Has weed joint the Titanic?
We, the audience like to root for new ventures and those with heart. The character can lie, cheat and steal but only as long it doesn’t involve us getting stuck with a moral dilemma or questioning ourselves. Jamie Lannister single-handedly committed treason, incest and murder in the name of true love. Perhaps the fumbles we’ve seen in the cannabis industry are a matter of clumsy hands and right intentions? Or unrealistic expectations of an industry to run before it crawls? Or an unexpected retail iceberg! Regardless, the struggle is way more real than cliche and it’s too late to turn back so we should brainstorm actionable solutions.
The industry is struggling to hear a heartbeat right now. We’ve seen the financial downturn and the expert reasoning on this, but my lane is customer centric and let me tell you it’s quite empty... and there is a tone in the air that sounds like financial loss if it were a sound.
There is a notion out there that creating consumer value is the ‘heart’ of a business; so whether it’s customer service, celebrity endorsements or philanthropic alignments the 'value' needs to be deeply human and mega personal. Consumers and brands have to be care-twinsies and care about the same stuff. Besides, how else is an organization supposed to get you to vibe their vibe if not by doing everything they can to stroke your ego and make you the most important part of their day?! There is a reason endorsements work so well and that’s because we are in a culture where something is true when it’s delivered to us in an audible human narrative such as reviews, vlogs or Drake - who is our resident feels expert and who’s ‘smoking legal’.
In cannabis though, care-twinsies don't really exist. At least not legally. At least not yet.
As a marketer, it’s my job to connect the customer to a product or service in a mutually beneficial way and cannabis has taught me a valuable lesson - which is that the legal customer has no idea how to benefit from legal weed. Since they don’t know anything about the product they are buying, where to find it or how they prefer to consume it - they are basically offered the paradox of choice with a heap of commercial dissonance. This results in little motivation to try a product of dubious value sold in nebulous units. Who wants a gram of unknown substance in a sealed box you can't see or smell? Everyone said the projections!! Move over Oprah, 'projections' is where it's at. The customer in this case is simply the prospect with the dollars and the prospected dollar, as we know, isn’t making its way up the food chain.
So folks, what we are seeing are customers who don’t yet know their cannabis preferences and companies who seem to put the shareholder dollar before the customer dollar...err, I mean need.
"But I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here. I don't belong here." - Radiohead
Cannabis companies must ask themselves where the heart of their business is and then find the sound of their heartbeat. They must then amplify this unique heartbeat so it echos through their office hallways, has a rhythmic value offering, is compliant enough to come through available media channels and most importantly that it’s a sound that conflates with the rich symphony of the cannabis counter culture. Like a Puffy sample collabo that everyone gets.
In closing, no one expects ‘government weed’ to be authentic and cool but if it channels someone profitable like Homer Simpson and gets into the consumer lane in a reliable and relatable way then maybe the dumb shit will just seem funny and excusable.
For tested compliant marketing content, amplified awareness programs and rich engagement strategies specifically designed for the cannabis space please feel free to DM me and let's talk solutions and puns.