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.

ISA and Vertosa Announce Speaker Lineup for Live Event on Nov. 4: The Evolution of an Industry: Tales and Trends from Cannabis Industry Veterans

David Paleschuck, best-selling author of Branding Bud, will moderate the event featuring two speakers fresh off the stage at MJBizCon 2021

ISA and Vertosa announced today the speaker lineup for their upcoming webinar, The Evolution of an Industry: Tales and Trends from Cannabis Industry Veterans. In 2020, in-person conferences came to a halt. Last week the cannabis industry gathered in Las Vegas for the most-anticipated event of 2021. With 35,000 attendees, 1,300 exhibitors, and 130 speakers from around the world gathering to learn the latest about the cannabis industry, it was the place to be for industry executives and business leaders. This webinar will reveal shared learnings from this event, featuring two dynamic speakers fresh off the Las Vegas stage. Speakers will share their thoughts about the evolution of the cannabis industry as a whole, focusing on what has changed over the course of the pandemic era. Austin and Lisa will share the focus of their speaking engagements from MJBizCon and explore the themes and buzz from the event.

David Paleschuck, best-selling author of Branding Bud: The Commercialization of Cannabis, will moderate the live event starting at 1 pm PST on November 4, 2021. Austin Stevenson, CIO at Vertosa, Lisa Buffo, Founder & CEO of the Cannabis Marketing Association, and Adriana Hemans, VP of Demand at ISA, will provide context as industry veterans who have witnessed the transformation first-hand. This engagement is the fourth in a series of webinar events stemming from a strategic partnership between ISA and Vertosa.

“Our panel brings together a diverse group of veteran industry leaders, each with their own unique perspective and in-depth knowledge of the cannabis industry. Join us to gain an insider’s look at the strategies for building successful brands in a disruptive market.” said Adriana Hemans, VP of Demand at ISA. 

The event is free and open to the public. Attendees can register here.

Meet the Speakers

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How Professional Cannabis Consumer Insights Can Help Guide Strategic Decisions

States across the country have taken steps in the direction of cannabis legalization and decriminalization. Some states have legalized sales and; depending on the source you trust, as many as two-thirds or up to 68% of Americans believe that cannabis products and their associated consumption should be legalized. Consequently, the legal cannabis industry has consistently grown.

Whether you operate a successful dispensary and have been in business for years or you’re just looking into the financial implications of running one, there is value in cannabis consumer insights. Business leaders base much of their strategic planning around forecasts developed from extensive consumer opinion polling and other objective research.

But how can it benefit your business? Much of it comes down to how well you understand your consumers, what they do, why they do it, and what they want.

When historical sales data is insufficient, sometimes the answer lies with gathering the data proactively. Here are some of the key questions that cannabis consumer insights, consumer polling, and market research can help you answer.

How Do Customers Prefer to Buy?

Though this question, on the surface, looks like a high-level “cash or credit?” type of question, its implications run much deeper. Consider the shifts in purchasing habits that have taken place over the past two years or so.

More and more online and local shoppers are increasingly desirous of free shipping that is also stipulation-free; that is, customers who buy online want free shipping or free local delivery. Is your dispensary prepared to handle that?

For example, our research indicates that 33% of cannabis users in select markets relied heavily on delivery services during coronavirus lockdowns. Is that trend going to continue or will it falter? Past sales figures can’t tell you – only current polling and other research.

The bigger question is: is your dispensary poised to adapt to changing consumer preferences such as these?

What Are Customers Cannabis Consumption Habits?

Does your dispensary sell only flower? Or does it sell a range of different cannabis products, such as edibles, tinctures, concentrates, cannabis drinks or other unique products? More importantly, does this matter to your customers?

If your target buyer smokes flower, then you’re set for success. But what if your buyers only purchase flower incidentally, then decarb it themselves in order to make their own edibles? You might serve them better by expanding your product portfolio. Consumer data can yield insight into this consumer data.

Conversely, a product line expansion might be a wasted expense if it doesn’t result in sales and conversions. How and what your target buyers consume can help you grow strategically, making informed decisions that can justify that growth with sales – not just with a larger, costlier enterprise.

How Frequently Do Your Target Consumers Partake?

The prices you set and the type of buyer you want to attract will both affect and be affected by the consumption habits of your target market. Profitability will be affected by sales, and you might need to adjust prices accordingly to reflect projected sales forecasts.

As a very simple, high level, but reasonable example, if your target market only partakes occasionally, you might want to sell in larger or bulk quantities in order to meet that demand and expand profitability at the same time. Selling in smaller quantities might not make sense.

It all comes back to what your buyers do and when they do it – how often do your target consumers use cannabis, and can your dispensary meet that demand?

What Type of Budget Does Your Target Customer Set?

Similarly, you need to understand your target buyers’ budget as closely as possible. Other questions such as those related to price sensitivity are equally important to answer. If your branding appeals to a price-insensitive audience, a price scale or adjustment might be in order. The same could be said if your brand was not well-aligned with the actual visitors that came to your dispensary.

The key takeaway is that your price model might be inefficient, but you wouldn’t know it unless you can answer some key questions about how much your target audience intends to allocate to discretionary purchases of cannabis products.

What Types of Incentives Will Your Target Buyer Respond to?

Another basic but surprisingly relevant question revolves around strategic growth. It’s been shown time and time again that effective loyalty programs can improve customer satisfaction, boost customer engagement and retention, and increase sales. The operative word in that statement is “effective.”

What type of loyalty program will appeal to your target buyer? Why? What other strategic positioning incentives can you undertake in order to reach more consumers more effectively? Our consumer research shows that over 70% of dispensary shoppers would spend more if the dispensary offered a loyalty program.

What other questions about strategic growth do you need to be answered before you can justify the expense associated with rolling out new programs? You may be the only one to be able to ask those strategic questions, but our cannabis consumer insights can help answer them.

Basic Cannabis Consumer Insights: Your Buyer Persona

Reflect on what you’ve read so far. You’ll notice that we used the terms “target audience” and “target buyer” several times throughout this article. Before you can answer any of the other questions we posed with cannabis consumer insights, you need to define your target buyer – surprisingly, target buyers are not just the people that come into your dispensary to purchase. These are just buyers. Target buyers fit a profile defined by habits, preferences, and demographics that you must define in order to launch successful marketing campaigns.

Luckily, cannabis consumer insights can also help you define your target audience. To learn more about how you can get started making wiser marketing moves, visit our pages on Cannabis Market Research and CANNApinion Polling, or get in touch with us directly at 818-989-1044 or at hello@ISACorp.com.

ISA President Jacqueline Rosales Answers Cannabis Questions in San Fernando Valley Business Journal

Rosales spoke to the Business Journal about why ISA started doing market research into cannabis, what people are buying post pandemic and why she admires quarterback Tom Brady

ISA’s company president, Jacqueline Rosales, has been featured in the San Fernando Valley Business Journal. In her interview, Rosales talks about where consumers are coming from post-pandemic: how the big shifts are centered around self-care and self-sufficiency tools. She believes consumers are really focused on the question of how am I going to do things at home?

Rosales gets very personal when she delves into the details of her history with medical cannabis, which is as a result of being involved in an awful car accident in 2015. Because of her multiple injuries and being laid up for a long time, she found a very good health care team who was able to explore cannabis, which eliminated much of the ridiculous amounts of prescription medications. It was this experience that made her realize the huge opportunity there was to be part of the emerging cannabis industry. Fast forward to 2021, and ISA already has two years’ worth of data, thanks to Green Time, a community of cannabis consumers.

Rosales offered her advice to someone looking to start a business: “Take risks. Fail often”. And most importantly: “People. Hire people who are smarter than you”. When she states this, there’s passion in her voice, “I feel that if we have the greatest team that we can do anything!”

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ISA and Vertosa Announce Upcoming Live Event Exploring Branding and Marketing for Cannabis-infused Beverages

The virtual event taking place on July 27th will include the best-selling author of Branding Bud along with business leaders from WUNDER and Pabst Labs

ISA and Vertosa announced today the speaker lineup for their upcoming webinar: “Category Creators: Marketing and Branding for Cannabis Beverages.” Alexi Chialtas, CEO of WUNDER, David Paleschuck, Author of Branding Bud: The Commercialization of Cannabis and Mark Faicol, Brand Manager at Pabst Labs, will join the live event starting at 1 pm PST on July 27, 2021. This engagement is the third in a series of webinar events stemming from a strategic partnership between ISA and Vertosa.
The infused beverage market is expanding rapidly, driven by consumer curiosity and innovative product development. With new cannabis beverages launching almost every day, brands must constantly create and maintain excitement around their product. ISA and Vertosa developed this content specifically to bring to light new marketing strategies, concepts and approaches. The panel of experts will explore the question of what consumers are really looking for and how marketers can speak directly to their needs. Additionally, ISA will be releasing new data and insights showcasing the enormous potential of the infused beverage market.
“Our panel brings together a diverse group of powerful industry leaders, each with their own unique perspective and in-depth knowledge of both the cannabis beverages market, and the cannabis industry as a whole,” said Jacqueline Rosales, President of ISA. Jacqueline will moderate the event and lead the conversation about marketing and branding for cannabis beverages. The event is free and open to the public. 

Register Here