We’re less than 100 days out from what is renowned as the holiest of high days- 4/20. For cultivators and producers in the space, the time is coming to work with storefronts to boost your brand appropriately and take advantage of what is historically one of the biggest spend days for cannabis of the year. While in the coming weeks purchasing managers may start placing orders to stay stocked for the holiday, starting now in production to ensure you are best positioned to support those stores is key. Here are our five quick tips to best dominate the 420 sale cycle.
Order Extra Packaging
Supply chain starts with you! Whether it be mylar packages for freebie 1/8ths or edible packaging or whatever the case, starting now to make sure everything is landed in time to ship is key. Frankly overordering at this point isn’t out of the question- unless you have a rebrand coming up, you will make use of that packaging on hand. 420 is a terrible time to rebrand anyway- that’s a good Q3 problem to have. With supply chain also comes the tricky dance of ensuring packaging and accessories work- especially if you are in the vape business. Throughout the product supply chain vape batteries for disposables notoriously have some of the largest margins of error. Vape mouthpieces may also be key features to test in time- if they are unable to pull the product is useless. While faulty materials are a headache, it’s easier to get through that headache now than in March when it’s crunch time and every supplier is stretched thin and charging ridiculous rush fees.
Plan for Trim
Not everything can be top shelf, it happens. Sometimes the flower just isn’t flowering. Even if the trichomes aren’t shining, the product can still be usable. After everything is sent through testing, you can still flip flower that isn’t up to standard quality. Other producers may be open to picking up your trim or bottom buds for their own use. This may be more common with concentrate processors who need liters and liters of THC and cannabis-derived terpenes (vs the botanical bottles) for their products. This may also support bolstering your professional relationship with your peers in the cannabis community for future partnerships as well. You rarely are punished for playing nice.
Get By With A Little Help From Your Friends
Speaking of playing nice with others, now is the time to arm your sales team with support to better connect with your neighboring dispensaries. You certainly have your few dispensaries that you work with well, vertically integrated or not. Those are your bread and butter and should be treated as such. With those key partners, reach out to the GM and see where they need support. Maybe they’re short staffed and you can send brand ambassadors to support customer education so the budtenders can focus on selling. If they’re running lean on supply chain, you can work with them to do co-branded exit bags to lighten their load. Identify where they need the help and find creative ways to offer it to them- they will absolutely remember that and the staff will show love.
Spread The Love
For your lighter stores that aren’t the biggest movers, spend time in those locations and areas to see why. If they have vertically integrated competitive brands, don’t be intimidated. There is room for so many different brands to succeed in cannabis retail and every group needs additional producers to balance in their product mix. While they may not be as keen to offer co-branded items to guests (in favor of their own in-house brands), you could work with the staff to build brand affinity. Offering to run budtender sales contests is a fair way to connect while not taking up shelf space away from the retailer’s vertically integrated products. While some budtenders are happy with a lanyard or a lighter, brands that often win the crowd favorite vote oversee brand affinity and sales contests for larger prizes, like a volcano device or a Stunden. Some brands have even offered plane tickets in exchange for moving more than 50 products in a weekend for example- these prizes are seriously coveted and create serious loyalty.
Invest in Education
Perhaps the best organic way to drive brand affinity and support your 420 promotions is hosting educational events. While not all areas allow for consumption events, public or gated, doing some sampling with budtenders and the front lines of sales is one of the best ways to get buy in from staff. Education turns into sales and helps push your 420 promotions with a true personal touch. If you’ve identified a product or strain you want to push for 420, take time to develop education on why that product is special and create a program for budtenders to learn more. Incentivize that with earning a shirt, merch item or more samples of product after completing the course.
The key to brand dominance throughout this time is to prepare and empower. Be physically ready to manage as much as possible and balance that with arming all front lines of stores with as much education and support as possible.
420 is just around the corner and this could absolutely be your year for dominance. Make it count!
And to get ahead of next 420, contact us for a live software demo to get ahead of your competition.
