A Reynolds American Inc. subsidiary is adding Utah as a second test market for its Vuse electronic cigarette product, beginning in mid-January.
R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. officials said during the parent company's Investor Day presentation Monday that they expect to begin distributing Vuse nationally in 2014.
E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution in a disposable cartridge and create a vapor that is inhaled.
The company began selling Vuse statewide in Colorado in July after launching the product last year in Tarheel Tobacco stores at 6311 Stadium Drive in Clemmons, 3193 Peters Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem and in Danville, Va. It still is sold in those stores, but the volume available may be limited as part of the expanded distribution.
Daan Delen, Reynolds' chief executive and president, said Vuse can be an industry "game changer" because it could solve the vexing dilemma of a high volume of smokers trying e-cigs, but a limited number converting to them as their top tobacco choice.
Reynolds spokesman David Howard said the company will mirror the Colorado distribution and marketing efforts, including 60-second TV commercials.
"We already have the distribution infrastructure in place for that part of the country, and we expect to get different learnings from tobacco consumers in Utah," Howard said.
Cigarette advertising on television was banned by the federal government in 1971. Reynolds has been running TV ads in its Iowa test market for Zonnic, its nicotine replacement therapy product. Altria Group Inc. in August launched its MarkTen e-cig product in Indiana.
Reynolds is the latest major tobacco manufacturer or marketer to step through a window of opportunity – possibly fleeting – to advertise e-cigs on TV to adult smokers. NJoy and blu Ecigs also are doing TV ads.
Howard said the TV commercials run during late-night shows, and other times when adults comprise at least 85 percent of the viewership of adult-oriented content.
The tobacco industry, advocacy groups and consumers have been waiting since 2009 for the Food and Drug Administration to decide how it will regulate e-cigs for product safety, minimum legal age for use, flavors, marketing and retail availability.
That decision was expected to be made in October before the federal government shutdown took effect. Analysts say the decision could come any day.
The Vuse TV ad centers on a message that "it's time that smoking changed forever" with an e-cig that offers "a perfect puff, first time, every time." The ad features lab technicians in white coats focusing on the Vuse microprocessor that Reynolds claims provide a more realistic vapor experience than other e-cigs.
It also emphasizes the made-in-USA aspect of the product. The liquid for the vapor is made in Winston-Salem.
Anti-tobacco advocates pushing for strict limitations on e-cigs sales say it is necessary to keep the products out of the hands of minors. Some of the same advocates consider e-cigs – as well as smokeless tobacco and dissolvable tobacco products – as potential gateways to the use of traditional cigarettes.
The large e-cig marketers may be trying to get as much exposure and adult smoker trial as they can before FDA regulation is set, said Roger Beahm, executive director of the Center of Retail Innovation at Wake Forest Schools of Business.
"Typically, when tobacco regulations come out, they can serve to freeze or dictate market share," Beahm said.
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