Study: most vapors over 40

A new survey has found that marketing for vapor products in the UK might be wide of the target.

The survey found, for instance, that two-thirds of vapers were over 40 years of age.

SmokShop.com, which describes itself as one of the largest retailers of electronic cigarettes in the UK, said it had recently carried out its first survey to determine what the average ‘vaper’ looked like. And it said the results were surprising.

The target audience for most vape-company marketing comprised mainly men aged somewhere between their mid-20s and early 30s. The emphasis seemed to be on hip, urban street culture.

Smokshop said that the data it collected ‘from a random group of 500 customers’ was expected to back up this consumer profile, but that had not been the case.

The survey found that:

• 15.5 per cent of vapers were under 30;
• 66.6 percent were over 40;
• 39.3 percent were over 50;
• 15.7 percent were over 60; and
• 1.6 percent were over 70.

The survey found too that 76 percent of vapers were men; that 83.5 percent of vapers had quit smoking altogether since starting to vape; and that 13.2 percent of vapers wanted to quit vaping.

Smokshop said that most vapers seemed to be older ex-smokers who ordered electronic cigarettes online and used vaping as a substitute for smoking.