Canndescent: The Hermès of Cannabis
In high school, I was convinced my friends who took the plunge and smoked their first joint were victims of an alien abduction. They'd disappear for an hour and reappear some time later as unrecognizable strangers -- red-eyed with dumbass grins on their faces. 10 years later, the stigma of smoking weed isn’t nearly what it use to be. 33 states now allow some form of legal cannabis consumption.
With the massive growth of the industry comes an influx in potential consumers. This presents both an interesting challenge and a unique opportunity for marketing folks like me. Perhaps an article for another day. Many marketing professionals will tell you the cannabis industry still resembles the wild west right now. This is not the case. Several brands have emerged and are well-positioned for exponential growth when the federal government inevitably decides to lift restrictions. If you want to be a legitimate player in this space, come ready with a defined product, target audience, and distinct way to break through the clutter. One brand in particular stands out as a leader in the cannabis revolution — Canndescent.
Canndescent: The Hermès of Cannabis
Ask CEO and Founder of Canndescent, Adrian Sedlin how he wants people to see his company and he’ll likely respond with something along the lines of, “We’re aiming to be the Hermès of cannabis.” The Harvard grad wants consumers to associate Canndescent flowers with high-end, cosmopolitan products. I’d say reality paints Canndescent as having the luxurious quality of Hermès as Sedlin desires, but with the brand distinction and recognition of Apple. Quite the feat for a company that isn’t even three years old yet. So how’d Canndescent become the #1 selling cannabis flower in California?
Ultra-Premium Product
If you’re going to dub yourself the creator of luxury cannabis, you better have a product to back it up. Canndescent passes that test with flying colors. For Canndescent, it starts with proprietary genetics and a hyper-customized growing process. Canndescent monitors its 10,400 square-ft. growing facility down to the square-inch. This enables them to adjust the environment for every plant they grow at every step of the growing process. The end result? An impressively consistent, clean, and ultra-premium product.
Simplifying the Selection Process
The naming architecture for Canndescent’s 5 flower offerings makes the selection process much easier for new and experienced consumers alike. Rather than coin names like “Blue Dream,” “Lemon Haze,” or “Gorilla Glue,” Canndescent defines their flowers by desired mental state — Calm, Cruise, Create, Connect, and Charge. They call this “The Art of Flower.” Taking inspiration from the likes of BMW, Canndescent also implements a number-based ranking system to allow for the continued progression of its product line. Anything in the 100s represents a Calm strain, anything in the 200s will be a Cruise strain, so on and so forth. The higher the number, the more energetic of a high you’ll experience. The remodeling of the selection process leaves consumers with just one, simple question: “How do I want to feel?”
Creating differentiators
When you buy a diamond ring, you don’t just keep it in any old jewelry box, do you? No. You invest in a safe, elegant jewelry box that highlights and protects the beauty of the ring. Canndescent used that same logic when developing their packaging design. Incorporating the best practices of the CPG industry, Canndescent crafted their signature orange box to create the ultimate experience for their consumers as they get ready to light up. They were the first cannabis company to include a child-proof container with humidity control to keep buds fresh, rolling papers, crutches, hemp wick, and matches in all of their packaging. The Canndescent box delivers everything needed to spend less time prepping and more time enjoying their products.
While the product speaks for itself, have no doubt that Canndescent spreads the word about its products incredibly effectively. The brand continues to navigate the tricky cannabis advertising waters flawlessly by relying more on earned media than owned. With media giants like Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter still banning paid media related to cannabis on their platforms, the brand relies on well-curated, organic content and more traditional PR tactics to grow their social influence. News publications ranging from Mashable to USA Today to Ad Age can’t seem to stop writing about Canndescent. They launched their first billboards in San Francisco just in time for the holiday season, and they’ve been met with astounding success.
What’s to Come
Simple message, consistent lifestyle portrayals and a high-quality product make up Canndescent’s secret sauce. Canndescent set out to solve 6 problems in the cannabis industry; they’ve built their brand providing solutions to those problems. The following was taken directly from an article published from Sedlin on LinkedIn:
WHAT THE MARKET DELIVERS:
Mediocre Flower Quality. Prohibition scared of talent & capital, creating a cottage industry with average flower quality and seasonal shortages.
Wildly different experiences. Growers using different techniques market products under the same names.
Confusion and Intimidation. Growers market 6,000 different strains such as Durbin Poison and Cat piss while dispensaries explain overly technical information about cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids…
Counterculture. Most flower brands look like the misogynistic offspring of Wu-Tang Clan x Duck Dynasty.
Opacity. Hidden growers dominate the market
Toxicity. Many CA growers use pesticides.
WHAT CONSUMERS WANT:
Premium Products
Consistent, Repeatable Experiences
Ease of Use & Curation
Aspirational Lifestyles
Transparency
Health & Wellness
When Sedlin spoke with New Cannabis Ventures in July, he revealed that Canndescent’s cannabis oil line would be launched in Q4 of this year, with its edible line dropping soon after in Q1 of 2019. It looks like Sedlin and Canndescent have pivoted since that interview, as we’re reaching the end of Q4 with an oil line yet to be revealed. Canndescent did, however, launch a new brand, goodbrands, which focuses on cannabis grown in the good ole’ California sunshine. After a soft launch in August 2018 that saw goodflower outsell Canndescent, goodjoints and goodoils are on their way in the first half of 2019.
While folks at Canndescent are rightfully excited about upcoming product launches, Sedlin holds steadfast in his belief that, “The prestige is in the flower.” For Sedlin, winning the flower category opens up the doors to every other product category. I can't wait to see what they do in these additional product categories.