When last October, Trump announced that all flavoured vaping products would be banned, Juul had decided to be proactive and stopped selling its flavoured pods online, leaving only its mint, menthol and tobacco flavoured nicotine pods available for sale.
However, a recent study by the American Cancer Society looking at the critical months that followed, found that mint and menthol quickly became very popular and dominated the e-cigarette market. In fact sales of these flavours surged, from 33% of the market in November, to over 62% of the market in April.
Juul strives to earn credibility
In line with this, data released by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH) had indicated that in the absence of other flavours, teenagers preferred mint and mango Juul flavours, with mint being the most popular. To this effect, Juul had decided to stop selling mint pods as well, leaving only menthol and its two tobacco flavoured products for sale.
“These results are unacceptable and that is why we must reset the vapor category in the U.S. and earn the trust of society by working cooperatively with regulators, attorneys general, public health officials and other stakeholders to combat underage use,” said Juul’s CEO K.C. Crosthwaite at the time.
Exponential market growth for minty and tobacco flavours
Meanwhile, data compiled from a select number of outlets by Nielsen, an analytics company, revealed that the overall market for mint and menthol products has grown from about $95.5 million (pre-flavour restrictions) to a whopping $209.5 million per month. Similarly, sales of tobacco-flavored products rose from around 17% of the market to 22% of the market, and Juul captured 91% of that growth.
Read Further: CNN
