Strategic Futures Insight and Design - Essay Example

The Current of the Global Tobacco Industry and its Potential Future According to various statistics from the data collection giant Statista, worldwide production of tobacco stood at 7.49 million metric tons in 2012. The global tobacco industry is almost at the verge of its peak, and a review of the worldwide production pattern over the years supports our view that the demand for tobacco products has remained consisted in the last ten years (HAUSTEIN & GRONEBERG, 2010). The industry currently stands at its maturity phase as can be witnessed from the production patterns of the industry; flat demand indicating uniform growth, and industry relying on its cash cow products for generation of core income rather than working on extracting income from new products (ESROCK, WALKER & HART, 2014).

Moreover, to maintain the market share in the maturity phase, companies would need to focus on their marketing their product as competitors would come in the market in an effort to chip off market share, and they could only be driven away if the brand image of the current producers is strong enough in the mind of consumers (ESPEJO, 2014). Cigarette consumption is an addiction, and its users would continue its use despite the negative health patterns associated with it (HIRSCHFELDER, 2010). Having said that, the industry is likely to witness pressure going forward from alternate products which are relatively safe as compared to cigarettes, including electronic or e-cigarette, and hookah or shisha amongst others.

Moreover, governments are working worldwide towards reducing the consumption of cigarettes via increase in box prices, which is likely to impact cigarette demand going forwards, though not by significant margin as those addicted to the product will consume it anyway (BRANDT, 2007).ReferencesHAUSTEIN, K.-O., & GRONEBERG, D. (2010). Tobacco or health? Heidelberg, Springer Verlag. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=571377.ESROCK, S. L., WALKER, K. L., & HART, J. L. (2014). Talking tobacco: interpersonal, organizational, and mediated messages.ESPEJO, R. (2014).

Tobacco and smoking.HIRSCHFELDER, A. B. (2010). Tobacco. Santa Barbara, Calif, Greenwood. http://ebooks.abc-clio.com/?isbn=9780313358098.BRANDT, A. M. (2007). The cigarette century: the rise, fall, and deadly persistence of the product that defined America.