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 articleWhat 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.

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…

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.

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.

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.

It’s Quarter Four: Why You Should Invest in Cannabis Market Research

The New Year is coming in at a record pace (at least it seems like it, doesn’t it?), and now is the time to make sure you use up the rest of your marketing dollars before the year closes.

For marketing analysts, brand managers, and product development professionals in the recreational and medical cannabis industries in California, 2022 promises to provide a wealth of opportunities. The cannabis industry in California is one of the most robust in the country.

But running an efficient business requires strategic planning. Right now is the time to invest the remainder of your marketing budget for 2021, on a quick turnaround study providing insight into valuable California cannabis consumer data, before it’s too late!

Use It or Lose It!
Here’s the thing about marketing budget allocations. More often than not, companies are under strict pressure to as closely forecast as possible how much funding will be necessary to research the market and develop products in a given year.

Those funds are allocated as necessary to business development – up to a point. It is commonplace for budget reassessments and reallocations to follow years in which the books closed on a surplus of funding.

That means marketing managers often lose their unused dollars – and worse, the next year they might only be granted a smaller budget, reflecting the loss of the funds failed to use the previous year.

You’re given those dollars to invest in products, market research, and advertising so you can generate higher sales for your company. Money spent well is well spent, and for players in the California cannabis market, market research is one of the most potentially valuable investments that can be made.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know: California Cannabis Consumer Data and Strategic Planning for 2022
It’s important to keep in mind that there just isn’t that much historical data on medical and recreational marijuana use. In the United States (even in California) legalizing cannabis is a trend that has only relatively recently started to generate a head of steam.

Yes, cannabis sales are projected to grow, but that doesn’t answer any of the minute questions about the industry that offer up the details. There’s still a lot to know, and California cannabis consumer data is worth its weight in gold.

What Cannabis Businesses Need to Know
Guessing never pays off in business. Success is no accident, but the result of gathering accurate insights into a target market and making actionable decisions.

For businesses that operate in the industries for medical or recreational marijuana in California, using the remainder of a marketing budget to gather California cannabis consumer data via a study with ISA Corp can answer some of the following vital questions:

●Who are my customers, really? A study can help you gather direct insights into your target demographic; it might not be just who you assumed it to be.

●How familiar is my target audience with the specific products I sell?

●Is it worth investing in developing new products, such as edibles, tinctures, or cannabis drinks?

●Does my target audience have a preferred method of consumption? If so, is it worth my company’s time and resources to proliferate into additional product categories?

●How familiar are cannabis users with my company’s brand? Does my company’s brand align well with the expectations of my target audience?

●What marketing channels will be most effective at reaching members of my target audience? How much does my organization need to spend in the coming years to reach them?

●In what areas of the state will demand for cannabis products be the highest in 2022? Are there any areas projected to have higher than average growth?

●How price-sensitive are the members of my target audience? How often do they use cannabis products? Are their usage tendencies independent of price or does expense impact usage trends?

●Does my organization need to start offering free shipping or delivery services in order to remain effective?

●What other competitive moves are other players in the industry making that are either popular or effective with shared target customers?

●What are the reasons that my company’s target users consume cannabis? Is it to relieve stress, to combat cabin fever, or do they only habitually use when amongst company?

●Does my company need to adjust targeting or positioning in order to take advantage of a growing segment of the market that will not be effectively reached by our current approaches?

●Is it potentially worth investing in markets outside of my company’s home state (California), especially in light of burgeoning public support for legalizing adult use in neighboring states, like Oregon?

●What platforms does it make the most sense to advertise on, given both reach and the plausibility of advertising on platforms that may impose restrictions?

These are only a few of the questions that partnering with ISA Corp for a study to deliver California cannabis consumer data can answer. Ultimately, the questions are up to you to ask, but together we can help you answer them.

Partner with Us for a Quick Turnaround Study on the Cannabis Industry in Your Area
ISA Corp has developed the world’s first cannabis consumer panel – The Green Time – which consists of a panel of both cannabis users and industry professionals who are committed to answering questions about cannabis products, branding, and the overall industry.

Members of the panel are extensively vetted and qualified and must pass a rigorous screen process to verify their age and identity before being admitted to the panel.

You can also take advantage of our CANNApinion Poll, a bi-monthly survey of U.S. cannabis consumers. The CANNApinion Poll allows you to closely target your questions to the needs of your business and generate quick, accurate insights into your target user behavior, preferences, and more.

There’s never been a better time to take advantage of cannabis consumer insights, especially if you still haven’t used your entire marketing budget for 2021. Start off 2022 armed with answers to the questions that have plagued your organization most, and enter the New Year with a plan for sustained growth.

Start a conversion today.

Some Helpful Colorado Cannabis Consumer Insights

Colorado Amendment 64, passed just shy of a decade ago in November 2012, legalized recreational cannabis use in the Centennial State and paved the way for retail sales and market growth. Although California legalized medical cannabis many years earlier (1996), Colorado (along with Washington state) was one of the first states to legalize the drug for recreational use.

Since that time, the statewide cannabis market has blossomed and continues to grow, and many other states have followed suit. Colorado is still seen as a beacon of the movement to legalize recreational cannabis products, and its politically friendly atmosphere has attracted users, investors, and dispensaries.

But the keys to success in Colorado’s cannabis industry, as in so many others, lie in the precinct of effective, practical decision making, and without information, that’s an impossibility.

Let’s take a look at some helpful Colorado cannabis consumer insights.

Market Sizing

The market for legal cannabis in Colorado is one of the biggest in the nation. In 2021, the total industry for cannabis in Colorado cumulatively surpassed $10 billion in sales since the program began officially in 2014.

Through 2020, annual sales increased 25% from 2019. Whether this was due to pandemic-fueled isolation or simply growing, widespread acceptance, at the moment, is anyone’s guess. All the same, the figures don’t lie. 2021 has also been a record year.

When comparing retail (recreational adult-use cannabis) alongside the medical marijuana industries in the state, retail sales are, on average, larger. Per location, in 2019, retail sales were on average just shy of about $2.5 million, whereas medical channels sold on average just over $750,000.

As of 2020, Colorado has more than 400 cultivators. At the outset of 2020, Colorado had 438 licensed medical marijuana dispensaries and 572 licensed cannabis retailers. The latter figure is and has been growing consistently. By the end of 2020, there were over 590.

As for the number of users, that figure would appear to be fairly lucrative as well. Estimates of the number of recreational and medical users are both high and growing. By 2021, the state had over 85,000 users of medical marijuana. The estimated size of the recreational, adult-use markets are between 550,000 and 650,000, but of course, that number could be larger in actuality.

Takeaways:

  • Cannabis sales are growing in Colorado every year.
  • Colorado is consistently adding cannabis retail licenses.
  • Cannabis consumption (both medical and recreational) is rising, but growth among recreational users is stronger.

Market Demographics

Without performing a custom, targeted study of your local cannabis demographics, we can only offer national figures and splice them into what we already know about Colorado cannabis consumer insights.

Nationwide, there are both male and female consumers of cannabis products. Currently, around 60% of sales go to male users, but that trend is decreasing as more and more women officially begin participating in legal cannabis markets.

You might not expect it, but education appears to be correlated to cannabis usage. Those with college degrees or even associate’s degrees are more likely to purchase recreational cannabis than those with only a high school diploma.

Both employed and unemployed consumers exhibit demand for cannabis products. Nearly a third of unemployed consumers are users of marijuana.

Nationally, by far, the largest cohort of cannabis users are millennials. Estimates place the national recreational figures for millennials at anywhere up to 50% of the market. The next largest cohort is Gen X, at about 25%. Together, these two demographics constitute about 75% of the market for cannabis users. Interestingly, the next largest cohort is baby boomers – at around 15%.

Purchasing Habits

Colorado consumer insights regarding purchasing habits are also valuable. Knowing what to sell to your customers can be the difference between a sale and a lost opportunity. For these purposes, we’re going to defer to information gathered in 2019 and earlier.

In 2019, flower constituted 44% of cannabis sales in Colorado. It held a majority over concentrates (31%), while edibles consisted of 15% of sales. The remainder of sales in Colorado consisted of pre-rolls and other goods.

Let’s contrast this with data from 2018, which estimates flower sales at 45%, concentrate sales at 33%, and edibles at 6%. It looks like there’s little change.

However, taking a step back in time to 2015 paints a clearer picture. In that year, flower constituted 65% of cannabis sales in Colorado, with 15% allocated to concentrates and 12% to edibles.

Flower sales, as a percentage of the total, have shrunk consistently over the years, losing ground to concentrates. Preference for edibles has grown consistently, albeit very slowly.

However, this is not at all to suggest that the market for flower is dwindling and that the future lies with concentrates. Since sales overall have grown considerably, the volume in reach category has also grown in kind. It simply means that if there was doubt regarding the future of concentrate sales, the figures tell a clear story.

Colorado Cannabis Consumer Insights: Projections

No one can say with any authority what exactly the future holds, but if the past is any presage, cannabis sales in Colorado will continue to flourish, even allowing for proliferation into additional product categories like cannabis drinks and the like.

According to Statista, Colorada cannabis sales in 2022 are expected to meet or exceed 2.5 billion dollars. That is a significant increase from 2021, which in turn exhibited strong growth from 2020, and when compared alongside 2019.

For entrepreneurs that are interested in investing in the cannabis market in Colorado – and even for retail locations looking to extract more value from their investments, Colorado cannabis consumer insights can help.

Revamp Business with Custom Colorado Cannabis Consumer Insights

Raw figures like the ones presented in this article only give a sense of where the cannabis market in Colorado is likely to go. They paint a positive picture of growth and buying habits, but they don’t answer the granular, targeted questions that business owners need to answer in order to secure the greatest success.

Questions associated with local buyers in your target market, what their purchasing habits are, how they like to pay, or what products might merit testing and development, all can’t be answered by vague national statistics.

These are the kinds of questions that can only be answered by purpose-driven, customized Colorado cannabis consumer insights – and we are ready to partner with you to help you drive business.

Get in touch with us today at 818-989-1044 or at hello@isacorp.com to learn more about how our customized research surveys and other data-collection services can help you gain actionable insights for your cannabis business.