Michael Malcolm, Former CMO of CRONJA; Former Adjunct Professor, City Colleges of Chicago
“Marketing in the cannabis industry has to be one of the most difficult aspects of the industry. Not only do you have to deal with the things all marketers struggle with, like ROI and reach. But in cannabis, we also have to deal with shadow bans, deleted accounts and tax burdens like 280E, which don’t allow cannabis companies to deduct business expenses, like marketing, when filing taxes. This hurdle made me approach our marketing strategy creatively. Our approach was two fold…first, build community in the markets that we are operating by focusing on issues the people were interested in … like when CRONJA held an open consumption brand event that doubled as a job fair.
Secondly, we partnered with organizations and media outlets that would promote our brand not only for our cannabis products, but for the environment we were working to create within the industry. For example CRONJA was part of a large social equity accelerator project. As the lead brand, we used our media outlet connections to call attention to the needs of social equity operators and the benefits they provide their markets. These efforts made it appear that our brand wasn’t just about selling products but that we actually care about the communities we serve.” - Malcolm
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