The year is 2019, and a new cannabis strain has just been placed on a dispensary shelf in hopes of drawing customer interest. At least that’s how Tim Cullen, founder of dispensary chain Colorado Harvest Company, remembers the business going before the cannabis sales experience shifted online.
Paying for pot online is still illegal in Colorado, but pre-orders are allowed if payment is done at the dispensary, and a short list of towns including Aurora and Denver now permit cannabis delivery with online orders. As the pandemic pushed even more shopping online, engaging a consumer’s senses through a screen became a new challenge for dispensaries.
“If you have something that’s exciting, you don’t just put it onto your shelf. You have to hype it up all week long, let everyone know that this new product is coming and that there’s only a limited amount of it,” he says. “Once it hits the shelves, it’s going to be gone quickly, so you’ve got to be here.”
Following a strategy similar to that of Nike, Supreme and other sought-after clothing brands, these online campaigns let cannabis users know that if they aren’t there for the retail debut of a strain, or the “drop,” then they’ll probably be too late. If the strain sells out quickly, a commercial grower might have a new addition to the regular rotation.
“The true connoisseurs of cannabis look for releases of new strains from quality growers like wine aficionados turn to their favorite wine makers, or sneaker-heads searching for the next [Air] Jordan or Yeezy drop,” says Ralph Laucella, co-owner of cannabis cultivation Cherry Colorado.
Partnering with a musician was Cherry’s strategy for more market exposure: The company brought in rapper and Drink Champs podcast host N.O.R.E. to choose and name a cannabis variety, eventually creating Superthuug, a hybrid of Motorbreah and Sour Zkittlez named after N.O.R.E.’s 1998 single.
While hiring a celebrity endorser is a tactic that rarely works in the long run for legal cannabis, Cherry’s one-off collaboration with N.O.R.E. helped the award-winning cultivation catch consumer attention early on.
Creating not just recognition but trust is of increasing importance as customers continue shopping from home, but legal cannabis faces advertising restrictions from all levels of government. This has left social media as the tool of choice for marijuana marketing — but the majority of social media platforms also have bans or restrictions on cannabis content, so other efforts are still needed.
“Our advertising is a combination of grassroots word of mouth, a huge push on social media and cross-promotions with our retail partners,” Laucella notes.
Even established growers are experimenting with further establishing their branding as more cannabis shopping goes online. Boulder’s Green Dot Labs helped keep eyes on its flower by creating lines of related strains. Examples include the Froot series, based on fruit flavors from alien planets, as well as a new series named after famous artists in history such as Picasso, Dalí, Monet and Rembrandt.
Green Dot co-founder Dave Malone sees the craft-brewing industry’s competitive climate as what’s coming for cannabis. If a new brewer simply writes “IPA” on a silver can, it doesn’t matter how good it is, he says: “You will never sell a beer.”
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