Cannabis and Innovation - Branding Bud Live Episode 43
THE SUMMARY
Listen in to our next episode titled "Cannabis & Innovation," as we explore the dynamic intersection of cannabis and innovation. Listen in as we dive deep into the realm of the latest trends, disruptive technologies, and groundbreaking ideas that are shaping the cannabis landscape.
Join Carolyn Matthies, CMO of The Arcview Group on Branding Bud Live with co-hosts David Paleschuck and Adriana Hemans, as we discuss “Cannabis And Innovation” on Thursday, October 5th at 11a PST / 2p EST.
THE CO-HOSTS
David Paleschuck, Adriana Hemans
THE SPECIAL GUESTS
Join Carolyn Matthies, CMO of The Arcview Group
THE TRANSCRIPT
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Welcome to Branding Bud Live, the live stream that’s 100% THC and 0% WTF. Every week we speak with business people about the business of cannabis. I’m David Paleschuck, founder of Branding Bud Consulting Group and author of the first book on cannabis branding. I’m joined by my co-host Adriana Hemans, Director of Marketing at Green Meadows and my BCF (Best Cannabis Friend). Hi Adriana!
ADRIANA HEMANS
Hi David. Thank you for that intro. I’m so excited to co-host the show with you. We’re bringing amazing guests from across the cannabis ecosystem to share their perspectives. My favorite thing about Branding Bud Live is that we focus on building community - and we encourage audience participation. It’s not just about us talking, it’s about all of us building something together. So feel free to drop your questions and/or opinions in the chat, and we’ll share them too.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
We’re here to build community, educate and entertain … so let’s jump into today’s show. I’m super excited today for a number of reasons:
I'm grateful to our show sponsor - High Hopes - A creative agency that specializes in the cannabis industry. With over a decade of cannabis experience, HIGHOPES understands the unique challenges of the industry and helps its clients with better branding, packaging, website design, SEO, and marketing. Be sure to set up a call today at www.ivegothigherhopes.com
Secondly, we’ve received great reviews on our two online courses on cannabis branding and brand development. The first is “The 14 Cannabis Brand Archetypes” and the second course is titled, “Creating A Meaningful Cannabis Brand.” Please check them out and more at cannabis’s best-kept secret www.brandingbud.com/edu
Thirdly, we have Carolyn Matthies, CMO of The Arcview Group joining us. Some of the topics we’ll chat about include:
What are some of the most impactful innovations in the cannabis sector in recent years?
Can innovation enhance the quality and safety of cannabis products?
How do regulatory challenges influence the pace of innovation in the cannabis industry?
I’m super excited to chat with Carolyn today.
ADRIANA HEMANS
Me too!
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Let’s welcome, Carolyn Matthies, CMO of The Arcview Group. Welcome, Carolyn!
ADRIANA HEMANS
Welcome.
CAROLYN MATTHIES
Thank you for having me. Hello and good morning from Orange County.
ADRIANA HEMANS
Hi Carolyn.
Tell us about yourself, Carolyn. What are you passionate about?
CAROLYN MATTHIES
Thank you so much for having me on the program today. David and I became best friends since meeting last year. True confession: This program is the only one I have on a recurring calendar. So I actually plan my meetings around it. So I'm tickled then I'm here today. A little bit about me just some highlights is I've been living in Orange County since 2001. But I'll forever be a New Jersey girl. And my stomping grounds were really high tech and big data. Before I got to the cannabis industry, I spent the first decade of my career at AT&T and Bell Labs. That started my path in innovation. I think I'm like a closet geek to some degree. So it came in really handy. And they just let me have like a playground over there. After I launched their voice over IP globally, I based on my focus to big data. And that's where I actually got my first patent and experience for an intelligent database. So I dove in hard and fast. I typically gravitate to data from a marketing perspective, understanding customers insights. And so that was a really great transition for me. Then 2019 happened (COVID). And one of my best friend's Michelle Patterson knocks on my door and said, “Hey, can you help me out for a couple of weeks?” She was in cannabis. And so short story, I bought into Jane Technologies and fell in love with the culture. The industry is so unique, like nothing I've ever been before, and just really fell in love.
So you can kind of imagine, our ramp up was tossing my marketing plan together and three weeks later, launched ArcView Access, which is our digital program. We've had about 50,000 people come through with that program. For those that don't know Arcview, here’s a quick summary just for frame of reference. It was started in 2010, by the godfather of cannabis, Steve DeAngelo and his partner, Troy Dayton. Their vision was really to bring together passionate cultivators and curious investors, and to provide a safe place for them both to collaborate through support and resources. And it's just been an incredible nexus of cannabis business ever since. In 2020, we expanded the group to an ecosystem, that includes our three ventures – Capital, Consulting, Arcview Access, as I mentioned. And while I'm the CMO of Arcview, I'm a little bit of a glutton for punishment. I also started my own bubble and the ecosystem for Arcview marketing, where we offer fractional CMO services and marketing services to the cannabis industry. So that's a little bit about my background. I'm passionate about my family. So it's really good to keep that top of mind. I have found I take a little bit of an outside in approach, leveraging everything that I've done from outside a company or an industry, and bringing that in for a fresh perspective and enabling people to think about things differently. So innovation is my happy place. So I'm very happy to be here.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Just to level-set, innovation is the process of introducing new ideas, methods, products, or services that significantly differ from existing ones and offer improved solutions to problems or needs. Just a few examples of technology and innovation being used in the cannabis industry:
Automated Cultivation Systems
Cannabis Extraction Machines
Seed-to-Sale Software
Cannabis Delivery Apps
Cannabis Vaping Technology
Cannabis E-commerce Platforms
Cannabis Packaging Solutions
Nanotechnology
Carolyn, let’s start out broad and discuss innovation at a high level - and how and why innovators typically approach an industry, and what motivates them to do so? And is cannabis any different?
CAROLYN MATTHIES
Good question. There's a couple reasons why innovation exists and how it starts and how it pertains to cannabis. Innovators approach an industry are compelled to act on business expansions for a few reasons. Either they're running into a problem themselves where there's no solution. So they decide that they're going to be the innovator, and they're going to own that space and solve the problem. Second one is they're already in the industry, or they've identified an industry that they want to play in, because just because it's fun for them, or they have a personal interest, and they identify a gap that's in the whitespace, that they can fill based on background or skills. There's so much to talk about on this topic, but I feel like breaking it down into two buckets, can help people really digest it easier. One is technological. That's what we're all we all think about when we talk about and think about innovation right up front. There's hardware, software, machinery, like everything that David just mentioned. And that's, again, the most common way to think about innovation. But I really think something that doesn't get talked about very specifically enough is idea innovation. And sometimes that's just a matter of taking a new brand and existing brand and revitalizing it taking something from scratch that hasn't existed before. But it's an idea. And I feel like that is a really comfortable place for people to play. And cannabis I don't feel is any different. I feel like you're cranking you need to crank up the tenacity in this space, a lot more than others that have like had their way paved for them a little bit because it's been around so long. And you just have to thicken up your skin a little bit. But I think cannabis follows the same methodology. There's a couple of examples too, just to help it become more real for people. So from idea innovation standpoint, one of my clients ,Field Canary had an idea to be the first one to bring everything in cannabis into one place. So we're launching their four acre property next week in Muskegon, Michigan, where they have dispensary cultivation, consumption, lounge, restaurant, hospitality space - all in one. For those that are into cannabis this is just revolutionary. Another idea innovation is my friend, Michelle Patterson. She was diagnosed with stage four cancer, and given 90 days. She chose a cannabis path. And she decided, in the four and a half years since that she was going to search the world and find people resources, tools for people to take an alternative path to healing themselves and own their wellness. So I've been helping her with this to be launching that platform that's really a community that brings different modalities to people so that they can figure out their own path and be educated. Because so many times when we're with a health challenge, we pause because we don't know what to do or where to go. This gives people that alternative path. And then, so that's a really exciting program and platform called touch point. And then David is like a walking example of an idea innovator. His first book and cannabis marketing, now taking that information and all of his knowledge into courses, is innovation. Another client is Action Pack. It is an automated packaging company that has been around since 1977. We identified a gap in this industry and built machinery just for the space. So it's happening all the time. And it's just a really exciting place to play in the innovation space in cannabis.
ADRIANA HEMANS
You just named a couple of really good examples, Carolyn, of some innovations in cannabis, can you share with us maybe some that have been pivotal from the standpoint of like a consumer experience, because I know that your background is in consumer data. And that's my background too. And I just find it interesting to understand, like what people who are out in the field are thinking about and seeing and the changes that they're living through?
CAROLYN MATTHIES
I think that there's some that's more there closer to the consumers. When you talk about delivery apps. That's obviously direct to consumer vaping technology. There's lots of innovations there, ecommerce platforms, and even packaging, and then I think you have some more B2B solutions, where there's automated cultivation systems and cannabis extraction machines and then seed to sale software, I think that there's a lot of other examples. David already mentioned nanotechnology. There's plenty of examples that have been around for a while, and then there's still more stuff on the horizon. And David alluded to it already to is the idea of blockchain, for those that haven't heard, they were on our ArcView capital crowdfunding platform. It's a global cannabis, blockchain and community network. I mean, there's just new stuff coming up all the time.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Can you describe the role of disruptive technologies in transforming traditional business models and discuss how that might affect cannabis?
CAROLYN MATTHIES
Definitely. Leveraging disruptive technology and make them catalysts for transformation in your own organization, or what you do any sometimes it's as simple as increasing efficiency. So that's like reducing, that enables you to reduce labor costs, reduce waste, improving your SOPs, how your organization flows instruction is structured product diversification, which enables you to attract a broader customer base, increasing revenue streams expanding globally. And then enhancing customer experience, of course, I mean, there's lots of opportunities there, and especially in this industry, I think it's critically important that people find what works for them and so far is staying on top of what the customer experience is and what they're looking for, because it's evolving more rapidly than any other thing that I've seen in this industry is to really pay attention to the evolution of consumers, because being a still in that stigma area for many, once people start migrating over and realizing There's plenty of medicinal benefits to cannabis, there's plenty of reasons to pursue a plant to heal yourself or to entertain yourself, there's no reason that we need to put more chemicals into our body data driven insights, we have a partner hoody, who does an extraordinary job providing data insights for customer, for businesses to really understand what's going on with customers. Regulatory compliance, that's another key area supply chain optimization, but there's a trade-off for everything you know. So challenges are going to include, when you're integrating disruptive technologies, there's probably an additional investment, there's time to learn and train and, and implement that within your existing infrastructure or invest more so that you can evolve your infrastructure to support it. But innovations are critical for the future growth in any industry. And I feel like it's especially exciting in cannabis, because I still, because I've worked for industries that have been around for 100 plus years, I still think of cannabis as this little baby industry. And there's so much so much growth potential. And innovation is going to be well for me the most fun area to see how it goes.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Every week we have a couple of audience participation questions and this week is no different. Who’s ready? Let’s do it! Our first audience participation is a multiple choice question. Here goes:
Which technological advancement has contributed to the development of precise dosing?
A) Artificial Intelligence
B) Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
C) Nanotechnology
D) Augmented Reality
ADRIANA HEMANS
Audience: It’s your turn to shine! Jump in and put your answer in the chat.
CAROLYN MATTHIES
That's like the perfect combination of all the latest budget buzzwords or last couple years.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
C) Nanotechnology
In cannabis-infused beverages, it's used to create nanoparticles of cannabinoids, increasing their bioavailability and allowing for faster onset and more precise dosing when the beverage is consumed.
All right, well, let's see what the answer is. How about that? Drumroll please. And the answer is C. nano technologies. So basically, in cannabis infused beverages, it's used to create nano particles of cannabinoids, increasing their viability, bioavailability and allowing for faster onset and more precise dosing of beverages. And it's been pretty amazing. I mean, I've been now in the industry for 12 years. Having worked at Washington State's largest processor that had three bottling lines, I remember, not too long ago, I'll say probably five or six years ago where we'd be selling mood be selling beverages, where the oils and the water would separate, we would have a tar slick on top of every bottle when you opened it up. So you'd have to shake it up. And of course, it would also taste like cannabis, which most people then at that point didn't really like I think we're moving slightly more towards that is being okay, which then brought on more sweeteners and other things that were put into the beverages to hide the taste. And so now technology has really, really changed the face of cannabis beverages. And I think that's why we're starting to see more cannabis beverages in the market and more people understanding that the consumption of cannabis beverages are more predictable, and more reliable.
ADRIANA HEMANS
I love the example that you just said of the evolution of consumers. And I'm sitting here thinking about and the stigma that we're working to overcome. I'm sitting here thinking about vaping technology and things like the Puffco peak or the pen, and how people who may not want to be running around with the backpack on and a torch and all these things. We're evolving products that fit into the lifestyles of more different consumers. But it's making something that's existing, more accessible. And then on the other side, you have this sort of push toward novel experiences, people who are looking for, something different, they want to try a fast acting edible, just as an example. Are you seeing maybe one supersede the other words like we're looking for novel things, or we're looking to make existing things more, I guess, accessible or less? What's the word I'm looking for? When it's just out in the open conspicuous?
CAROLYN MATTHIES
Well, I think that there's a cross section and really all of the above, I mean, because of where this industry is, you're seeing a focus on, understanding the consumer preferences that we've taught and behaviors and tracking that over time and, getting a little bit big brother hurry where, understanding frequency and how much people are going to really consume in factoring that into marketing, how to engage them when to integrate, engage them based on behaviors, and I know, it's very big brother, but it's everyplace else. So it was just inevitable that it was here too. Product variety, that's another interesting area that comes up with just like you're saying, to include variety of options with edibles, concentrates, infused beverages, and really understanding the consumer at a level of understanding how and why and when they're entering and entering this industry. So if they have been consumers all along, that's a specific track, you understand their behavior and just to profile become like, I like to build like avatars, like for all of my, my target audiences, and really understand who and why they're here, so that we can best communicate and educate them. So I think product variety is another thing too, for from a, from our perspective of, novel approaches, I think that's a key one, health and wellness trends, again, based on when people enter and how they enter a lot of people are entering. Now, especially older folks are entering now because of the medicinal benefits. So they are a completely different mindset and need a different conversation than people that have started recreationally and now maybe older and need the medicinal because they're already comfortable. Where it's like even my Jane when I was there, it was brand new, it was for women only primarily and it was a curation of sample size products to get people in slowly. So I think it's really fascinating for people to study what's going on and really figure out where they can play in it. There's alternative consumption methods, their safety and quality assurance. And then just from a pure competitive landscape perspective, focusing and keeping track and seeing what's going on and trends and with consumers is really going to drive the future of the industry.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
How has AI technology been leveraged to optimize various aspects of the cannabis supply chain?
CAROLYN MATTHIES
Yeah, it's funny, I, I agree with what you said earlier, too, that AI has been around a while. I mean, it might not have been technically labeled AI. And maybe that was intentionally so people didn't get freaked out about it, and, learn to use it anyway. But I think AI is an interesting space, it's going to play a major role in anything we'd like, that's just inevitable, just like the internet, I mean, it is just that new, massive life impacting thing, whether we like it or not, it's coming. And so it's just a matter of being okay with that getting to the point, sometimes it's an extra therapist session, and that's okay, whatever it takes, but you kind of got to get used to the idea that it's here and make friends with it. So I think it's TBD, a little bit on, how it's going to impact us and the trade off, that comes with anything good, that we're going to have to experience with adopting AI. But I think from a sub some technological advances for the industry. And, and when companies have these, and I'm kind of a marketer at heart, right. So anything is a way to differentiate if you if there is a new buzzword, or if there's a new way to differentiate your company, use it, because that's the way you stand out. And anytime anyone has something that is can be categorized as AI, if you use that as part of your marketing and in your differentiators, because who doesn't who was in fascinated by that. And frankly, if you don't say that you're doing something with AI, or using tools of ai, ai, you're going to update it, like, you're going to look like you're not keeping up with everything. So it's a, it is a key area to focus on and study, some key areas from a supply chain perspective, cultivation and growth with AI systems that monitor environmental conditions and cultivation facilities, predictive analytics, which is a favorite of mine, in even predicting crop yields, and timing, their inventory management, quality control. So there's a lot already in place that sometimes we haven't thought about it as AI. But now and I don't know if it's because of the buzzword now, they're kind of categorizing these, these technologies, and some of which have been around for a long time. Now they're classifying them as AI. So I think the bucket for what AI equals is going to continue to grow over time, because everyone's going to want to latch on to saying they do AI too.
ADRIANA HEMANS
Carolyn, are there some examples you can provide of successful collaboration innovations from traditional industries in cannabis?
CAROLYN MATTHIES
Yes, actually, so there's a few. Let me just let me say yeah, there's a couple really interesting ones. So some in the pharmaceutical sector, and that would be GW Pharma pharmaceuticals, which is now part of jazz pharmaceuticals. And they pioneered a development of it called epi. I never say this right epi dialects, cannabis derived medication for treating forms of epilepsy. beverages like we were just talking about Constellation Brands. And Canopy Growth is a great and notorious example of that. And then the tobacco industry, when we look at Philip Morris like playing a role in various companies, cannabis companies as well, alcohol, of course, ag tech, and even tech and software is really interesting, like Microsoft, partnering with kind financial, and developing a regulatory compliance platform. So I think there's plenty of examples like beauty and cosmetics and retail industry and even real estate.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah. You throw out some really great, great examples of what's taking place. And also, for that matter, I was at Microsoft, before I left 12 years ago to come into the industry. The day the I 502 law passed here in Washington state, that's when I gave my notice, by the way. But it's interesting to see these larger companies, coming in, coming into play, and dipping their foot in the water. Are there any lessons that, that the cannabis industry can learn from, from some of these other companies that are now either very innovative, or are or looking to get into the industry?
CAROLYN MATTHIES
Yeah, I mean, I think a key one, it not even related to other industries. But we all learned this, having been in the first global pandemic together, is putting innovation first. And I remember when, clearly when the pandemic was happening, is those who don't put innovation first. And if they hadn't already, or they hadn't been doing it up to that point, they figured it out really fast, or they didn't make it. And so I think that it was a hard lesson for all of us is not making innovation, one of those things, it's on a business plan that we're getting two quarters from now, or years from now, it's something that should be in the forefront of what we do every single month, at least, revisiting, connecting with the members of your team to see other innovations that come from them and having an inclusion from an innovation standpoint. But then, besides that, besides the global pandemic lesson, there's other lessons for, supply chain optimization and consumer experiences that we talked about before. And then just innovations and references to product development and innovation. So lessons from the tech, industry, which is still and always will be near and dear, and investing in that R&D, data analytics and sustainability. And of course, marketing and branding, cannabis companies that build strong brands and establish trust, they're going to be the ones that differentiate themselves in the crowd.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Absolutely, trust is super important.
ADRIANA HEMANS
So let's do one more quiz just for the hell of it. Because I think our audience is very well warmed up. I see some live conversations and questions and answering going on about beverages, which is awesome. So this question is which technology is commonly used to enhance cannabis? Outdoor cultivation efficiency? Is it a GPS guided tractors be augmented fertilization that would made me chuckle a little bit? See VR headsets? Or D laser light shows? Throw your guests in the chat?
Which technology is commonly used to enhance cannabis cultivation efficiency?
A) GPS-guided tractors for outdoor cultivation.
B) Augmented fertilization
C) Virtual reality headsets for plant communication.
D) Laser light shows to stimulate plant growth.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Audience, it’s your chance to shine! Interesting. Carolyn, what's your take on this? What do you think it is?
CAROLYN MATTHIES
Well, there we go. I'm going to go with A.
A) GPS-guided tractors for outdoor cultivation.
ADRIANA HEMANS
That's right. A. GPS Guided Tractors. That’s pretty incredible when you think about it, but I guess if there's autonomous vehicles now, they can figure out how to drive a tractor around an empty field if they could figure out how to cars around busy cities, although San Francisco might not be, might be a bad example of what happens with some autonomous vehicles read the most recent.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Carolyn, thank you for joining us today. Thank you for all you do. This industry needs more folks like you. So thank you. Where can people find you, Carolyn?
CAROLYN MATTHIES
Send me a message on LinkedIn. Thank you, David. Thank you, Adriana, for having me on today. This has been exceptional.
ADRIANA HEMANS
Anytime, Carolyn. Thank you.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
I always say this is the fastest 45 minutes of my week. A couple of things to call out before we go. Our next show is Thursday, October 12th when we’ll be chatting about “Cannabis and Cannfluencers” with Jocelyn Sheltraw, Co-founder of Budist, a new platform that allows consumers to rank products in a meaningful way.
As mentioned earlier, our two new courses - are up on www.brandingbud.com/edu. We have two courses, “Creating A Meaningful Cannabis Brand” and “The 14 Cannabis Brand Archetypes.” We have a discount code exclusively for our LinkedIn listeners. It's BBEDU25, which will give you a 25% off the price of the courses, which we’ve been told are pretty amazing. And we're pretty happy with them. So check them out.
Again, we’d like to thank our sponsor, High Hopes – a boutique agency with over 10 years in the cannabis space specializing in branding, packaging, SEO & marketing. They understand the critical issues, rules and regulations that you face daily. Again, be sure to check them out at www.ivegothigherhopes.com
Want more Branding Bud Live? Check out our YouTube channel @brandingbudlive.
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We thank you all again for joining us today and we look forward to seeing everybody next week on Thursday, October 12th. Until then. Thank you and goodbye.
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DAVID PALESCHUCK
And don’t forget to check out cannabis’s best-kept secret at www.brandingbud.com
Thank you everybody!
ADRIANA HEMANS
Thanks for joining everyone. Please follow us!
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Thank you everybody. We'll see you next week. And don't forget to check out cannabis is best kept secret at www.brandingbud.com. Until then!
ADRIANA HEMANS
Bye
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