Cannabis is a surprisingly difficult product to market, especially given the laws placed on advertisement and promotion. With new brands appearing in the space almost daily, restrictive packaging requirements, and limited methods to have branded conversations, it requires imagination to not only create brand awareness but differentiate your brand in this crowded market. Below are just a few learnings from the cannabis market to keep in mind when aiming to market your brand.
Find Your Audience
Simply put, too many brands are attempting to be all-encompassing - the “Apple” of cannabis. It merely takes a visit to local dispensaries to see many aiming for a clean, neutral, seemingly sterile environment. While the physical location is made to be as generic as possible, so is the menu; featuring products of every category for every type of consumer. While this can be seen as providing everyone an option in the store, what it really does is create distortion for everyone coming in. The seasoned stoners will scoff at the micro-dose products & topicals, while the THC dominant concentrates will putt-off and confuse those who are coming in for the aforementioned “lighter” products. By being a jack of all trades, you become a master of none.
What goes for retailers also goes for producers - too many L.P’s are struggling to make consistent sales because they haven’t found a target audience; they’re simply casting the widest net possible. Through finding a target audience, a clear & concise marketing plan & messaging can be created to excite said audience. An example of this being executed well is The Ministry of Sativa, which has taken this principle of focusing on their audience to heart by only serving those seeking sativa cannabis & the effects it’s known for. While some can see this as ignoring half the cannabis market, this move better serves, therefore appealing to, the other half of the market.
Respect the Culture
While many new consumers have joined in cannabis consumption since legalization, a large portion of the market comes from or has explored the legacy market. Those who’ve consumed pre-legalization were in a space ruled by culture, held together by a sense of community and need for mutual trust in an illicit/dangerous market. This sense of community has been shattered by legalization, with those who not only enforced but championed prohibition entering the space in hopes of striking fortune in the “Green Rush”. This has led to brands making tone-deaf moves, such as requesting the RCMP make more cannabis arrests in order to benefit their businesses. Moves such as this offend the greater cannabis community and exist in stark contrast to the culture these brands aim to profit off of.
Those who come from legacy, or at least understand the culture of cannabis, such as Ghost Drops, Cookies, and Blessed Edibles, have not only the respect from legacy consumers but the knowledge of cannabis culture necessary for creating a successful luxury brand in the cannabis space. This knowledge helps create initiative and marketing campaigns that feel natural for legacy consumers and persuades them to exist solely in the legal space. An amazing example of this comes from Ghost Drops, who instead of targeting those in the legacy market aims to bring them into the legal space.
One doesn’t need to come from the legacy market to find success in the legal market; an understanding of/respect for the culture of cannabis can be found at any time through a simple Google search. By understanding where cannabis has been, a brand can easier find its place where cannabis is now while aiming to steer towards the future they want.
Explore New Avenues
The best advice to succeeding in cannabis marketing, and marketing in general, is this: try new things. Whilst vague, this advice has led the grnhouse agency team to success across a variety of projects. When the team noticed that not only was every brand marketing on Instagram but having their pages removed, this inspired them to seek out popular platforms that would work harmoniously with cannabis brands. Through this exploration, a variety of campaigns were successfully hosted on Twitch.
While cannabis marketing is limited by government legislation and online platforms’ terms of services, what is meant to be a hurdle can act as a launch point to innovation in cannabis marketing. Instead of seeking to emulate successful campaigns from other industries, seek to create campaigns that can thrive in the space cannabis marketing is forced to exist in.
Cannabis marketing is challenging, providing challenges unique to the cannabis industry. While difficult compared to other industries, marketing cannabis is easier than it has ever been. The legal market provides an opportunity to legally sell for the first time for major players. Competing with illicit companies that run in parallel with those operating legally has, and still does plague industries other than cannabis; legal alcohol had to compete with moonshine, and high-end fashion brands have to compete with cheap replicas - the trick is to find your play and hold the course.
