Cannabis and Consistency - Branding Bud Live Episode 50

 

THE SUMMARY

Join Branding Bud Live co-hosts David Paleschuck and Adriana Hemans, along with our guest, Wendy Bronfein, Co-Founder, Chief Brand Officer and Director of Public Policy at Curio Wellness, as we dive deep into the hurdles faced by cannabis entrepreneurs in delivering brand consistency amid a maze of legal hurdles.

THE CO-HOSTS

David Paleschuck, Adriana Hemans

THE SPECIAL GUESTS

Wendy Bronfein, Co-Founder, Chief Brand Officer and Director of Public Policy at Curio Wellness

THE TRANSCRIPT

DAVID PALESCHUCK

Welcome to Branding Bud Live, the live stream that’s 100% THC and 0% WTF.  Every week we bring business people together to talk about the business of cannabis. I’m David Paleschuck, founder of Branding Bud Consulting Group and author of the first book on cannabis branding, “Branding Bud: The Commercialization of Cannabis.” I’m joined by my co-host and BCF “best cannabis friend,” Adriana Hemans, the Director of Marketing at Green Meadows. Hi Adriana!

ADRIANA HEMANS

Hi David. Thank you for that intro. I’m so excited to co-host the show with you. We’re bringing amazing guests from across the cannabis ecosystem to share their perspectives. My favorite thing about Branding Bud Live is that we focus on building community - and we encourage audience participation. It’s not just about us talking, it’s about all of us building something together. So feel free to drop your questions and/or opinions in the chat, and we’ll share them too.

I’m super excited - and grateful - today for a number of reasons. They are:

#1. I’m grateful to and for our show sponsor - High Hopes

  • A creative agency that specializes in the cannabis industry. 

  • With over a decade of cannabis experience.

  • High Hopes understands the challenges of our industry and helps its clients

  • With better branding, packaging, website design, SEO, and marketing.

  • I’d like to congratulate them on their recent CLIO Award win

  • Be sure to check them out at: www.ivegothigherhopes.com

#2. We just launched two online courses on cannabis branding and brand development and have received such great feedback, that we’re going to keep offering up more courses! Please check them out and more at cannabis’s best-kept secret www.brandingbud.com/edu. We’ll throw up a direct link shortly.

#3. Last but not least, our guest today is Wendy Bronfein, Co-Founder, Chief Brand Officer and Director of Public Policy at Curio Wellness and we’ll be chatting about “Cannabis And (In)Consistency.”

Some of the questions we’ll be discussing are:

  • What challenges do cannabis brands face in terms of maintaining consistency?

  • How do regulations impact the branding strategies of cannabis companies?

  • How do these challenges affect product development and innovation?

I’m super excited about all the things that are going on and I’m super excited to chat with Angela today.

ADRIANA HEMANS

Me too!

DAVID PALESCHUCK

Let’s welcome, Wendy Bronfein, Co-Founder, Chief Brand Officer and Director of Public Policy at Curio Wellness. Welcome, Wendy.

ADRIANA HEMANS 

Welcome, Wendy.

WENDY BRONFEIN

Hello, how are you guys? Thank you for having me.

ADRIANA HEMANS 

Hi Wendy. Tell us about yourself.

WENDY BRONFEIN

Thank you so much. I'm CMO of Curio Wellness, we are a family owned and operated cannabis company. My dad and I co-founded the company. My sister and brother work here too. We all work together. We are originally from Maryland, where we started. We now are launching in Missouri, and the company's been around for about seven years now. We are really focused on improving quality of life through cannabis. So part of our outlook when we came to this space was noticing the fragmentation of cannabis products in the in stores. So how can we have a consistent line of products always available, we started as medical, so always available to patients now always available to patients and consumers, and really have differentiated products and be able to meet customer delight. That's what we're rooted in. And I think to get to that place, you have to be deep on education. Because this is all new territory. And a lot of the consumers who are coming to it can be very overwhelmed by choices can be overwhelmed by the language, the cannabinoids, the terpenes, etc. And so you really have to be able to bring people into the tent with you and let them understand what the products benefits are, and why they should choose our product. I think we've done a really good job of that over the last kind of six years in the Maryland market.

DAVID PALESCHUCK 

Very cool. I knew it was a family business. But I didn't realize everybody in the family was there.

WENDY BRONFEIN 

Everybody but mom, yeah. We call her the chief babysitting officer.

DAVID PALESCHUCK 

We titled the show “Cannabis and Consistency” and I'm very tempted to rename on the fly “Cannabis and Inconsistency”. Would you mind sharing a little bit about the things that make this a fragmented industry?

WENDY BRONFEIN 

I think it's, it's definitely a tough place for the marketing and branding team, because based on laws and regulations, that line of our business can shift a lot. So we see the packaging, we see it in advertising, it comes across in the products themselves, and the dosage or the form of product, and how you merchandise and how you're if you if you're on the retail side, how your store is designed, how people engage in it. So I think everything that makes it really the all the things that make it fun, or the or the places where we usually get diluted, I think just because it's there's kind of an oxymoronic factor and that in oftentimes, a state legislature has validated that we should exist or, or the citizens have voted for us to be legal. But then there's a lot of rules that are put up that that's sort of build walls around that. And so, branding and marketing can definitely get diluted to probably the detriment of the patients and the consumers.

ADRIANA HEMANS 

Oh, totally. And I must be so confusing for people. I mean, I get confused about it. And I work in the industry, for someone who's shopping in different markets, particularly like how can they even keep track of what to expect when they're looking for a particular brand? So maybe we could dive into a little bit about like packaging and dosing and how those differ? Because I think that's the biggest sources of confusion.

WENDY BRONFEIN 

Absolutely. So when we started here in Maryland, we have our own line, we also have the licensing to a number of different brands. And so one of the first brands we had licensing with was a company called Dixie that people may know, and they're out of Colorado. And so when they came to our state, we had to work with them to adapt all of their packaging, because it would not be compliant with what was required in Maryland at the time. Now we're going into Missouri and feeling the same pain so I actually have some props here for you kind of give a highlight. So one of the one of the elements for Missouri is a is this like are you calling an Uber clean look, you're very limited in a single color in your text can be black or white. You can have up to two logos and that's where you can include some level of clock color, but that's where it begins and ends. So this is an example of a choo pouch that we have here in Maryland. And this is how it will look in Missouri. Now, one of the pieces that's really significant about this is this area up here, oaks ranch pouch. This area up here, where you see this orange tab, we do a lot of work across our packaging, when the potency changes, we use color indicators. And we have designated areas where we call that out as a safety measure, right. So this package here is five milligrams, it SR package, the tab is blue, and it's 25 milligrams. But when you buy this in Missouri, right here, it says five milligrams, or it could say 25, that's doesn't make it very easy for people to avoid grabbing the wrong bag. And so and like you can see it here to good night, which is our proprietary sleep line that we created, all we're left with is a blue bag here, we've got the texture, it's maybe hard to see, but we're using our icons in here and things like that. It really kind of dumbs down what you're doing. You also can't use any marketing language on that. We have a line have a restful night, that's out, it's as basic as you can say, to tell somebody What's in that bag is what you're limited to. Now the interesting pieces on the advertising side there, we can be very dynamic. And we can go a lot farther. And interestingly, in Maryland, when we recently became adult use, we became more restrictive in our advertising. So right now we sit in, it's sort of a funny situation, in this in the state where this package is, I can do less to advertise it outside the store. But I can show you something much more interesting in the store and much more interesting that you take home with you. And in this state. It's very basic what you see in the store and what you take home, but I can be much more creative in how I market it to you.

If you notice, there's also like the triangle and the diamond. Right. So this is another piece, there's always some symbol that's required, it has some sort of scale, prior to adult use in Maryland that the triangle had to be there, it now has to be a half inch by half inch. And then the other thing I would take note on is on the backside here, you can see these knockout areas. Now again, Merit This is Missouri that word marijuana has to be there huge, it has to be wider than then the largest logo on the bag. But also this knock at areas because there's so much required compliance language that that territory is designated just for all the things that were required to say by the state.

We as a brand, never use that word because it has a pejorative kind of history. And when we were giving feedback, because in many of the states, when you're going through rounds of regulations, there's an opportunity to give feedback. And so they kept using that word, and they and particularly with regards to packaging, they would say and then you have to put this word on, and we kept saying it should say cannabis, you shouldn't say marijuana, and it feels like a really benign, ask like that. They should be like fine, we'll let them say cannabis on it. We won't say marijuana, but they kept marijuana on there. So it's huge on like every bag and in Missouri.

DAVID PALESCHUCK 

When Washington State there was obviously, everybody just on the bag, and in the in terms of the labeling, I believe it was last year they actually came and then recreated the law or revise the law. So now it has to say cannabis. And of course, most of the companies were interested in wanting to change it. They had already invested in their labels. So there was, I think it was a six month period where they phased out the word marijuana and now have brought in labeling that mandates the word cannabis. Sometimes it takes time. How do you think through these differentiations between laws and regulations in different states in order to come up with something that is at least recognizable as the same brand?

WENDY BRONFEIN 

Yeah, so I think So, in this instance, what were this particularly because we were right now at like two extremes, right like Package A, where we can design it exactly as we want, and Package B, where we're very controlled. And so I think you are going like, we say, Package A, that that's our tent pole, right. And we want to keep as much of that integrity as we can. And, and the other piece is when we market and we advertise, we have the ability to show the true packaging, right. And then to put some sort of disclaimer that says packaging may be different in your market, Maryland package shown, you don't have to, you don't have to actually mark it with everything the way that it is, you can really show it in its truest and best form. And like on our website, right, the primary packaging will always exist there. And I think that's something that we've seen to be consistent with other brands that cross states where they have to adapt, but they showcase themselves through the best lens possible.

I think I think the example of what I was showing with these packages in Missouri, I think really call into question the safety because we always use a highlighting feature on packaging to show potency. So for and the reason I think it's a particular note there is because Missouri right now is the only state where there's one set of products. So in many states, the dosing transitions between medical and adult you. So for example, when in our transition here in Maryland, 10 milligrams is the cap on an adult use product per piece, 100 milligrams per package. Medical patients, you can buy 25 milligrams, 40 milligrams, so you can buy higher potencies when we make the same products in Missouri, anyone can buy them, the only differences is that the tax is different if you're adult use or if you're medical. So if the only way to if you have two bags in your household, and you got to catch that there's a two here, or not a two here. So it's 25 or five, that's not very clear. And so we've taken a lot of steps in our previous life where we have control of our packaging more to really kind of manage that hierarchy of messaging and create clear visual indicators of where the where you're going to find the potency what the potency is. The order of the CBD come before THC or THC before CBD. Like all of these things have been thoughtfully put together. And in a way also that aligns with what we just know in the World, like, if you pick up a medicine bottle, or you pick up a health and beauty products, like you kind of know where to look for information, right, so we're trying to use the muscle memory that people have, but then apply it to our sector. So I think when regulators operate from a fearful place, because of the category, I think it actually can create more safety risks to the consumer. The other piece is, there's obviously a massive cost issue on our side, right, because like, we can't just run one package for the volume needed across multiple states, right? If you're making Tylenol in the United States, you're just making it in one, one package, it's being made in a factory, and you're filling it and you're sending it all over this country. And it's acceptable everywhere. Now, if you have to send it to England, maybe they have different roles, because it's a different country. But here we were in like fiefdoms where the package is, has looked this way, and has this content for this state. And it looks this way, and has that content for the state. And just doing the packaging change from a resource perspective, we simultaneously had packaging updates happening in Maryland with going on to adult use. And moving into Missouri and working on both of those, it took over the entire team. I mean, the biggest learning we had is the next time we go through this, it is a like Tiger team over on its own outside the daily scope of business to do this, because it sucked up so much energy to manage the hundreds of SKUs and packages that had to be updated for two different states with two different sets of rules, right?

DAVID PALESCHUCK 

How does how does that affect customer loyalty and customer trust as well.

WENDY BRONFEIN 

So I think that Missouri is going to be a really good case study in this because they had been coming into an established market. They had what I'll call normal packaging before, but now everyone's had to dumb it down. And so what is that going to look like when people are trying to shop? And how do they become loyal? And how do they get to know your brand, when there's a sort of an overarching plainness that everyone has to work with? And how can you use the plain this to your advantage? Because it's not like it's not as I think simple as thinking, well, like everyone has a minimalist look, because it's even more controlled than that. So is it being we going to be able to use outside advertising to bring you into our world, knowing that the package you could take home is going to be have a lot less personality than the brand itself? Is it going to be pretty consistent with what we see, for the last five or six years in Maryland of like, it's there's a relationship with the people who work in the retail store and how they feel about your brand and their willingness to promote it? I mean, it may I think the best case scenario, though I don't I wouldn't love it would be that it's sort of moot, right? Like you can rise past the bleak packaging. But all the packaging designers out there in the world probably hate to hear that. And I hate that too. Because I got to tell you like, I feel like doing this with cannabis, I take stock of everything in my house and everything I buy, or it's particularly with I get samples like from when you order on Sephora, you can add samples. And when I get samples from there, I'm constantly looking them at them as packaging ideas, because they're always something really small and everything we sell is so small, and we got to get so much content on something small. I think that it's going I think Missouri is going to be really the test of how, how when you dumb it down a lot Can you can you still kind of rise above and bring people into your brand. And we're going full blast when we launch there. Because we're not restricted in advertising. So hopefully we can capture people everywhere else, and don't have to rely on just the package that they take home.

ADRIANA HEMANS 

We're going to throw up the first question. And this is related to the topic we were just on which is about dosing. And the question is what state limits it's per serving size of THC to 5.5 milligrams, and there's four choices. It's A. Washington, B. Virginia, C. Massachusetts or D. Louisiana and I'll repeat the question in case if you're just listening in and not looking at the screen. Which state limits its per serving size of THC to 5.5 milligrams?

DAVID PALESCHUCK 

Audience, this is your time to shine!

It's interesting, because I think what this really points to is that there are different doses across different states. And it's really important. I remember coming in to the Washington industry, where they have a dose, and I won't mention what it is just to, not to throw off the question. But the adult use dose here in Washington, was a certain number of mags, THC milligrams, and when we went to license into New Mexico into the medical market, it was 50 milligrams of THC there, which was above and beyond and quite a big multiple of what was taking place in Washington. So whether it's adult use versus medical, or whether it's from state to state, there is definitely a difference in serving size. So should we get to the answer?

All right. The correct answer is C.

ADRIANA HEMANS 

So in states where potency restrictions limit the amount of THC in an edible product, thirteen states limit the size to ten milligrams of THC. And three states limit the serving size to five milligrams of THC. Massachusetts however limits it to 5.5 milligrams of THC.

DAVID PALESCHUCK 

Right. So and as I said a moment ago the difference between, as I said, I'm in Washington state where it's 10. mg per serving, and then 10 servings per package. So it's a total of 100. mg per bag. When we licensed that product out into New Mexico, it was 50 per serving, which was five times the amount. So again, in creating consistency, it's interesting that you could have something that's five times stronger in another state. Wendy, coming back to what you said earlier, using Tylenol as an example. It's important, in terms of building trust, and building consistency, as people travel, as people use the product in different areas or regions, it's important that they understand what they're consuming, and how it will affect them.

WENDY BRONFEIN 

Yeah, look, I think that I mean, we often talk about this internally, because you have, I'm not advocating for, high drug consumption here. And, and oftentimes, I think, when people is taught, people can have very tight tolerances, and they need to do tolerance breaks and find a more useful dose. When we look here, in Maryland, we have 10 milligrams is the cap on adult use, right. And then if you're medical, you could buy higher potency. But once you buy a package of 10 shoes that are each 10 milligrams, no one controls what you do when you get home, right? So you can go home and eat three of them, and then buy more because your dose is 30. So it's sort of stupid. In its execution, I guess. But it I think it makes few people feel better in terms of the fact that they're controlling some level of consumption.

ADRIANA HEMANS 

It makes the legislators feel better.

WENDY BRONFEIN 

If I want to buy the higher potency ones, and cut them up and split them. I mean, our products are fully homogenized, because that's actually a better value, right of the volume I'm getting from the container. So it cuts in all directions.

DAVID PALESCHUCK 

Could you talk about balancing creativity and compliance and how those things come together?

WENDY BRONFEIN 

I think you really have to try and hold tight to your master brand. And I think and even inside your team, right, because you do have, I mean, like you do have people who represent compliance inside the team, right? And they're probably in some ways going to favor like, well, this is what it says, right? And so we kind of go back and forth on, these are the this is the core, this is what we can't give up. So how do we make what we can't give up work inside of this framework. And if you've built a brand, then you likely also have like brand guidelines and things like that. So you're hopefully keeping those pieces alive as you tweak them, either. Whenever it's the marketing, or the products to that state, I actually was going say hi to David, because I know who he is, because he worked at Dixie and Bell Rock. So we've worked together, and he and I'm his side of this year in Maryland, right? So he would be the person at Dixie or Bell Rock, who I'd be like, well, this is what we have to do here in Maryland. So love this ad, but you can't do that, or you have to put this disclaimer on it. Or we need to change the packaging. As a brand person, even with those license partners like I am, I guard their brand as much as I guard my own, because I know how much that matters. And I want everyone to be able to kind of realize the full potential even inside the guard rails that we have. I think for a lot of it so far, we've been able to maintain it, it's just probably not. If you're if you're coming at it from like the creative side of thing. It's a downer, right? It's not exactly the masterpiece that you'd want to put out there. But for the most part, at the end of the day, I think you get what you want. And on the flip side, it's either just been beaten out of you so much by the regulator you just give you might give up a little bit.

DAVID PALESCHUCK

Yeah, so glad to hear you say that you really care about the other brands that you license. I have been on the licensor side where I have seen so many companies just kind of shortcut, and really just not love the brand. In the same way they love their own brand. So it's really great to hear you say that.

WENDY BRONFEIN 

You know … brand is king.

ADRIANA HEMANS 

We know we picked a good guest to come on here. So just one more question before we jump to another quick quiz. And that is like when you're looking across like experiences that you're having with legislation? Are you able to like see some keys to sort of like getting around some of that? Like, is there like a relationship building aspect? Is it all just creative thinking or innovation? What are some of the tactics that you've used?

WENDY BRONFEIN 

So the other side of my job is actually public policy. So I do deal with a lot of that lobbying. I really do try and assuage fears and understand where like, the root causes of certain decisions. Were in Maryland, when we started with our advertising regs, I was fighting that for months and our like back rounds and rounds of comments. And that was my previous life. Like most people in cannabis, I came from television. So I had this familiarity with kind of traditional branding, marketing and advertising. And so I was they were trying to say a lot of different things we couldn't do when it came to forms of advertising. And I kept pushing back and saying, the world doesn't necessarily want us you don't have to restrict us from this because we can't use that or this or even if we could, they won't take us so like don't create an extra layer of difficulty. You can just be silent because right now it's not there for us or even if it is that channel or that media publication or whoever won't take us now we've seen that come more along more and more another area where it was a different argument was like print right because print in some ways, is a dying medium and we were breath of fresh air right they would take us we're a potential a revenue stream like now you've got local publications who are dying for ad dollars and a way to get them and none of us are interested in advertising. We're not advertising in like highlights children's magazine; we're advertising where people with disposable income adults are in a medical world people with conditions who were trying to find are. It really was kind of trying to use logic and pragmatism. This is what it looks like, there's nothing to be afraid of here. What if there are operators who do what you don't want, that's why you have regulations, and that's why you enforce them. But we all shouldn't be painted with one brush and like, and just take everything away before you test out our ability to follow the rules, right? Because I think at the end of the day, when you have these legal markets, and you have licensees, everyone's gone through an arduous process to be here. And you've been selected to uphold the license and to be an ethical player. So everyone, it just needs to be trusted from that point on and exist under the rolls. I think cannabis has been legal in enough places now to know that the sky has not fallen and will not fall.

DAVID PALESCHUCK 

Let's jump into our audience participation number two. And here we go. We're going to bring that slide up right now. So what state prohibiting cannabis edibles from taking the form of humans, animals and fruit, the 2017? Is it a California be Colorado, see Florida, in the for the Alaska and actually call this out? Just because again, these are more limitations as people have developed their different brands. So audience, please feel free to chime in. Wendy, do you have any thoughts on this?

WENDY BRONFEIN 

So this just made me think of like, like just a ridiculous story that I'll tell you. So when we first launched our line of choose, which are what we call our gummy product, we had, we were testing the look of the packaging. And we ended up deciding that we were going to put images of that correlated to the flavor. And part of that apologies to all the men out there. But part of that was because when we tested it, the men responded that they understood the flavor more when they saw a picture of it like so it was like much easier to imagine it with the see and say so like, okay, that's really good consumer feedback that let's do this, then when our advertising agency worked on it, and they came in, they pitched us it. So ultimately, let me give you the end of the story, we had to change the packaging later on because of because of how we showed visuals of the flavor, which by no means were meant to attract children. Because when the marketing agency pitched to us, the designer went on about how they were inspired by Matisse and this other stuff was so bougie and so elevated and artistic, and how that translated into what they came up with. Just show like a picture of a lemon and like a honey dripper. Like his flavor was lemon honey. And it was like, great. And it's and it's clearly not for children. And it has this like overly elevated perspective on how you got to it. And then ultimately, like months later, the products in the market and the regulator came and was like you can't show those images of the correlate to the flavor, because they could attract children, or like this is the least attractive to children apart like depiction of food I've ever seen. But that's fine. So it all began then it kind of just became well the flavor is lemon, honey. So the colors are our yellows and neutrals. And we'll put the words on they're big, and we have an image of the chew so you can see what it looks like. We couldn't even what the market Intel told us was a useful way to connect people to understand your product we couldn't even use and we actually shared that with the regulator. We're like this is based off of insight from patients to best understand how they would like to receive the product. It's like, forget it.

WENDY BRONFEIN 

And I actually I would say one other story early on in our Medical program. They there was an attempt by the regulator to say that nothing could be flavored. So there was a there was a meeting with the one of the committees and I went to Rite Aid and I bought, like, in the OTC aisle like every kind of medicine, like Rolaids, liquid Tylenol for adults, not children, like Theraflu like everything out there for any condition. that you could chew or swallow that was all flavored. I had, I didn't even know this because I guess some of certain things you could make withdrawal with them OTC stuff, I had to like, show my ID to buy some of this because they're like, What do you do in buying all this stuff. And I went to the meeting and I, they called me up to speak, and I laid out all the products in front of them. And I was like, these are all over the counter medicines that have flavors in them. Flavor helps people take their medicine, we are a medical program, things should be palatable for our patients. And thankfully, the conversation died then, but it was it was like a crazy tactic to have some common sense.

DAVID PALESCHUCK 

In Europe, most medicines don't have flavoring and the way they look at it as medicines are not supposed to taste good, which is really a very different perspective than we have here in the US. Just as a side note. Well, we see Taylor and David, thank you for your answers. The answer is should we go to the next slide? Here it comes. The answer is Colorado, and the Colorado legislature in 2017 began prohibiting the production and state and sale of edibles shaped like humans, animals or fruits to reduce the appeal for children. I think one quick note here, which is really interesting is the adult use law went into effect in 2012. In Colorado, so it was five years later, that they actually brought this law into effect. I think that's worth noting.

DAVID PALESCHUCK 

I always say, this is the fastest 45 minutes of my week, Wendy, we've pretty much come to the end of our show. We've gotten through most of our questions, but not all, we thank you so much for joining us. Your insight is amazing. The work you do in the industry is really special. For those folks that aren't familiar with curio wellness, you should definitely become familiar with it. Wendy, where can people find more about find out more about you about your products. And I should also say there's a retail component as well foreign daughter as well. Where can people find out more about what you do for the industry?

WENDY BRONFEIN 

Our website is www.curiowellness.com. The retail arm is called Far & Dotter – Swedish for father and daughter, which is a nod to our family business. The website is www.faranddotter.com. The names are all of our social handles, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, we also have Curio Wellness also has an app. If you are inside of Maryland and or Missouri, that app could be accessed. But due to the restrictions of the Apple store, it has to be where we are legally operating. And I would encourage you to check it out. Our website is very rich and content across all of our products. And you can learn all about the skews individually and as product categories. And hopefully if you come to Maryland or Missouri or we'll find ourselves in your state, but encourage you to try because we're all about safe, effective and reliable cannabis products.

DAVID PALESCHUCK 

Awesome. Wendy, thank you so much for joining us. I'm sad in some ways that this went so fast. I feel like I could talk to you all day. So much knowledge. And we thank you for sharing.

ADRIANA HEMANS 

Thank you for your time, Wendy. We really appreciate it.

WENDY BRONFEIN

Thank you for having me.

DAVID PALESCHUCK

That’s our show for today. As always, that was the fastest 45 minutes of my week!  We’ll be back next Thursday, December 7th with Guillermo Bravo, CEO of AdCompass and we’ll be chatting about “Cannabis And Online Marketing.”

We’ve recently released two online courses that have received rave reviews. “The 14 Cannabis Brand Archetypes” and “Creating A Meaningful Cannabis Brand” can be found on our site at www.brandingbud.com/edu - and you find the link right now in the chat. Remember to use our exclusive 25% discount code BBEDU25 for our LinkedIn listeners.

Again, we’d like to thank our sponsor, High Hopes – a boutique agency with over 10 years in the cannabis space specializing in branding, packaging, SEO & marketing. Be sure to check them out at www.highopes.co.

ADRIANA HEMANS

Hit that button to register so you don’t miss it. If you miss us in the meantime, you can re-watch today’s episode, or any of our previous episodes, on our LinkedIn page, Branding Bud Live, or on our YouTube channel. Please give us a follow on LinkedIn to stay on top of everything Branding Bud Live.

DAVID PALESCHUCK

And you can listen to our podcast on most podcast platforms including Apple, Google, Amazon, and Spotify. And of course, don’t forget to check out cannabis’s best-kept secret at www.brandingbud.com

Thank you everybody!

ADRIANA HEMANS

Thank you. Bye!

Please check us out there if you've missed any of our previous episodes.

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https://open.spotify.com/show/3gJDNBDnmaYZz8df5b6JWs

Google Podcasts: 
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9kZTJkOTQ4Yy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw

CastBox: 
https://castbox.fm/app/castbox/player/id5462736

Linktree: 
https://linktr.ee/brandingbudlive


Branding Bud Live – weekly productive distractions for the cannabis industry, where business people come to talk about the business of cannabis. 

🌿Find out more about the best-kept secret in cannabis at👇

www.brandingbud.com

LinkedIn | YouTube

David Paleschuck, MBA, CLS | Author & Cannabis Brand Expert

With over twenty years of product development, brand-building, and consumer marketing experience serving American Express, MasterCard, PepsiCo, and Microsoft–and over ten years in the legal cannabis space at Dope Magazine and as a consultant to the industry’s top national manufacturers, Paleschuck has played a part in developing many of today’s best-known cannabis brands. As Founder of BRANDING BUD CONSULTING, LLC, David consults within the legal cannabis industry on product development, branding & brand licensing, positioning, packaging and promotions. His writings on cannabis branding and marketing have been featured in Dope Magazine, High Times, PROHBTD, Cannabis Dispensary Magazine, The Cannabis Industry Journal, New Cannabis Ventures, among others. His work has been noted and quoted in Forbes, Kiplingers, The Brookings Institution as well as interviewed by Wharton School Of Business Entrepreneur Radio; CannabisRadio; among others. David’s book, “Branding Bud: The Commercialization of Cannabis” – the first book written on cannabis branding – is set to release in April 2021.

To purchase his book and/or find out more about his work, contact him at david@brandingbud.com or visit brandingbud.com.

https://brandingbud.com/
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Cannabis and Online Marketing - Branding Bud Live Episode 51

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Cannabis and Employment - Branding Bud Live Episode 49