2021 Year in Review: The Highs and Lows of Brand Building in the New Era of Cannabis

The new era of cannabis will be driven by data.

This statement is not just a catchy tagline. It also describes the natural progression of a dynamic, diverse industry with unlimited growth potential.

In recent history, we’ve witnessed dramatic shifts in consumer behavior. The disruptions caused by Covid, the evolution of cannabis from illegal to “essential”, and the dismantling of stigmas have all contributed to a transformation of consumers’ relationships with cannabis. As a consumer insights firm, we’ve had the privilege of observing and measuring these monumental changes. Why not take a moment to pause and reflect on the experiences of 2021? This is by no means an exhaustive list of everything that happened in cannabis in 2021, but rather, just a few highlights related to marketing, branding, canna-business and of course, consumer data and insights.

To read our recap of 2020, check out this Ganjapreneur article – What we learned about cannabis consumers during the weirdest year ever.

State markets to watch in 2022

First up, the legal landscape looked a lot different in 2021. In 2020, we saw perceptions of cannabis shift dramatically when dispensaries were deemed essential businesses. In 2021, the momentum continued. A whopping 5 new states came online for adult use in 2021. The most exciting markets we’re watching closely in 2022 include New York, which some say could become the largest U.S. state market. Colorado continues to break sales records and is home to dozens of innovative brands. Of course, we can’t overlook our home state of California, which is developing a robust tourist destination with spas, cannabis agricultural tours and cannabis-friendly lodging.

Related articles

The Benefits of Hiring a Partner to Gather Cannabis Consumer Data in Colorado

If you’re reading this, you probably already operate a cannabis business in Colorado or you are considering investing in one.

Read More

Can a Cannabis Market Research Company in California Guide Strategy?

The national cannabis market is on the upswing, and in recent years several states have passed legislation…

Read More

Bud and Booze Sign a Truce

After months of marketing campaigns deriding the effects of alcohol and promoting cannabis as a healthy alternative, Hollywood’s favorite beverage brand, Cann, ended their unofficial war on booze by launching a series of partnerships with alcohol brands. The topic of hangovers was notably absent in Cann’s 2021 holiday ad, featuring Kate Hudson and Kate Hudson’s vodka brand King St.

Why the sudden change?

ISA’s study of beverage consumers from 2021 revealed that consumers are not necessarily looking for an alcohol replacement, and 40% of cannabis beverage consumers say that when they drink cannabis, they’re also drinking alcohol. If you’re a cannabis beverage brand, it makes sense to pivot away from a marketing strategy that could potentially alienate 40% of the market.

Anti-alcohol rhetoric is so 2020.

Celebrities Crowd into the Cannabis
Market - Consumers yawn

Speaking of celebrities…

Seth Rogan, Justin Bieber, Pitbull, DJ Khaled, Lil Kim, Ice Cube, Melissa Etheridge, Drake, Bella Thorne – this is only a partial list of the celebrities who announced their foray into cannabis in 2021. It’s obvious that some partnerships between brands and celebs are a natural fit, and the wave of celebrity entrants is a good indicator of growing cultural acceptance. For most consumers, however, it’s just adding to the clutter. This Twitter user is over it.

How many consumers share this guy’s opinion? A lot. Last year we partnered with mg Magazine to understand the luxury cannabis market and how consumers define luxury for cannabis products. We asked 1,000 cannabis consumers to rate how important a celebrity endorsement is for them when evaluating products. The majority (56%) said it’s of little importance or not important at all.

Read the Article

Clubhouse opens to the public

Marketing professionals have limited options when it comes to promoting cannabis online. Facebook and Instagram are famous for shutting down accounts, often without so much as an explanation. LinkedIn is cannabis-friendly, but the business-forward platform can be a turn off for those who appreciate the subversive, counter-culture characteristics of the industry.

Enter Clubhouse. In 2021, the censorship-free audio-based networking app exploded in popularity and cannabis entrepreneurs found a safe space to promote their products, discuss business, and network.

Learn More about Clubhouse and Cannabis

Cannabis in the Metaverse (Cannaverse?)

In December of 2021, Higher Life CBD grabbed headlines with a promotion that allowed customers to browse and buy cannabis products in the metaverse and then have it delivered to their real-world homes.

Some say it will take years or even decades for the metaverse to reach a point of critical mass, where it really takes off and regular people start to spend their free time shopping, socializing, and gaming on the new platform. However, cannabis people are not regular people. The words pioneer, subculture, experimental and “not risk averse” come to mind. It stands to reason that the same group that was first in line to seize opportunities in cannabis will also be early entrants in the digital “Wild, Wild West.” The cannabis business leaders who survived and thrived through Prohibition, constantly shifting regulations, natural disasters, supply chain issues and a global pandemic are battle-tested, and well poised to gamble on a new platform and win. Also, they know how to throw a party, so there’s that.

The Birth of Weed Week

Speaking of industry gatherings, 2021 also brought us the return of live, in-person cannabis networking events. After canceling their live event in 2020 (along with the rest of the world) MJBiz Con triumphantly returned to the Las Vegas strip in 2021 for their 10th annual show. This time there was something different. A new event called MJ Unpacked opened up down the street and kicked off the same day that MJBiz Con wrapped up. MJ Unpacked caters exclusively to brands and retailers. Ancillary businesses are not allowed. Is the fragmenting of events a cause for alarm or a natural progression? Some say the addition of MJ Unpacked means we can now look forward to a yearly mega event in Las Vegas – unofficially dubbed Weed Week. See what industry insiders are saying about Weed Week.

Insights Take Center Stage

In the early stages of development as an industry, consumer preferences were often over-looked in the rush to bring products to market. There was a sense that any product would sell, and any product could make it onto retail shelves. Fast forward to 2022 – brands are more deliberate with their planning and attentive to their brand and what it represents. Specific, core audiences and usage occasions are no longer an afterthought in product development and marketing strategies.

In 2021, we saw more leaders embrace the need for insights and level-up their investment in research.

Related article:

There’s still a long way to go before cannabis catches up with major national brands, in terms of analyzing their customers’ behavior to uncover market opportunities. With federal legalization on the horizon, and further consolidation, it’s quickly becoming too risky to ignore fundamental questions related to brand health.

In 2022, more organizations will need to answer questions such as…

  • What are our customers experiencing when they use our products/ visit our locations?
  • How loyal are our current customers?
  • Why have our lapsed customers moved on?
  • How does our product address consumers’ underlying emotional needs?
  • Are we optimizing the use of our customer data?
  • Which product types or new state markets represent the greatest opportunities with minimal risk?
  • How do we stay in front of trends?
  • How can we create a customer feedback loop that informs new product development and/or helps us improve our current offering?

If any of these questions are on your to-do list for 2022, get in touch.

The ISA Group Announces Two Key Promotions, Supporting Expansion of Community and Analytics Offerings

Jennifer Holland promoted to Vice President of Research & Analytics; Julie McClammy to Director, Research & Analytics Division.

Insights firm ISA announced two major promotions today that will support the continued expansion of ISA’s Full Service Research & Analytics Division. Jennifer Holland will assume the role of Vice President of Research & Analytics and Julie McClammy will serve as Director, Research & Analytics, effective immediately. In their expanded roles, Holland and McClammy will focus on delivering strategic research and analysis to ISA’s growing roster of blue chips clients, including Fortune 500 brands like IBM, insights firms, public policy and public health organizations, and the nation’s top colleges and universities.

These promotions tie in to the larger company goals of expanding community services, servicing clients like IBM, and offering clients high-level thought partnerships.

“Jennifer and Julie have both played a critical role in the success and the growth of ISA and we are thrilled to promote them to these roles,” said Jacqueline Rosales, President of ISA. “When our company pivoted in early 2020 to assisting public health officials with measuring the spread of COVID-19, Jennifer led these vital studies and continues to oversee Covid-related projects today. Julie has been directing our Full Service team since joining us in 2019. Julie designed and managed the first-ever in-home usage test with cannabis products containing THC in 2020. These are just two examples of their ground-breaking work and commitment to high-level thought partnership.”

In her new role, Jennifer will be focusing on expanding market share of current clients in the Full Service and Community space, driving marketplace expansion, and partnering with the Material team and clients to diversify and expand service offerings. Jennifer has 25+ years of experience in market research and brings with her a passion for connecting consumers and businesses using insights and data. She has a focus on assisting clients in meeting their research objectives and guiding them through the correct methodology and sample planning, while coordinating research services support. Jennifer has worked with clients in a myriad of industries including CPG, QSR, Healthcare, Public Policy, Energy and Utilities.

In addition to delivering comprehensive insights to her clients, Julie will be working closely with senior executives across the larger Material organization to design thorough and precise research studies. Julie will continue to manage the Full-Service/Community Insights Research Team in her new role. Julie has 35+ years of experience in market research, emphasizing advanced analytics and segmentation. She is a visionary in pursuit of research excellence, innovation and quality. She inspires internal consultants to maximize impact through intelligent design and strategic analysis and consults with clients on sampling, weighting, and cross-cultural comparability. Julie also has diversified experience in all phases of consumer market research, as well as experience in Entertainment Marketing, PR and Promotions measurement.

Cannabis Customer Satisfaction Survey: How It Can Increase Your Revenue

One of the most important metrics of a successful business is customer satisfaction. Some would say it’s even more so in the growing cannabis industry where competition is downright cutthroat.

Your price and your product matter a lot, but it’s the positive customer experience that will set your brand apart from others. So if you’re not conducting a cannabis customer satisfaction survey, it’s time you do.

Client satisfaction is a key brand differentiator in the cannabis industry, but as with all other retail businesses, customer satisfaction—or even brand success— does not mean anything if you can’t translate it to sales and revenue.

This article aims to help you use your consumer survey results to not only improve the overall experience of your customers but also to leverage them in increasing your revenue.

If you’re not familiar with the Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Survey, read on and learn why it matters.

What is a Customer Satisfaction Survey?
Customer Satisfaction (often abbreviated as CSAT) refers to how your customers feel about your products and your brand. To measure their level of satisfaction, companies can use a CSAT survey.

CSAT survey can help you identify customers who are happy with your brand and customers who aren’t.

A CSAT survey usually consists of 5 to 10 questions about your product, the customer’s personal experience, and overall satisfaction.

The survey can be in digital form or a written form that you can ask them to fill out after buying from your store. You can also send them SMS surveys or conduct the survey over the phone. Just be careful not to take too much of their time, which is why 5 to 10 questions are ideal.

How to Use CSAT Survey to Increase Your Revenue
The CSAT survey can provide valuable insights that allow you to develop and improve your products and services. These surveys also can give you a push in the right direction to better meet your customers’ expectations.

Understanding what your customers appreciate and value is essential for scaling your business. Below are some of the ways you can leverage CSAT surveys to improve your revenue.

●Identify your satisfied customers
Your cannabis customers are made up of many personas. Your job is to identify those who aren’t happy—so you can address their dissatisfaction, and those who are happy and satisfied with your cannabis products so you can strengthen your connection, improve customer retention, and create more amazing customer experiences for them.

If you’re conducting a cannabis customer satisfaction survey, identify your satisfied customers so you can also make them your brand ambassador to expand your market reach and attract new customers.

Happy customers are at the bottom of your sales funnel and so you can also create different targetting ads or marketing campaigns for them to increase conversion or get them to buy continuously from you.

●Generate testimonials
Connect with your satisfied customers and ask for their feedback. Choose those who have given you a high score for customer satisfaction. You can then use these testimonials in your campaigns and generate leads for your cannabis business.

Reviews and recommendations are very effective because they function as third-party endorsements for a company.

People tend to trust reviews and recommendations more than traditional advertising. So if you’re also looking for a cost-effective ad, there is no better form of advertising than positive reviews from users.

●Improve your product
To remain competitive in an ever-changing market, upgrades are necessary.

You can determine which products in your store need to go, and need to be changed and improved by measuring the level of satisfaction of your customers.

So to increase your sales, you can use the CSAT survey to know what products are good and what are not.

By ensuring you always have quality products and products that meet your customers’ satisfaction, you can encourage your customers to buy more of your products, impacting your sales and revenue.

High-quality products not only can boost your revenue, but they can also increase your market share.

Create a CSAT Survey Today
Solid market research is your gateway to increased sales and revenue. If you start with a cannabis customer satisfaction survey, you’ll find out what drives positive experiences in your brand.

You could do the survey yourself but you and your business could benefit a lot from outsourcing your research to professionals. Let ISA Group help you.

Interviewing Service of America is a full-service market research company with a focus on helping businesses thrive in an ever-changing landscape of modern businesses.

Our primary goal is to support the needs of organizations and their stakeholders by providing trusted and accurate research.

We provide access to a wide range of methodologies and research topics, including cannabis. Get in touch with us and start improving your sales and profitability today.

The Benefits of Hiring a Partner to Gather Cannabis Consumer Data in Colorado

If you’re reading this, you probably already operate a cannabis business in Colorado or you are considering investing in one.

Good news: because the cannabis market is heavily regulated, there is a lot of data gathered each year that can be put to the benefit of your company. You just need to partner with the right company to gather cannabis consumer data in Colorado so you’re left with fewer questions that need answering.

The Legality of Cannabis in Colorado – Market Size Estimates
Cannabis, as you may know, is legal in Colorado – with a caveat. To purchase recreational cannabis products, one must be at least 21 years old and present a government-issued ID for the purpose of age verification. Adults between the ages of 18 and 21 must apply for a medical marijuana card.

As one of the states that allows for recreational cannabis usage, Colorado has a growing, robust cannabis industry, evaluated by the Colorado Department of Revenue at over 10 billion USD in 2021. It is expected to grow – opening the way for new merchants and investment opportunities.

However, as in all industries, competition abounds. Here are some of the ways that strategic partnership to gather cannabis consumer data in Colorado may benefit your organization or your ambitions in the long term.

Cannabis Consumer Data in Colorado: How We Can Help
Before any cannabis dispensary can make strategic decisions about marketing, budgeting, investment or positioning, its leaders must answer basic, granular questions about the basic purpose of, and place in, the cannabis market.

Like all industries, the marijuana industry is complex and subject to changing consumer habits and much more. While Colorado’s cannabis industry continues to grow, without securing proper market insights, attempting to make strategic business decisions without actionable insights is literally identical to throwing darts at a board.

Here’s how we can help your cannabis business – by answering some basic, fundamental questions.

More Accurate Budgeting
Businesses in the cannabis industry – not just in Colorado – are all faced with unique challenges when it comes to setting their budgets for the year. As with any business, arriving at a budget requires an accurate analysis of revenue, the identification of fixed and variable costs, and then determining what can be reasonably allocated to the various departments within the organization.

In order even to make an attempt to analyze revenue, it’s vital to have a good grasp of the size of the market. Partnering with ISA Corp to deliver cannabis consumer data in Colorado will help answer in-depth questions with information that will enable you to formulate learner, more accurate budgeting for more aggressive growth.

More Effective Marketing Strategies
In addition to assisting with the development of more accurate budgeting, cannabis consumer data in Colorado can help you develop more effective marketing strategies as well.

There is a saying in marketing: “Half my advertising spend is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half,” often attributed to John Wanamaker.

The point is that marketing spend is vital to growth, but it can be difficult to know how effective your marketing measures are, at least by conventional means. If there were agencies around in John Wanamaker’s day that could have furnished him with real, actionable consumer insights, the reality is he’d have a much better grasp on which half of his advertising was wasted, and he’d be able to fix it.

Luckily, today there are such tools at your disposal. If you’re looking to encourage growth in your cannabis sales in Colorado, a lot of the strategy will hinge on an effective marketing plan. Cannabis consumer data in Colorado can help you answer questions like:

●Which portion of the market should I be marketing to?
●What type of positioning resonates with them? What appeals to them as consumers?
●What are their usage habits?
●How frequent is their usage?
●How price-sensitive are they?
●How age group constitutes my target market?
●Are any segments of the market shifting?

Despite the fact that these sound like encompassing questions, they are actually very high level. In order to cultivate effective marketing strategies, you’ll need to furnish your business with much more specific information about your target market’s identity, usage, and more. Only with such specific cannabis consumer data in Colorado will you be able to tackle the complex challenges of the evolving landscape of the cannabis market.

Greater Insight into Investments
Serving either the medical cannabis or recreational adult use cannabis market in Colorado is not without its challenges, especially when it comes time to analyze future investments.

An investment in new products or services can be the best decision a business can make, but it can also be disastrous.

For example, our records indicate that during the pandemic, one of the trends among recreational cannabis users was an increased demand for delivery services. This is not necessarily unique to the cannabis industry and reflects larger changes across industries, but it applies nonetheless.

Your organization might also have questions about whether or not consumer product preferences are consistent or whether they are shifting with time. Your business might be considering a strategic decision to move into edibles and concentrates as well as flowers – but in order to do so effectively, you need to thoroughly understand your market preferences, inside and out.

Making these decisions about what products or services to invest in, and how much to invest in them, is something that can only be done responsibly with the help of accurate, applicable data – the kind of data that can be furnished by partnering with ISA Corp for cannabis consumer data in Colorado.

Long Term Planning Made Easy with Cannabis Consumer Data in Colorado
Ready to learn more about the adult-use market in your area? Work with ISA Corp to gather cannabis consumer data in Colorado and then turn it around to the benefit of your organization.

If you have any questions about our products or services, please consult the previous link or contact us directly, at Hello@ISACorp.com or at 818-989-1044.

The Importance of Cannabis Consumer Demographics Research in Marketing & Advertising

Understanding customer demographics is important when it comes to determining the success of any marketing campaign for business. In a volatile industry such as cannabis, businesses should always be on the lookout for new ways to promote their products and reach out to new customers. Knowing your cannabis consumer demographics is one way you can do this.

Demographics will help you identify each member of your market according to their characteristics, motivation to use, and overall attitude towards cannabis use.

This article will discuss the various reasons why you should be doing consumer demographics research in marketing your products and how it can help you reach your business goals faster. Read on.

Market Segmentation
Consumer demographics research is important because it can help you segment your customers according to their characteristics and what drives them to use cannabis. By doing so, you can adjust your marketing tactics to address those characteristics and needs.

Dividing your target market into smaller groups, based on shared characteristics is called market segmentation. Some of these characteristics include:
●Age
●Gender
●Race
●Marital status
●Employment
●Income
●Educational background
●and others

When you can identify your market according to these characteristics, you can inform your marketing and advertising strategies and create campaigns based on data.

With the data, you can customize your product presentation, distribution channel, marketing message, and price to grab the attention and meet the specific needs of your segmented group.
Psychographics is different from demographics. Demographic data is a quantitative method of measurement or analysis, while psychographics is qualitative data.

Psychographic characteristics include:
●Personality
●Lifestyle
●Social Status
●Activities, Interests, Opinions (AIO)
●Attitude

By Age or Generation Segmentation
Understanding age or generational characteristics is important because different generations have different sets of beliefs and attitudes towards cannabis.

For instance, just as Millenials have a different way of speaking compared to Baby Boomers, they also have different buying habits. Their attitude towards the use and legalization of cannabis for recreational and medical use can also be starkly different.

By Gender Segmentation
Males and females have different beliefs towards cannabis, and this is evident in the distribution of cannabis use between these genders. Knowing which group uses cannabis more will help you focus and refocus your marketing messages.

By Ethnicity Segmentation
People from different ethnic backgrounds have different characteristics. The population of these groups also differs in certain areas. If you have a brick-and-mortar store with one ethnic group more dominant in numbers than the others, understanding their belief system is crucial to your marketing plans.

By Marital Status Segmentation
Married people have different priorities than single individuals. These groups can also view cannabis use differently.

By Employment Status
It’s easy to create marketing strategies based on stereotypes. You shouldn’t however. If you do, you might find yourself marketing to the wrong group. That’s why getting a cannabis consumer demographics report before planning your marketing and advertising approach is important.

By Income Segmentation
People with different incomes have different buying characteristics. The more you know about buying characteristics of your market, the better you can target your marketing strategies towards that group.

By Educational Background Segmentation
The public population is widely educated to stay away from drugs. The narrative for cannabis is changing due to its legalization. Knowing how your target market perceives cannabis use will be crucial to your marketing and advertising campaigns.

The Impact of Cannabis Laws in Marketing
The legal status of cannabis in the United States has evolved rapidly over the past few decades. Cannabis is now legal for recreational use in 10 states, and medical use in 33 states.

Its legalization has changed the way people think about cannabis. However, despite legalization in several individual states and the increasingly positive public reception, cannabis is still federally illegal, which can impact your marketing efforts.

The federal government classifies marijuana as a highly addictive drug, along with cocaine and heroin, the federal government views them as drugs with no medical value.

Being lumped with cocaine and heroin doesn’t bode well for the cannabis industry. And though cannabis laws are changing and there are more calls to legalize the drug, marketing cannabis is still fraught with economic dangers.

The Future of Cannabis Marketing
Cannabis marketing is a hot topic in the marketing world. As more and more states are legalizing cannabis, marketers are looking for ways to promote their products without running afoul of federal law.

There are many challenges that lie ahead for cannabis marketers, but the future looks promising thanks to social media and the Internet. Marketing cannabis to the world has become easier.

Need Cannabis Consumer Demographics Research?
If you need in-depth demographics research, the ISA Group provides cannabis research solutions for your marketing needs. Aside from cannabis research, we specialize in custom business research, data collection, qualitative research, and academic research.

Get in touch with us today to discuss your research needs. We will be glad to assist you.