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In early November, The Green Letter hit the road to attend New England’s premier cannabis competition: The Harvest Cup in Worcester, Massachusetts. The event gathered vendors, industry leaders, and community members from across the country looking for a blazin’ good time. Awards were announced in categories from infused prerolls to sweet and savory edibles. 

When California became the first state to legalize weed in 1996, consumers did not have many dispensaries – or brands – to choose from. Since the turn of the millennium, the cannabis market in the United States has been growing steadily. Massachusetts joined the fray in 2016, becoming the eighteenth state to legalize weed with the passage of Question 4.

Today, there are more than 12,000 cannabis dispensaries nationwide, and more than 400 in Massachusetts alone. Shoppers are spoiled for choice. 

The Harvest Cup has been a gathering place for the cannabis community since 2017, and we wanted to understand how retailer operators are adapting to a more mature, competitive marketplace. Many of Massachusetts’ leading dispensaries have been in operation since 2016, building a strong and loyal customer base. How are they maintaining and growing their share in an increasingly fragmented market?

Five leading Massachusetts dispensaries chimed in. How much does brand loyalty matter in dispensary choice? How do you cultivate it? Responses have been lightly edited for length.

Personal Connections for Personal Recommendations

I think brand loyalty is incredibly important, especially right now in the industry when we have so many different dispensaries for people to choose from.

One of the main ways we try to build brand loyalty is by creating a really good experience for our customers, making sure our budtenders are calling people by their name and making personal connections. It’s really nice to have a personal connection with the person you know at the store who knows what you like, what you don’t like, and can make those personal recommendations, especially with so many products on the market. I think having those kinds of close interpersonal relationships really brings customers back.

– Autumn Lopez, Gage Cannabis Co

Leading with Education & Phenohunting

Brand loyalty is extremely important. We try to cultivate that by offering unique, aromatic, phenohunted strains.

– Tim Sheehan, Mello

Cultivating Choice with a House of Brands

When it comes to brand loyalty, we have a ton of different brands at Nova Farms – kind of like a family of brands – and we want them individually to stand on their own. They can populate all these different dispensaries and you recognize each of them because it’s that specific product. We have Hashables, Zonked, Southie Adams – all very recognizable brands that can stand on their own without having to rely too much on the Nova Farms guise.

That’s the focus of what we try to do out here. Brand loyalty from a dispensary perspective is really about brand loyalty for the brands you carry. Even the shop-owned brands; they very much stand on their own.

We cultivate relationships with other brands, too, including cultivators like Kapnos and Riverside. We try to get those brand names out there and have a good product to back it up. We cultivate that kind of relationship with our customers, our people who come in and try different things and different methods of consumption – all that good stuff.

– Brian Looby, Nova Farms

A Trusted Bud: Reliable Products at Competitive Prices

Brand loyalty is super important to us. That’s what we care about – actual customer retention and appreciation. We want it to be like “Bud’s is your good bud” – the person you come to that you trust.

You’re always going to get the best product, best pricing, education: whatever you need. That’s the experience. We remember your name and your face. We built the Bud’s Benefits loyalty program to help with that experience, and to reward people for every dollar they spend. 

They’re getting 5% back in a Bud’s Box, a lot of giveaways, and ‘first to know’ offers — we’re trying to build a community around more than just a shopping experience. You’re a good bud; we’re going to help you out with all these things. You get $25 on your birthday. It’s all the stuff that makes someone feel special at their big life moments. We want to provide that for people – more than people just getting cannabis on a daily basis.

– Hennessy Shaw, Bud’s Goods

Data Drives Customized Offers

Brand loyalty is the core aspect to a business and its future success. Its present success is based on its employees, products, management, how you have it built out, and location, but all future success is based on those people that speak highly of your products and brands. It’s the people who feel comfortable with your brand, your products, what you’ve given, and what you’ve delivered. Your loyalty is your future success. Every individual person you build loyalty with is your most permanent and important customer. 

Our brand loyalty builds in multiple different ways, and we offer 10% off when you join. It gives you access to different promos and hot drops we have in the store, and we do monthly raffles. 

The loyalty newsletter is another way you can connect with us. We can offer things that we’re not normally able to advertise, but customers get to see what’s going on over at Perpetual right now. It's built in our retail, but beyond our retail, we have another program that is built into the back end of our merch store.

Our global loyalty program is almost like a Marlboro points thing: you buy our products and get points per purchase. You get to spend those points on all sorts of different really cool merch, and it ships directly to your home. That’s another way to build loyalty. 

We track people’s buying habits and reward the people who are very loyal members. I can go in and say, “Wow, Crystal bought six vapes last month. Guess what, Crystal? You get 1,000 points for the merch store. Here’s $100 to spend on our swag because I know you’re going to represent my brand.” We spoil the people that are our loyal customers.

– Kyle Johnson, Perpetual

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