Marketing Gone to Pot

With the recent law change in Colorado, I wondered if the booming business of selling marijuana would become a truly branded industry like beer, wine and spirits. 

Will there be a player who becomes the Budweiser of weed and packages their brand for the blue collar man? Is Grey Goose going to get into the game with a top shelf pre-packaged joint that sells for 60% above the going rate for the "house brand" joint? And for the true connoisseur, will they expect some fancy table side service of opening the jar of grass, taking a sniff before rolling up a doobie? 

It is in fact a bit like watching the booze biz all over again. We didn’t have brands of whiskey that really took hold until around 1800 when men like Robert Samuels (Maker’s Mark), Jacob Beam (Jim Beam) and Basil Hayden (Old Grand Dad’s Bourbon) started to make their booze under their own names. Business Insider calls pot the next trillion dollar industry; even bigger than the Internet. I’m not so sure about that but it’s interesting to speculate. If pot will be this big a business, you can imagine that people like Glaxo, Coke, AB InBev and P&G are studying the opportunity.

Some fun things I learned:

There are already businesses selling products with pot baked in like stores that sells cookies and brownies.  Imagine that, you get your buzz and the munchies all in one.

You have to be 21 to purchase the stuff with a legal ID. You have to pay cash. The pot has to be grown in Colorado to be sold in Colorado. Some stores are describing their blends like fine wines or pungent cheese. There is even a Cannabis reviewer at the Denver Post (or as Jeanie Moss from CNN called it, the Denver POT). In Colorado you can learn about cooking with Cannibis.

But the product names that exist are things like: Strawberry Diesel, Sour Alien Golden Goat, Tahoe Triangle.  A little lame. 

Who would be the right entrepreneur or brand to really market this stuff?

Pop Tarts would become Pot Tarts?

Coca-Cola would be Canna Cola (didn’t they used to have Cocaine in them?)

Ben & Jerry's would make Doobie Brothers Vanilla with GMO-free Weed 

Scott's Lawn Care would make Grass To Help You Cut Your Grass 

Celebrex- The First Joint Pain Reduction Medicine that you smoke in a joint! 

The one thing that is for certain is that the only thing more addictive than pot will be the taxes that the government gets once it is fully legalized nationally. Once the big brands smell what's cooking, you'll see big business and the government lighting up. 

Can you think of any brands that are obvious choices to get into this business and what would their products be called? 















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