Anti-marketing Use of Tobacco and Prioritizing Strategies Using Multi-criteria Decision-making Techniques

The purpose of this research is to identify anti-marketing strategies and ultimately to prioritize solutions using multi-criteria decision-making techniques.
This research is a hybrid combination of exploratory type consisted of both qualitative and quantitative stages in which a semi-structured interview has been conducted with ten experts as key informants on social harm. The statistical population of this research consists of the experts of Mazandaran University. Identifying smoking anti-marketing strategies in a quantitative stage, using BWM and Multi More questionnaires, anti-marketing strategies were prioritized via Excel and LINDO software.
The results from this study indicate that social factors are the most important factor influencing tobacco use among students. And, in the meantime, the family has the greatest role, because young people and adolescents are influenced by their family, which is considered to be a reference group for them and their relationship is closer together.
The best way to tackle smoking tendency is to change attitude. This is because; smoking has to be regarded as a social factor that involves the entire community, not the individual.