Marketing Monitoring Core (MMC)

PROJECT SUMMARY – MARKET MONITORING CORE The landscape of the tobacco market continues to increase in complexity by product and design, with the intent to maintain tobacco use and nicotine addiction. Given the tobacco industry's history of manipulating nicotine in tobacco products to drive product appeal, use, and addiction, timely market surveillance is critical to monitor industry trends and changing tobacco use patterns. The primary objective of the Market Monitoring Core (MMC) is to conduct rapid marketplace surveillance of ECs, novel oral nicotine pouches (ONP), and other non- combustible and combustible products, thereby facilitating the design, interpretation, and regulatory impact assessment of Projects 1-4 with rich marketplace data. Specifically, the MMC will use complementary data sources and novel methodologies to track products and their packaging claims, including the Nielsen Retail ScanTrack data, online store website data scraping (i.e., extraction), and direct contact of vape shops and specialty stores. The MMC will play an important role in: 1) guiding the identification of the most appropriate ONPs to be characterized by the Product Evaluation and Manipulation Core (PEMC) for Project 2 (P2); 2) informing the experimental design of P3 by providing product packaging information from the marketplace, including the existence/placement of nicotine-related claims and visuals, to generate stimuli and allow P3 to anchor their study design based on evolving market shares, selecting products and packaging designs that best represent market conditions; 4) assisting P1-P4 in formulating and designing surveys, such as providing drop- down lists of popular brands and nicotine options in questionnaires, and comparing Project data with marketplace data to accurately contextualize the potential translational impact in dissemination activities (e.g., publications, presentations, and FDA public docket submissions); and 5) fostering the development of relevant Career Enhancement Core-supported pilot studies that address emerging products and regulatory interests. The specific aims are to: 1) monitor the nicotine dimensions (concentration, form, and isomer) and other features (e.g., flavor, promotion, etc.) of ECs and ONPs for P1-4; 2) identify ONPs for evaluation and characterization by the PEMC for P2; 3) monitor how EC and ONP manufacturers market nicotine dimensions using packaging claims for P3; and 4) facilitate experiment and survey design by providing marketplace information (e.g., product popularity, and market shares) of a wide range of nicotine and tobacco products for P1-4. The MMC supports innovative research by providing timely marketplace information that is critical to study designs. The MMC also has the capacity to assess market share changes in response to FDA policies, further facilitating the center's mission to advance regulatory impact analysis.