Medical Marijuana Producers’ Challenge
Stoner. Pothead. Weed. Grass. Kush. Dank. Joint. Roach clips. Blunt. Because I got high. The language and vast terminology around marijuana run almost as deep as the conflicted feelings about the subject currently in the US. As prevalent as that lingo is on the black market, it’s completely absent from dispensaries throughout the country and that is not by accident.
Remember when cell phones were just cell phones? Remember when you even had to say, “cell” before the phone? Not since Apple released the iPhone in the summer of 2007 and simultaneously created a brand and a market has such a cultural shift occurred.
That is until recently when the legal marijuana industry picked up four more states on election day. That makes the total number of states that have legalized medical marijuana to 34, including my home state of Florida. As someone that is borderline obsessed with marketing and branding and also happens to be living with a fatal disease with no cure, I have marveled at the maturation process of one brand, in particular, MÜV dispensaries.
I was never really into smoking pot, as it was commonly known as, going back to high school or even college. It just wasn’t my thing. But flash forward to 2016 and I’d had ALS for four years and medical marijuana became legal in Florida, I figured, it was worth a shot! I was not lined up outside a dispensary on day one, but I have been watching it from a marketing perspective from the first time I literally rolled into a dispensary in my wheelchair.
The entire industry was brand new. Think about how foreign it felt to hold a phone without buttons. Swiping was something thieves did. Now my two and a half-year-old daughter does it. Apps were something that came out before the entrees. Now they run our lives. Unlimited data was an unfamiliar term outside of the sciences. Now it is a necessity.
Medical marijuana companies, like MÜV have been trying to accomplish the same type of introduction and subtle education. Although they have achieved a tremendous amount of success in doing just that, they and the industry are still learning. Here are some of the biggest wins and areas of improvement.
Continuity — This is where most endeavors fail to grasp the importance of building every fiber of a brand with a purpose and then doing it over and over again. We are simple creatures that don’t like surprises. I have been to five different MÜV dispensaries and once inside I couldn’t tell you what location it was because they have executed brand Continuity very well. Every dispensary looks and feels the exact same. Just like every McDonald’s has the drive-thru and the fries to the left when you walk up to the counter.
Inclusion — Every marketing 101 course starts with “know your target audience.” That is basic level stuff, right? But how do you build a brand that has such a massive potential market? You risk alienating segments of the potential market if your branding is too targeted. The most successful brands understand that if you try to be everything to everyone, you will fail. But if you try to be something to everyone, bring on the big bucks.
The faces in MÜV waiting area could just as easily be the DMV. It is everyone from soccer moms to construction workers to retirees and they are all there for something different. It might be different symptoms and the same products or different products with the same symptoms. That level of inclusion can only be found in the smartphone market. If you have a niece and a grandfather, there’s a good chance that they have the same phone.
Continuous Product Development — This is one part of operations and one part of marketing, but the two have to be synced from conception to execution. My wife and I both have our medical marijuana cards and between the two of us, we probably on average have at least five different MÜV products in our home. That is quite an accomplishment for a young brand but they are constantly improving or adding new products. That type of brand adoption is the equivalent of plugging your iPhone into your MacBook Air.
Address the Changing Times — This is the one area that I think MUV and the entire industry could improve. Despite the overwhelming majority of Americans that support the legalization of marijuana, there is still a very real stigma around the use of marijuana use. As a family, we have experienced some moments with people that remain uninformed about the benefits of marijuana. I understand that in a state that only allows medical use that ads are highly regulated by the department of health, but it seems strange that there is not more advocacy by the producers at this point.
As a patient and a marketer, it’s been quite rewarding to watch the MÜV brand grow. I don’t know that I would have ever thought of a case study that compared brand introduction and market adoption between a tech giant and a medical marijuana producer. But I also never thought I’d hear my mom and my wife discuss the different flavor profiles of OG Kush and Ghost Rider. So, there’s that.