Using data from a national convenience sample of past-year cigarillo users, this study examined the importance of various cigarillo product characteristics, including brand, quality of the tobacco filler, number of cigars in the pack, quality of the tobacco wrap, flavors, price and graphic design on the packaging. This is one of the first studies to identify the importance of different product characteristics in relation to one another, with findings showing that price, flavors, and quality of the tobacco wrap were rated as most important among the sample. These findings align with other research showing that flavors and price are important characteristics to cigarillo smokers [11,12,17,20,23].

Our study also identified differences in importance of product characteristics, based on demographic, cigarillo use and other tobacco/substance use characteristics. Findings showed that brand was rated as more important among Black smokers compared with White smokers, which may reflect targeted marketing efforts toward the Black community by cigarillo companies [24–26]. Brand was also rated as more important among young adults (ages 18–24) compared with older young adults. It is possible that to the general public, the concept of a brand encompasses various superficial aspects of the product and its marketing, including advertisements and product packaging. As such, young adults, who are more susceptible to tobacco industry marketing [27] and are frequent targets of tobacco industry marketing efforts [27], may be rating brand as important for this reason. This finding aligns with one study showing that branding was one of the most attractive cigar packaging features among adolescents and young adults [12]. Future qualitative research could provide insight into how and why brand is an important characteristic among young adults, to better inform regulatory decisions surrounding cigarillo product branding and marketing towards young people.

Interestingly, findings not only revealed no differences in the importance of the graphic design of the cigarillo pack but also low ratings overall and across all sub-populations. Given that prior experimental studies show evidence for the impact of cigarillo package color and design on young adults’ perceptions [14–16], we speculate that this discrepancy between prior experimental findings and self-reported survey data from this study may be due to people’s unwillingness to admit their susceptibility to marketing (and their belief that while everyone else may be influenced, they are not–a phenomenon known as the third-person effect) [28]. Thus, participants may be rating package design as low in importance, while compensating for this by rating brand–which we speculate above as potentially being perceived as including elements such as package design–as high in importance. Experimental studies that measure implicit appeal may be more appropriate for understanding the appeal of the graphic design of packaging.

Several differences that we identified in the importance of flavors are consistent with other research. For example, we found that flavors were more important to females versus males [20,29] and younger adults versus older young adults [20]. Findings also showed that users of foil pouches (2–3 cigarillos) rated flavors as more important compared with users of other packaging styles likely because we often see the most flavor innovation among 2–3 packs [9]. Therefore this may explain or reflect overall increasing popularity in both flavors and small pack sizes [5,30].

Current cigarette smokers, who comprised about 43% of the sample, rated pack size, quality of tobacco wrap, flavors, and price as more important compared with non-current cigarette smokers. The high prevalence of cigarette smoking among the sample overall aligns with research showing high rates of poly tobacco use among young adults [6]. Our finding in regards to pack size is consistent with findings from a recent study of Black & Mild smokers, which showed that users of smaller pack sizes were more likely to be cigarette smokers compared with users of larger pack sizes [18], suggesting that dual users have preferences regarding cigarillo pack size. Dual users may purchase smaller cigarillo packs, which are cheaper than a pack of cigarettes, to keep costs down. This would also explain the greater importance of price among current versus non-current cigarette smokers.

When assessing cigarillo use, it is difficult to disentangle use of the product for smoking tobacco versus smoking blunts [31], a behavior that is particularly common among young adults [11,32,33]. This is an important distinction since research suggests that individuals may prefer different cigarillo product characteristics depending on how they intend to use the cigarillo (i.e., for tobacco or for blunt use) [11,32]. For example, Giovenco et al. found that young adults used different cigarillo brands for different purposes; Swisher Sweets were perceived as being used to smoke blunts, while Black & Milds were perceived as being used to smoke tobacco [11]. In an attempt to address this, our study asked specifically about product characteristics that are important to users when using a cigarillo to smoke tobacco. Following this question, blunt users were asked the same question, but with language specifying product characteristics for using a cigarillo as a blunt to smoke marijuana (this question was not included in the present analyses). As such, we were cautious to attribute any findings from this study to blunt or marijuana use.

Although our survey attempted to tease apart the importance of product characteristics of cigarillos for the purposes of smoking tobacco versus marijuana, the high prevalence of blunt and marijuana use in our analytic sample and certain findings related to product characteristics suggest that blunt use may still have played a role in how individuals answered this question. Specifically, the high rating among the overall analytic sample given to the importance of the quality of tobacco wrap may be related to blunt use, since the cigarillo wrap is a central component of a blunt. Additionally, current blunt and marijuana users rated number of cigars in the pack as more important compared with non-users, as did users of foil pouches (2–3 cigarillos), compared with those who usually buy singles. This aligns with qualitative research on blunt use, which suggests that the 2–3 pack resealable, foil pouches are preferred among blunt users, as they can be used to store and conceal marijuana [11]. It is unclear why blunt and marijuana users had different perspectives on the quality of tobacco filler, with current blunt users rating the quality of the tobacco filler higher compared with non-current blunt users and current marijuana users rating tobacco filler quality lower relative to non-current marijuana users. These differences could be related to the fact that blunt users may actually smoke some of the tobacco filler, whereas marijuana users may not necessarily use any filler, depending on how they consume marijuana (e.g. pipes). More research is needed to understand how smokers use cigarillos for different purposes, including for tobacco, marijuana, or both, and how to effectively measure use for these different purposes.

This study has limitations. First, this study used a convenience sample and therefore may not be generalizable to the young adult, cigarillo smoking population in the U.S. Additionally, data were collected in 2016 and therefore may not entirely reflect the current tobacco marketplace, which is always in flux with the continual emergence of new cigarillo brands, styles and flavors [2,9]. Additionally, the question used to assess importance of different cigarillo product characteristics did not include definitions or examples of the different characteristics (e.g., tobacco filler, tobacco wrap), which may have led to respondents interpreting the question differently. More research is needed to improve survey measurement of different cigarillo characteristics. Finally, this study relies on self-reported data which may be prone to biases. However, our findings provide important preliminary data and insight that can be a foundation for future research.