US Corporations Taking Notice of 420 as Weed Legalization Grows

US Corporations and 420

No, Hallmark doesn’t yet have a card to mark “420.” But many other businesses inside and outside the multibillion-dollar cannabis industry are using April 20, or 4/20, to roll out marketing and social media messaging aimed at connecting with consumers driving the booming market.

On Saturday, Lyft is offering a $4.20 credit on a single ride in Colorado and in select cities in the U.S. and Canada. Carl’s Jr. is using a Denver restaurant to market a hamburger infused with CBD, a non-intoxicating molecule found in cannabis that many believe is beneficial to their health.

On 420 last year, Totino’s, a maker of frozen pizza snacks, tweeted an image of a microwave and an oven with the message: “To be blunt, pizza rolls are better when baked.”

“I think brands that associate themselves with cannabis kind of get that contact high. In other words, they’re just considered to be cooler by association,” said Kit Yarrow, consumer psychologist at Golden Gate University. “As pot becomes more legal, more discussed, more interesting to people, more widely used, then 420 becomes more mainstream as well.”

Marijuana normalization has snowballed since 2012, when Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize recreational use. Eight more followed, including California, Oregon and Michigan. Medical marijuana is legal in two-thirds of the states, with conservative-leaning Utah and Oklahoma among recent additions.

Meantime, the CBD market has exploded. CBD oil can be found in candies, coffee and other food, drinks and dietary supplements, along with perfume, lotions, creams and soap. Proponents say CBD helps with pain, anxiety and inflammation, though limited scientific research supports those claims.

Weed Growth in Recent Years

U.S. retail sales of cannabis products jumped to $10.5 billion last year, a threefold increase from 2017, according to data from Arcview Group, a cannabis investment and market research firm. The figures do not include retail sales of hemp-derived CBD products.

Ben & Jerry’s was one of the earliest big brands to foster a connection with the marijuana culture through marketing. The Vermont-based ice cream company features Cherry Garcia and Phish Food, honoring late Grateful Dead member Jerry Garcia and the band Phish. Both bands are favorites of the marijuana-smoking crowd.

To mark 420 in recent years, Ben & Jerry’s debuted taco and burrito inspired ice cream sandwiches. This year the company partnered with a San Francisco Bay Area cannabis retailer to give customers who place delivery orders on Friday and Saturday a free pint of Half Baked, a combination of cookie dough and fudge brownie.

“We have a lot of fun, never being overt, but really playing into the moment of 420,” said Jay Curley, the company’s global head of integrated marketing.

Last year, Ben & Jerry’s also turned more serious, asking consumers to call on lawmakers to expunge prior marijuana convictions and press for pardons or amnesty for anyone arrested for smoking pot. This year the company is using the holiday to call for criminal justice reform.

“We’re actually using this as an opportunity not to tell a stoner joke like we have in the past, but to raise what we see as a much more serious issue around justice,” Curley said.

The Cannabis Market

Those in the marijuana marketplace also are ramping up advertising around 420. Much of the marketing about cannabis or related products takes the form of online ads, emails, text messages and social media. Shops typically offer discounts. Some host parties with food and entertainment. The larger 420 events can draw thousands of people.

Verano Holdings, whose businesses include cannabis shops, sponsors street festivals in Chicago and Tulsa, Oklahoma, where attendees can learn about marijuana products, listen to music and grab a bite. The company expects this Saturday’s festival in Chicago, going on its third year, will draw more than 4,000 people. Last year, it drew 1,500, said Tim Tennant, Verano’s chief marketing officer.

In San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Hippie Hill will again be the site of a 420 celebration. Last year, more than 15,000 attended the event, which has transformed from a small informal gathering into a full-blown festival of corporate sponsors and commercial booths selling smoking devices, T-shirts and food.


Roger Volodarsky, whose Los Angeles-based Puffco makes portable vaporizers, has celebrated 420 since he was a teenager. Back then, he said, “420 was the day that you splurged on yourself and got high in interesting ways. It was the day that you made a gravity bong and coughed your brains out.”

Volodarksy likes that some Main Street brands are getting into the industry and the holiday.

“What’s important to me about these ad campaigns is they’re speaking to people who aren’t users and they’re normalizing the space to people who aren’t users,” he said.

Even as popularity grows, some companies will stay away from 420 as a marketing tool, said Allen Adamson, co-founder of Metaforce, a marketing consulting company.

“If you’re talking about a big brand that needs to appeal to everybody and is very risk-averse, then probably not,” he said. “I don’t think you’ll see large financial institutions doing it.”

source: usa.inquirer.net

Legal marijuana off to blazing start in California

DESERT HOT SPRINGS, United States — It’s the first day that marijuana can be bought and sold legally in California, and store owner Nicole Salisbury’s stock of pot edibles is already running low.

The phone has been ringing non-stop for weeks with people from out-of-state expressing an interest in sampling her wares.

“I’m so excited but I’m also a little bit nervous,” says Salisbury, who has been in the marijuana business for a decade and opened Green Pearl Organics as a medical dispensary two years ago.

“For the first time, I feel comfortable telling people that I own a marijuana shop,” added the 35-year-old, who has vibrant blue-green hair.

Eight states as well as the capital Washington have already legalized recreational use of the drug, though it remains outlawed at the federal level.

But California’s sheer size — its roughly 40 million people make it America’s most populous state — as well as its booming economy mean it is expected to be the world’s largest market for the green flowering plant.

California became a pioneer when it legalized medicinal use of pot in 1996, and its decision to expand that to recreational use effective Monday will be watched closely around the world by countries hoping to cash in on the so-called “green rush.”

Riding high

Throughout the Golden State on Monday, marijuana aficionados formed lines outside legal shops, no longer forced to conduct business with illicit dealers on the down low.

At Green Pearl Organics, Salisbury’s team has been working since 8:00 am, helping customers with their various products — waxes, brownies, different forms of weed to soothe or to induce highs.

After a quiet morning following New Year’s Eve celebrations, the shop starts to overflow by midday.

Some elderly customers — longtime buyers who have been coming to the store since it opened — are annoyed that they now have to wait in long lines.

Some complain that only medical use should have remained legal, while others are unhappy at the heavy taxes applied to cannabis, which exceed 20 percent when state, sales and municipal taxes are added.

Buying involves showing a driver’s license or other form of ID as proof you are 21 or above, and customers receive their goods in an opaque white bag.

Californians can get up to 28.5 grams (one ounce) of cannabis without a prescription and grow up to six plants per residence.

The waiting room is filled with men and women of all ages, many regulars who live in this desert region, some two hours east of Los Angeles.

“It’s great to come get marijuana without actually having to see a doctor,” says Andrew Jennings, who is originally from Texas.

“There’s no place in Texas where you can go — with a doctor’s recommendation or without,” he adds.

“A lot of people think you just sit on your couch and watch TV, but depending on the strength, it can actually increase your focus,” adds the bearded 32-year-old, who was accompanied by his yoga-teacher girlfriend.

“If you’re selling alcohol in this country, you should also sell weed — it brings taxes, we get great marijuana that’s being tested, so everybody’s winning,” adds Jennings, who is between jobs and says he enjoys cycling in nature when he gets high.

‘I don’t want to be a stoner’

Christina, a 50-year-old behavioral therapist for special needs children, who declined to give her last name, has come to buy marijuana oils hoping they will restore her hormonal balance and calm her anxiety.

“I’m trying to get a natural medicine, (but) I don’t want to be a stoner,” she says, adding that she would rather her 12-year-old son does not know because she doesn’t want to encourage him as she believes marijuana is bad for developing brains.

According to the new law, marijuana cannot be consumed in public places or while driving — nor can it be used within 1,000 feet (about 300 meters) of a school or other place for children.

Desert Hot Springs is hoping to carve out a niche as a destination for marijuana lovers — as well as the curious — from all over the country.

Many business owners are also investing in farms — Salisbury is planting her seedlings in a plot at the back of the store while also working with a network of growers.

Both the mayor and the police have backed the industry, which is projected to be worth $5.8 billion in California by 2021, according to consultancy firm ArcView.

For Salisbury, it’s also a matter of personal dignity.

“I felt social shame — I felt as though I were a prostitute or a stripper even though I always obeyed the law and paid my taxes,” she says.

“Now I can tell my truth, say this is what I do.” /cbb

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net