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Snus started is social climb the day that portioned snus was introduced. The views on the portion are as many as there are snus users. A friend of mine says that "portion snus is for kids and politicians". Myself, I find the portions allright, perhaps a little dry and tasteless at times but I do like them as an option when I'm driving or if I'm someplace where good manors demand me not baking a huge "prilla" and shoving it into my mouth.
Speaking about the sociology of snus might be a little pretentious but there certainly are some characteristics in the way snus has been used and is used today. Only 50-60 years ago, snus was the sole property of the working class man, most often in rural areas. The upper class could take a sniff of nasal snuff or smoke an expensive cigar at best. It was around this time that cigarettes made its entrance in Sweden. Travellers who had encountered the cigarette phenomenon in the USA brought it back to Sweden. Since mostly the upper class could afford to travel, it was they who started smoking cigarettes. The lower classes were stuck with their snus. Nowadays, smoking is done primarly by the lesser off in society and snus is growing the most in the middle- and upper class segments. Most probably, it was thanks to the introduction of portion snus that snus usage now is considered to be an "okay" habit, even by those wearing a shirt and tie to work.
Today, snus usage is mapped out down to the smallest detail. Large snus manufacturers like Swedish Match knows all that what needs knowing about our tobacco consumption, or in their own words - "We have the most highly evolved sensory analysis tools". About 1500 snusers have been in-depth interviewed and been apart of focus groups and made to answer questions about themselves, their life and their snus use.
Are you a middle aged man, having a nice career with a good, steady income, a good education and live in a larger city? Well, then chances are very good that you use snus, these studies say. And most probably you're a General snuser.
If you're a somewhat more "rural" who gets nervous just be hearing about metropolitan life, is a sports fanatic and likes to place the occasional wager on horses, you're most probably an Ettan snus man.
Quality, tradition and security are the values Swedish Match want the traditional snus brands to be associated with. To examin customer behaviour and habits and to adjust brand markering accordingly is pretty much the only way for Swedish Match to market themselves, given the tough legislation on tobacco marketing in the EU. "Since the ban of tobacco advertising, the actual stores are our best way to market to the consumers. But we do it carefully because of the political implications. Our marketing has therefor evolved into something that resembles communication with our consumers. It's very much research based. Polls, focus groups and so on. The development of the portion snus, is an example of such consumer interaction".
Another example of this was when General was put on the label of a whiskey bottle. Swedish Match claims that a very large number of General consumers are also whiskey drinkers and that there are mutual values between the snus and whiskey - "masculinity, tradition and roughness". They want to tone down the image of a snus user being a farmer with a mullet.
Snus users have a higher avgerage income and education than smokers and the public overall. They have a higher level of health consciousness and snus has become very politically correct in Sweden.
» 78% of snus users have a college or university degree, compared to 74% of the overall population and 75% of the smokers.
» Average income was 224,000 SEK for snus users, while it was 203,000 SEK for the average swede and 190,000 SEK for smokers.
» 51% of snus users work in the private sector while only 34% of smokers did so.
» The past few years snus use has decreased with the 15-29 year olds while it has increased with the 30-49 year olds. These are often former smokers who have realized snus is a much better alternative than smoking.
» According to surveys, 47% of all snus users are former smokers. Health aspects aren't the only reason to quit smoking and take up snus of course. The restrictions imposed on smokers is another large factor.
The journey that snus is undertaking right now, away from sweaty gyms, dirty workshops and rural farms to the suit clad IT- and financial gurus is an image embraced by Swedish Match. According to the company snus is gaining huge market shares in "The New Economy". 21% of all IT professionals are using snus, compared to 14% who are smokers. Snus has, for generations, been associated with the countryside, hunting, fishing, manual labour and other typically male occupations. Now the "prilla" can be seen in front of computer screens of Internet companies, stock brokers and not seldom under the lip of someone with red colored lips (women). The portion snus, offering a wide varity of flavors appeals to the conscious, urban elite. Today, portion snus account for 47% of total snus consumption. Measured in number of cans, it has already surpassed the loose snus.
However, Swedish Match are careful not to launch a snus deirectly marketed as a 'women snus'. "Women don't want to be perceived as a category. They wouldn't want 'women beer' either". The number of female snus users is steadily on the rise. In 2001 there were 150,000 female snus users in Sweden. More than doubling the number of 1996. In 2009 the number is believed to reach 250,000. Amongst the female users of snus, the level of former smokers is even higher than for the men - almost 61%.
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