Recently, I described cannabis marketing as a sort of “wild west” and received exactly the kind of blow back you would expect in 2023. “We’re not anarchists!” “We’re heavily regulated and are responsible people!” “Listen buddy why don’t you…” etc.
Hold your horses.
The point I was making was that the cannabis industry—at least from the perspective of a copywriter trying to figure out how to articulate distinct benefits in order to appeal to specific people (because that’s how advertising works)—is a wild west because there are so many variables and so many layers of variables that under any other circumstances most sensible business people would just throw up their hands and say “call me when it all settles down.”
But this isn’t any other circumstances; it’s the circumstances of a product that has been a part of American culture—via a stunning diversity of counter-cultures—for at least a century. Only now it has astronomical amounts of money being pumped into it by people who think it’s going to be the next combination beer-and-spirits-industry/pharma-and-wellness industry juggernaut.
Which means a lot of people, brands, and companies are trying a lot of different strategies with significantly less confidence than they normally would have. They are all trying to plant some kind of stake in the ground, all doing it differently, and all looking over their shoulders at each other and wondering if maybe they’ve figured it out better.
That sure feels like a John Ford movie to me. But the thing about the Wild West is it didn’t stay that way. Someone won, someone lost, and order eventually emerged from chaos. In other words, someone will figure out the cannabis industry just like someone figured out the Wild West.
So, What Should Cannabis Marketers Do?
Put yourself in the best position to wait. I know—doesn’t sound sexy. But job one is to survive, not necessarily thrive. I know this is exactly what investors don’t want to hear, but those who can put themselves in a position to just hang around, to see who drops out and why, to see who comes in, and again, why, puts themselves in the best position to be calling the shots at the end.
The good news: you can do this a few ways. You could focus on distribution. You could build a brand. You could be efficient and cost-effective. You could chase awareness. You could aim for dominant critical mass. You could try to own the category. Or your geography. Or your demographic. Or your benefit. And some brands are already doing exactly those things.
But some brands are trying to do all those things at the same time. And that’s bad. And other brands are just relying on a supposed universal appeal of the product, so they’re doing nothing, which is also bad. You’re not supposed to do everything and you’re not supposed to do nothing. You’re supposed to do the right thing. You know, like in every John Wayne movie ever.
