1136 Yuma
Grape Gasoline S1, Miracle Alien Cookies
A Cut Above
Gelato 41, Malibu Mirage, Peach Crescendo #2, Sour Diesel, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies
ANNA
Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, Sour Diesel, White 99
Best High
Veritas Cookies
Blue Heron
Cherry Punch, El Chivo #4, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Malibu Mirage, Super Lemon G, Veritas Cookies
Buku Loud
RUN, Sour Diesel
Canna Cabinet
Big Bubba Diesel, El Chivo #4, Gelato 41, Grape Gasoline S1, Macchiato Haze #8, Malibu Mirage, Peach Crescendo #2, RUN, Sour Diesel, Sour Rado, Super Lemon G, The Sauce
Cannabicare
El Chivo #4, White 99
Cherry Peak
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Cake Pop, Cherry Punch, El Chivo #4, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Gastro Pop #4, Gelato 41, Grape Gasoline S1, MIL, Malibu Mirage, Miracle Alien Cookies, Peach Crescendo #2, Sour Diesel, Sour Rado, Strawberry Shortcake, Sueno, Sunset Drive, Super Lemon G, Triangle OG, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies, White 99
Colorado Harvest Company
Bananaghani, Black Amber, Cereal Barz, Cherry Punch, Colorado Cutthroat, Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, Frozen Dessert, Gastro Pop #4, Gelato 41, Grape Gasoline S1, Grape OZ, Lucky Charms, Macchiato Haze #8, Miracle Alien Cookies, RUN, Sour Diesel, Space Gello, Super Lemon G, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies
Emerald Fields
Big Bubba Diesel, Cereal Barz, Miracle Alien Cookies
Euflora
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Malibu Mirage
Green Dragon
Bananaghani, Black Amber, Lucky Charms, Macchiato Haze #8, Malibu Mirage, Miracle Alien Cookies, RUN, Sherb Crasher, Space Gello, The Sauce, Veritas Cookies, Wedding Crasher
Green World
Cherry Punch, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Super Lemon G
HERBS 4 YOU
Unicorn Poop
Herbal Healing
Big Bubba Diesel, Cake Pop, Forza Sans Souci #4, Gastro Pop #4, Miracle Alien Cookies, Sour Diesel, Triangle OG, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies
Higher Grade
Cherry Punch, El Chivo #4, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Super Lemon G, White 99
Kika Kush
Bananaghani, Gelato 41, Sherb Crasher, Veritas Cookies
Kind Meds
Big Bubba Diesel, Malibu Mirage, Veritas Cookies
Livgreen
Cherry Punch, Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Miracle Alien Cookies, RUN, Sherb Crasher, Slurricane, Sour Diesel, Sour Rado, Super Lemon G, Super Sour Lemon, Triangle OG, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies, Wedding Crasher, White 99
Magnolia Rd
Bananaghani, Cake Pop, El Chivo #4, Forza Sans Souci #4, Gastro Pop #4, MIL, Muffinz Breath #1, OZ Kush, Slurricane, Strawberries N Cream, Sueno, Super Sour Lemon, White 99
Magnolia Rd
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Cake Pop, Cherry Punch, Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Gastro Pop #4, Gelato 41, Grape Gasoline S1, Lava Breath #2, MIL, Malibu Mirage, Miracle Alien Cookies, Muffinz Breath #1, OZ Kush, Sherb Crasher, Slurricane, Strawberries N Cream, Sueno, Super Lemon G, Super Sour Lemon, Triangle OG, Veritas Cookies, WRZ, White 99, Yuk Mouth
Native Roots
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Black Amber, Cake Pop, Cereal Barz, Cookies N Cream, Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Frozen Dessert, Gastro Pop #4, Gelato 41, Grape Gasoline S1, Lava Breath #2, Malibu Mirage, Miracle Alien Cookies, OZ Kush, Peach Crescendo #2, Peking Duck #6, Sherb Crasher, Sour Diesel, Super Lemon G, Triangle OG, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies, Wedding Crasher, White 99
RiNo Supply
Cereal Barz, Colorado Cutthroat, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Miracle Alien Cookies, Wedding Crasher
Ripple
Macchiato Haze #8, RUN, Space Gello, Veritas Cookies
Rocky Mountain Cannabis
Big Bubba Diesel, Malibu Mirage
Rocky Mountain Cannabis
Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Super Lemon G
Rocky Road
Cherry Punch, El Chivo #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Strawberries N Cream, Super Lemon G, White 99
Rocky Road Remedies
Big Bubba Diesel, Cherry Punch, FUN, Super Lemon G
Roots RX
Peking Duck #6, Pineapple Blast, Unicorn Poop
Roots Rx
Bananaghani, Durban Kush #8, Miracle Alien Cookies, Pineapple Blast, Sherb Crasher, Sour Rado, Space Gello, Unicorn Poop
SMOKEY'S
Big Bubba Diesel, Cereal Barz, Miracle Alien Cookies
Skunked
Cherry Punch, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Super Lemon G
Smokey's
Cereal Barz, Colorado Cutthroat, Durban Kush #8, Super Sour Lemon, WRZ, Yuk Mouth
Solace Meds
Bananaghani, Sherb Crasher, Space Gello
Space Station
Big Bubba Diesel, Miracle Alien Cookies
Standing Akimbo
Apple Fritter, Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Black Amber, Cereal Barz, Cookies N Cream, FUN, Frozen Dessert, Lava Breath #2, MIL, Miracle Alien Cookies, Muffinz Breath #1, OZ Kush, Peach Crescendo #2, Peking Duck #6, Pineapple Blast, RUN, Sherb Crasher, Sour Rado, Strawberries N Cream, Super Lemon G, Super Sour Lemon, Triangle OG, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies, Wedding Crasher
TGS
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Cereal Barz, Cherry Punch, Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, Forza Sans Souci #4, Frozen Dessert, Gastro Pop #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Grape OZ, Malibu Mirage, Muffinz Breath #1, OZ Kush, Peking Duck #6, Pineapple Blast, Sherb Crasher, Sour Diesel, Sour Rado, Super Lemon G, Super Sour Lemon, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies, WOF, Wedding Crasher, White 99, Yuk Mouth
THE GREEN SOLUTION
Cherry Punch, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Super Lemon G
The 404 Dispensary
Bananaghani, Cake Pop, El Chivo #4, Forza Sans Souci #4, Malibu Mirage, Muffinz Breath #1, White 99
The 64 Store
Cherry Punch, El Chivo #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Super Lemon G, White 99
The Dispo
Big Bubba Diesel, Cherry Punch, Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Frozen Dessert, Grape Gasoline S1, Miracle Alien Cookies, OZ Kush, Pineapple Blast, Sour Diesel, Super Lemon G, Super Sour Lemon, Triangle OG, White 99
The Happy Camper
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, El Chivo #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Malibu Mirage, Peach Crescendo #2, Sour Diesel, Super Lemon G, Triangle OG, Veritas Cookies, White 99
Third Day Apothecary
Cherry Punch, Super Lemon G
Tumbleweed
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Sour Diesel

November 9, 2020

Trend Watch: The move toward “premium” products

MJ Brand Insights

By Margaret Jackson

November 5, 2020

As the cannabis industry matures, consumers are growing up along with it and gravitating toward more sophisticated products. Most cannabis data-tracking companies don’t distinguish premium brands from the rest of the products available on the market, but anecdotally, industry professionals say they’ve noticed more of their customers gravitating toward higher-end products

“Edibles have maintained their share of the market — it’s similar to where they were pre-COVID,” said Lisa Gee, director of marketing and corporate social responsibility at Lightshade, a vertically integrated Denver-based cannabis business. “What is markedly different for us, and I think it’s a trend in Colorado that we’re learning about from our friends, is that people are spending more money on higher-priced boutique flower.”

Lightshade dispensary in Denver

Among the brands flying off store shelves is Cookies, the San Francisco-based cannabis brand founded by grow expert Jai and rapper and entrepreneur Berner. Lightshade didn’t carry anything that sold for more than $42 an eighth until Cookies entered the Colorado market; it sells for about $72 an eighth, Gee said. 

So what is a premium brand? It depends on who you ask. 

Alana Malone, co-founder and CEO of the Denver cultivation and extraction business Green Dot Labs, said that in the consumer packaged goods arena, premium prices are on the upper end of the prices that already exist in the marketplace. 

“Premium is the top 20 to 30 percent of any category, but luxury is out of reach for most people,” Malone said.

Andrew Freeman, chief brand officer of the Los Angeles-based pre-roll cannabis company Drew Martin, said growing techniques are what set premium brands apart from the rest. 

“Specifically with flower products or vape, it’s about the growing techniques that have allowed the cultivator to create an incredibly controlled environment with an outcome that is potent,” Freeman said. “Within legacy markets and legacy retail, premium often means growing indoors, it often means high potency, and very often there is a design element — beautiful packaging with gold or metallic foil used to connote a premium product.” 

“At the end of the day it’s about the value of the product — it has nothing to do with price. The question is would I spend money on that again?”

Jon Spadafora, head of marketing and sales at Denver-based premium cultivator Veritas Fine Cannabis,  defines premium products from the perspective of user experience.

“Premium products are effective, consistent, have an amazing taste and cool aroma,” Spadafora said. “At the end of the day it’s about the value of the product — it has nothing to do with price. The question is would I spend money on that again?”

Partnering with a premium brand

When Cookies wanted to get into the Colorado market, it executed a licensing agreement with Veritas, which grows and packages the lifestyle brand’s strains and distributes it to Colorado retailers.

“They knew they couldn’t go and start a new facility in every state,” Spadafora said. “They looked to people like us. For us, it was important that we weren’t just signing up with any brand. Berner is a cannabis legend before he is a hop-hop legend.”

Veritas dropped 35 pounds of Cookies cannabis the first day it was available; it sold out in eight hours, Spadafora said. While the buzz around Cookies has subsided slightly, lines still form at shops that send notifications to their customers that they’ve received a drop. The company recently delivered 65 pounds of Cookies to Colorado shops that Spadafora estimated would sell out in a few days. 

“Every Friday, we’ll have 100 people tag us on Instagram while they’re opening either Cookies or Veritas,” he said.

While partnerships are one way to bring a premium brand into a new market, positioning your retail store as a luxury destination is another strategy some companies are taking. In Aspen, Colo., a mountain town that oozes wealth, Dalwhinnie Farms’ retail boutique is selling high-end goods alongside its premium cannabis brands — think Rolex watches and Italian umbrellas and leather goods. 

Dalwhinnie Farms markets an “experience”

“We’re trying to bring the top-notch quality of everything to our store,” said Ashley Grace, the company’s chief revenue officer. “The idea is we’re trying to de-stigmatize cannabis, and we’re using an alternative retail model to do so. We’re really focusing on a finely curated selection of interesting goods.”

The company promotes itself as meticulously growing proprietary cannabis strains at a purpose-built, advanced cultivation facility that shares its grounds with a 210-acre working equestrian ranch in the San Juan Mountains near Telluride, Colo. Its cannabis strains are available exclusively at its Aspen boutique.

“The Dalwhinnie products are for more of a connoisseur customer,” Grace said. “When we talk to customers about our product, the feedback we get is it’s by far the most superior product that they’re getting.” 

Brands can also convey premium status through carefully curated events.  Drew Martin had planned to launch its line of high-end pre-rolls with a series of dinners and cocktail parties, but the coronavirus pandemic forced the company to pivot to a virtual Zoom event. The company partnered with the exclusive Hollywood, Calf., club San Vicente Bungalows, which caters to A-list celebrities and power brokers. 

The Zoom event featured company founder Drew Martin, a former mixologist who has worked in several James Beard Award-winning bars, conducting a cocktail-making class. Drew Martin delivered packages to participants that included a list of alcohol and other ingredients they would need for the event, as well as a box of pre-rolls, a lime, a lemon, a measuring cup and a few mixers and elixirs.

“(Martin) brings that expertise in the way a chef would to a high-end restaurant,” Freeman said. “It keeps a premium consumer interested in the brand and gets in on the storytelling around the product. As we’re moving into new markets, it’s been an incredible way to introduce ourselves.”

Pretty packaging

Beyond the quality of the products, premium packaging needs to exude extravagance. 

“If you’re going to put the extra quality into the growing and curing, you have to convey that to the consumer and set an expectation that goes with it,” Grace said. “Packaging is critical to delivering on that expectation.” 

Jon Spadafora said Colorado has been resistant to pre-packaged cannabis, as opposed to having it weighed out when purchased, but he knew that the Cookies brand was strong enough for customers to accept it. That allowed Veritas to succeed with its own brand of pre-packaged products. 

“Berner is a man of the people,” Spadafora said. “His music is great, and it’s a very inclusive environment. It’s so different from what everyone else is growing.”

“Millennials as a group have high purchasing power and want a story and an emotion behind a brand”

While not all products in fancy packaging are premium, the aesthetic appeal of the container is important to ensuring a brand is attractive to millennials, a group that is more likely to invest in high-quality products and are increasingly demanding brands they can trust, said Susannah Grossman, marketing and sales director for Green Dot Labs. 

“Millennials as a group have high purchasing power and want a story and an emotion behind a brand,” Grossman said. 

It’s not only high-end cannabis flower and edibles that consumers are purchasing. They’re also interested in premium devices like DaVinci’s dual-use vaporizer. While the number of vaporizers the Las Vegas-based company has sold during the pandemic are down, its profits are up, DaVinci CEO Cort Smith said.  That’s because while in-store sales have declined, higher-profit internet sales have increased. 

“I’m sometimes amazed that people will spend $300 on an apparatus to ingest cannabis,” said Cort Smith, DaVinci’s CEO. “People are looking for safety. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) hasn’t figured out how to regulate it.”

Drew Martin’s Freeman, who has worked with mainstream luxury brands like Tiffany and West Elm, said cannabis retail is evolving toward a more boutique experience, and brands must elevate their images to match. 

“The experience has to be curated, authentic, aspirational but still approachable for consumers,” Freeman said. “We really want to create an experience that’s something special.”

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