Beard Bros Media Network’s #B2BCannabisShow delivers another excellent #LinkedInLive episode of Travel Tuesday, hosted by Brian Applegarth – founder, Cannabis Travel Association International, and Applegarth Strategies. Episode 2’s special guest is Scott Schmidt – communications consultant and executive director of Emerald Village, in the legendary city of West Hollywood (Los Angeles, California).
For the full-length episode, click here. For previous episodes you’ll find them all on the Beard Bros Media Live Series YouTube Playlist.
If you’re in the US cannabis industry, you definitely want to hear inspirational ideas and next-level creativity that amplifies your business venture’s success. This Short Impact spotlights #cannabistourism, #cannabisexperiences, destination marketing, and business strategies for managers and owners.
There’s gold nugget marketing tips for #dispensaries, #restaurants, #smokinglounges, indoor and outdoor consumer experiences, maximizing a property’s value and service offering, and creating new marketplaces in your district/city.
(There is a Part 2 to this story: like this article, it presents filtered content from the episode, which must be said, was a bevy of great information and historical anecdotes, so thanks very much to Brian and Scott! Part 2 focuses on licensing, property rules, and creating consumer and community friendly policies.)
Cannabis Marketing Payoffs: New Frontiers for Managers and Business Owners
SS: I’ve been a West Hollywood resident for more than twenty years … it was always a place that was special. In the last five years, we’re really adding to the things that already make West Hollywood special by embracing cannabis, by elevating the cannabis experience, by creating new opportunities for people to enjoy cannabis in ways that maybe aren’t available anywhere else.
We have these new beautiful dispensaries: floor to ceiling windows. All of them are displaying their products in different ways, [and] creating a different experience and target. We have Calma, a female forward dispensary, with a whole section of female-owned and female-oriented products, things that you won’t find in Amsterdam or Barcelona. Bath bombs, vaginal lubricants – go on down the list of anything you can imagine. Whoopi Goldberg just launched a line of products to help with menstrual cramps.
Different places are embracing different markets, in many ways creating new markets. When you think of stoner culture, for example, women aren’t necessarily [portrayed as] part of it. LGBT people aren’t necessarily [portrayed as] part of that. But we enjoy cannabis just as much as anyone else, maybe a little bit more.
These revelations in dispensing cannabis and cannabis-infused products establishes a new and improved experience for visitors. This increases the potential for greater numbers of walk-in customers, regular visitors, and even breaking through to new audiences.
Creative Payoffs: Tips for Better Consumer Experiences and Added Value in Your Service Offering
#Dispensary staff, managers, and owners should think about the personal and commercial dimensions of their relationship with the plant and its products. By creating seated #restaurant, #lounge, #cocktail bar, or street café aspects and reinventing venues, it creates new opportunities for your community to gain more and better services. It also allows cannabis culture to naturally proceed without obstacles, and this breeds further imagination for you to capitalize on.
SS: We have a place like The Woods where you have this urban oasis. It’s an outdoor garden. You can rent a cabana. Saddle up to the Ganja Gecko Lounge bar, order an infused cocktail, get snacks. They’ve got a koi pond and a waterfall, and you would have no idea that you’re in the middle of a city of two million people. Down the street, you’ve got Pleasuremed … one of the finest food programs of any cannabis place that I’ve been to … a Michelin starred chef … you can do oyster shots while you’re smoking a pre-roll. Cannabis Cafe has their comedy shows, and The Artist Tree created an art gallery inside a dispensary to enhance that experience.
[It’s] really an elevated cannabis venue with different ways to consume, different devices, different products … experiences like comedy shows, DRAG shows, movie nights, yoga, puff-puff paint, or go up to the Sunset Strip, [places like] the Living Room or the Viper Room, to see a live band. If you are visiting, we’ll let you borrow a Uka device or a Stündenglass Gravity Bong. Maybe you don’t have four hundred dollars to buy these devices, but you can go to one of the lounges and use them.
It’s aspirational, but it’s accessible as well: affordable prices when you compare it to what people are paying in Europe. You have opportunities to do experiences that maybe you can’t do at home. And the data shows that this is what the audience is looking for: a beautifully curated experience and setting.
Supporting and Protecting Cannabis Culture
Normalizing cannabis culture is happening at a rapid pace – it’s good to sustain this momentum by being proactive. Beard Bros Media Network eagerly invites you to communicate with us on social media, connect with hosts and guest stars you find familiarity with. Our mission is one of collaboration and collective action (if you’d like to know more about everybody in Beard Bros Media Network, click here).
Be included, whatever seat you have at the table: you’re an important part of advocacy movements in the USA. And continue discovering and enjoying the budding benefits of cannabis!
The #BeardBrosMediaLiveSeries platforms top-tier #B2B and #B2C content on all things cannabis/weed, hemp, #cannabisbusiness development, and of course, the local and global menu of cannabis-infused products. Subscribe, and join us on #LinkedInLive for upcoming episodes!
*The above article pertains to one discussion point from Travel Tuesday, a multi-faceted episode. For other articles that feature more relevant and must-read discussions from this specific episode, click here. For more episodes, past and upcoming, subscribe to our Beard Bros Network Media Live Series YouTube Playlist. New to this B2B live series? Read more here.
