What is Cannabis Marketing
Introduction
Cannabis marketing is a special kind of marketing. As society becomes more permissive, the need for cannabis marketing strategies continues to evolve as well. The growth in the industry has been so immense that there is a whole industry dedicated to marijuana marketing. A good starting point would be to work with a marketing agency like Spark Factory.
No can no deny that the cannabis industry is taking off faster than any other recent business start-up. With legalization slowly gaining steam across the globe, cannabis marketing is where the real money is to be made right now. It has become an international institution that continues to grow at an exponential rate.
Cannabis marketing is a catch-all phrase for various strategies and techniques companies use to promote their cannabis-related products, brands, and services.
Cannabis marketing is the act of selling a product by appealing to consumers’ passions for intimacy, social peace, freedom, relaxation, self-esteem, self-expression, and spirituality.
Marketing cannabis products is like selling any product, but cannabis marketing has its unique challenges. For one, cannabis marketing often has to contend with a stigma that makes it risky for marketers to acknowledge their involvement with cannabis.
For another, most cannabis consumers are not interested in marketing. Most consumers are not looking for information. They are looking for something that, when they find it, makes them feel better about themselves. They don’t buy cannabis because they want information about it. They want to be part of it.
It is no surprise, then, that most cannabis marketing is word of mouth. Most of the people who buy cannabis know someone who sells it. They use their social networks to find people who sell cannabis. They don’t read magazines about cannabis. They read magazines about cars or celebrities or vacations. They go to parties where cannabis is for sale. And they buy.
Cannabis marketing is a lot like politics. Most voters do not read political magazines or newspapers. They rely on their friends and word-of-mouth. They read articles about politics, but they read those articles with an eye towards how they might influence their friends. They go to the parties and vote for the candidate they trust.
Cannabis marketers can learn a lot from politicians. For example, cannabis marketers can speak the language that consumers use to describe their own experiences. They can learn to convey the benefits of using cannabis in a way that consumers understand. They can learn the importance of being sensitive to other people’s concerns. Like politicians, they can learn to appreciate that their audiences.
Cannabis marketing is just getting started. In 2015, cannabis was the fastest growing industry globally, with estimated sales up to $30 billion by 2020. Companies are already making billions as the world becomes more open to the herb.
But marketers are gambling on the public’s acceptance of cannabis. The industry is already fraught with risks, and consumers need to be educated about cannabis use.
The risk is that cannabis marketing will struggle to reach its earnings potential.
Proper education about cannabis, from prevention and education to treatment, is a crucial step. The government must continue to decriminalize cannabis, and consumers must be encouraged to use it.
Once cannabis is legal, consumers want to buy it. The question is: how do they want to buy?
Cannabis marketers have three options:
- Sell through retail outlets,
- Sell online, or
- Sell through cannabis dispensaries.
The cannabis industry is overgrowing, but how many retail outlets will be needed remains to be seen. The industry’s growth depends on consumers’ ability to purchase cannabis legally. If cannabis is legalized and regulated, the industry will likely grow strongly, but whether consumers will be willing to buy in retail outlets remains visible.
Online sales are becoming more popular, with many companies using the internet to sell directly to consumers. These companies have the advantage of reaching consumers directly. Still, they also have the challenge of educating consumers on the proper use of cannabis.
Cannabis dispensaries are becoming more popular as the industry matures. The dispensaries allow consumers to buy directly from growers and manufacturers.
As more states legalize cannabis, the dispensaries will be an attractive way for people to buy. But the dispensaries are likely to face stiff competition from delivery services, which, like online shopping doesn’t require customers to leave their homes.
Delivery services face different challenges, however. For example, they must deal with strict regulations that prevent the pot from being left outside.
While online marijuana businesses face similar challenges, they have one advantage: they have already built an online infrastructure, from their websites to their warehouses.
The dispensaries, on the other hand, must buy their supplies from growers and manufacturers. This means the dispensaries’ costs are likely higher than those for online businesses, and their profit margins are more diminutive. As more consumers become comfortable with the dispensaries, however, their popularity may
increase.
Conclusion
The most significant difference between marketing cannabis and marketing other products is that cannabis and its users are considered illegal by most governments.
This automatically limits the audience for a product to the market where it is legal.
Marijuana is a product that has widely different effects on different people. Only those who are familiar with how it makes them feel can use it safely and effectively.
