New Marketing Science Study Key Takeaways:
- Research shows once recreational marijuana is legalized, the number of online searches for tobacco increase by 8%, while searches for alcohol drop by 11%.
- The findings could have an implication on sales for the alcohol and tobacco industries.
- The passing of recreational cannabis increases online searches for cannabis done by adults by 17%, but not by youth.
CATONSVILLE, MD, July 17, 2019 – The recent wave of recreational cannabis legalization across the U.S. could generate $22 billion in sales per year, but not everyone is happy about it. New research in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science shows the alcohol industry could be impacted when the substance is legalized.
"It appears the alcohol industry has valid reason to be concerned about legal marijuana and may need creative strategies to avoid market decline if it passes," said Pengyuan Wang, an assistant professor in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia.
The study shows online searches for alcohol saw a drop of nearly 11%, but tobacco products were searched online nearly 8% more often.
The U.S. alcohol and tobacco industries are worth a combined $300 billion. They are typically avid opponents of marijuana legalization legislation, but this research suggests, "tobacco companies may need to reexamine their presumption, and that anti-cannabis legalization is not to the best of their interest," said Wang.
Click here to read the full release.
About INFORMS and Marketing Science
Marketing Science is a premier peer-reviewed scholarly marketing journal focused on research using quantitative approaches to study all aspects of the interface between consumers and firms. It is published by INFORMS, the leading international association for operations research and analytics professionals. More information is available at www.informs.org or @informs.
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Ashley Smith
INFORMS
Catonsville MD
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