It’s High Time to Improve Cannabis Education
It won't be a surprise to many people but most cannabis education activities & materials are not effective at communicating product benefits, characteristics not to mention watch outs.
Consumers, budtenders, and patients don’t get the knowledge and 1:1 interactions they need to make the right medical, wellness and recreational choices. In many cases, they get wrong, incomplete or confusing information with potentially serious healthcare implications.
Poor educational efforts also make it hard for producers and retailers to build their brands, drive loyalty and improve revenues. I’m still waiting to see a bona fide ROI of a weed educational program.
Fortunately, there are new practices and technologies that can amp up your game.
Step one is to understand the needs, learning styles and behaviors of your target audience. You will also want to know what they like and dislike about your current model.
Codi Peterson, pharmacist, educator and Chief Science Office of The Cannigma sees a lot of cannabis education. In his view, “Cannabis is nuanced and personal, yet most education relies on rushed budtender chats or brand reps in the busy retail setting. That’s like learning to roast a turkey while you stand in line in the meat-department. We need deeper, broader resources to truly empower consumers.”
He believes, “part of the reason we landed with this system was because education was relegated to the point of sale. Budtenders needed a point of reference for consumers (e.g., Indica vs Sativa choices), so they landed on overly simplistic language meanings. Simplifying extraordinarily complex medicine into two categories is like trying to effectively separate America and the two parties; it can create lots of misunderstanding.”
Cannabis firms will better serve key audiences by marrying their existing market, consumer, product and wellness knowledge to emerging technologies, training and communication practices.
The idea is to deliver medically validated, contextually relevant content that engage and support consumers through an omnichannel execution.
There are many ways to enhance digital engagement with patients & consumers as they engage with their purchases and self-care. For example, you can create a more sophisticated digital interface and use personalized CRM-driven outreach. New AI-powered chat bots can enable seamless delivery of the latest knowledge.
For Codi, “Effective cannabis education meets people where they are, tailoring information for patients or customers and delivering it gradually. It must be multi-modal—articles, guides, graphics, and online tools—and ideally link product options to the learning. The Cannigma does this well, particularly if we integrate cannabis sales into the platform in the future.”
Call me. I help weed companies improve their education and marcom to drive better business outcomes.
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