26 September 2024
Chief Consumer Officer Paola Pocci delivered a keynote address to the 2024 Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum in Athens – read her speech in full here.
Greece has historically had one of the highest smoking rates in Europe but a dramatic decline in smoker numbers over the past few years has been driven, in part, by the growing availability of attractive and responsibly marketed alternative products.
In this three-minute video – shared with delegates at GTNF 2024 in Athens – our Greek team, led by Market Manager Nikos Nikiforidis, explains its active role in helping adult smokers transition away from cigarettes by offering a choice of next generation products that increasingly meet consumer needs.
“We all have different perspectives, but we are united by a single purpose – reducing harm through the transformation of our sector”, Chief Consumer Officer Paola Pocci told an audience of industry peers and experts from public health, government and finance at this year’s GTNF.
“I would like to focus on the person at the centre of this great endeavour – the adult consumer”, said Paola. “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.
Consumer acceptance is essential for the success of tobacco harm reduction, said Paola. The more smokers choose to migrate to potentially less risky products, the bigger the impact to society.
Responsibly marketed brands had a potentially huge role to play in building trust and credibility in next generation categories and educating consumers, she added.
Paola outlined some of the learnings from our significant investment to improve our consumer insights, and said that continuing to listen to the consumer and innovating with responsibility was key to making further progress in harm reduction.
“We have gone from a position three years ago where, candidly, our products were uncompetitive, to a point now where we have attractive propositions in all categories”,
she said.
Paola Pocci addresses delegates at GTNF 2024 in Athens.
“I can say this with confidence because we now have our own real world evidence which shows how our products are able to attract smokers away from cigarettes – and successfully keep them away.
Our challenger approach, underpinned by responsible science, has enabled us to build scale and sustainable success, Paola told delegates. Our next generation products are now available to more than 200 million smokers in 25 markets. Since 2020, revenue from these products has doubled.
Paola concluded with a reminder that, despite the progress made by Imperial Brands and across the industry, much more hard work lay ahead.
“There remain more than 1 billion smokers in the world who have yet to choose to quit or to switch to potentially less harmful products. And that is a challenge to all of us”, she said.
“(And) we must continue making the case for the availability of responsible choice.
“However, there is a growing challenge from rogue actors who deliberately target underage users and sell illegal products. We all have a role to play in the development and enforcement of proportionate regulation, together with policy makers, regulators and civil society."
Joining Paola at GTNF in Athens were Joe Thompson, Group Science and Regulatory Affairs Director, Thomas Nahde, Global Head of Harm Reduction and Engagement, and Tony Dunnage, ESG Director. Each were appearing on panel discussions taking place throughout the three-day event.
We now have our own real world evidence which shows how our products are able to attract smokers away from cigarettes – and successfully keep them away.
