”, she added. “And I want to talk about the distinctive role of Imperial Brands as the challenger business in our industry.”

Paola explained that this challenger spirit expresses itself through a culture of high performance, a focus on agility, and, above all, a commitment to becoming the most consumer-centric company in the industry.

Imperial Brands has invested heavily in understanding consumer behaviour, conducting over 220,000 interviews in the past year alone. Pocci discussed how this consumer-centric approach has led to significant progress in the company’s product offerings. Studies in the Czech Republic and the UK showed promising results, with up to 50 per cent and 40 per cent of participants, respectively, significantly reducing or switching from cigarettes to tobacco alternatives within six weeks.

“We can see that our products are now having a meaningful impact on harm reduction. Our success is founded on consumer insights, agile innovation and responsible science. And we are now building scale,” she said, adding that the company’s next generation products are now available to more than 200 million smokers in 25 markets, with revenue from the category doubling since 2020.

Despite the progress, Pocci acknowledged that none of the current alternatives fully replicate the sensory experience of smoking, highlighting the need for continued innovation. She also addressed the challenges posed by rogue actors in the market, urging the industry to support proportionate regulation that balances harm reduction with youth protection.

“These rogue actors undermine trust in the category, deterring smokers from switching and undermining the policy case for responsible choice. Unfortunately, this is leading to bans in some markets,” she noted.

“We all have a role to play in the development and enforcement of proportionate regulation, together with policy makers, regulators and civil society. This is regulation which balances the need to protect our youth and exclude irresponsible players, with the need to support harm reduction through the availability of a range of choices.”