Strings of tree ornaments and heart-shaped candy boxes each have their own particular holiday season. In the cannabis industry, every holiday’s got a product tie-in. Whether it’s a bouquet of pre-rolls made to look like flowers for mother’s day, cannabis-infused massage oil for your valentine, or gummies to take the edge off seeing your relatives at Thanksgiving, the new industry is getting creative to associate its offerings with any special day they can. And of course there is 4/20, the unofficial official stoner day.
Alternative to a bouquet of Roses? Cannabis pre-rolls for Mothers Day.
As the industry grows and develops more products, it makes sense to create specific seasonal offerings and marketing campaigns said Lana Van Brunt, co-founder of cannabis accessory maker Sackville & Co.. Previously, she said, “Cannabis has traditionally been left out of the (holiday) conversation.”
Jetty Extract cannabis for Christmas
From a marketing perspective, holiday products are “an opportunity to secure earned media, boost engagement on owned channels, and gain visibility on retailer channels,” said Kate Weltz, director of marketing at Jetty Extracts, a cannabis company based in California. Last Christmas, the company sold a strain called Jetty Mistletoke, described as “minty spice and everything nice! Combining Gush Mints and Legend OG we’ve got Santa’s Secret Sauce.”
Some of the products are created to give as gifts. Kind Tree Rosebud Pre-roll from apothacarium in New Jersey offers a bouquet including pre-rolls for Mother’s Day. Hemper created a bong that looked like a jack-o-lantern for Halloween and a wreath-shaped bong for Christmas.
wreath bong if you want to leave something other than cookies for Santa
Other products are sold as a way to relax around the holiday chaos. The +PlusCBD Calm & Sleep Holiday Survival Kit, contains CBD gummies (nothing psychoactive, so it’s available nationwide) and was marketed as a stocking stuffer.
Celebrations have long been heavily associated with the consumption of alcohol like eggnog or beer, said Scott Vasterling, founder of the California-based cannabis growing company, Humboldt Family Farms. The new products offer an alternative for “consumers to take part in celebrating these holidays without the pressure to drink,” he said.
There can be drawbacks to the product proliferation. Luke Anderson, co-founder of Cannabis beverage maker Cann, says the special products created for each holiday can actually “cause structural inefficiency.” Cannabis retailers don’t have the data analytics in place that traditional consumer goods do, so store managers are not as sophisticated yet when it comes to allotting the amount and location of shelf space to products he said. Instead, “retailers like to stock items that catch the customer’s eye, and sometimes won’t take a meeting unless you have something new to show them,” he said of his own company’s experience.
Retailers will like and stock holiday-themed products he said, but the constant change inside the store works against the consistency that customers need to see for brands to start engendering loyalty. Staying top of mind by constantly creating new packaging or products can increase total costs without increasing sales Anderson said, if the new products are just replacing the old ones, rather than increasing total purchases.
