Contemporary Marketing Techniques for Cannabis Entrepreneurs

Introduction

In many countries, there has been a great demand for commercial cannabis legalisation. When countries like Australia and some states in the United States of America (USA) legalised cannabis growing and use for medical reasons, the movement gained a lot of traction (Manu, 2021). Legal recreational cannabis sales have been increasing all over the world and its use has become more normalised in the USA in the years since California became the first state to legalise medical cannabis (Manu, 2021). The Constitutional Court of South Africa legalised recreational cannabis in September 2018 after centuries of cannabis prohibition. However, some departments and other citizens were against this ruling because they believe that cannabis legalisation has a lot of unintended consequences that may cause harm to citizens' health and well-being (Volkow, Swanson, Evins, 2016). Adolescent health faces new challenges as policy, social norms and the marketing environment change. It is important to keep an eye on the intersection of emerging policy and large-scale cannabis marketing as it represents the new frontier of marketing challenges and research opportunities.

In the year 2020, the legal cannabis industry was the fastest-growing industry in the USA and across the world, creating approximately 77 300 jobs (Bhattarai, 2021). In 2016, legal cannabis sales brought in about $200 million in tax revenue for the state of Colorado (McCarthy, 2017). The cannabis industry has changed the way in which people think about health and wellness to a point where it is becoming a rich industry. As the cannabidiol (CBD) segment of cannabis keeps on increasing the market research has estimated that by 2024 it will exceed US$20 billion (Disa, 2020). Despite the fact that more states are legalising cannabis, it is still illegal at the federal level. As a result, each state has a different set of restrictions. Cannabis businesses such as medical marijuana dispensaries, CBD shops and many more, have a chance to experiment with new marketing strategies to expand and improve business.

As cannabis has been penetrating the market in recent years all over the world, despite the public attention on its legalisation, there is a lack of research on the marketing perspective. Cannabis marketing techniques are almost non-existent due to the federal government's prohibition of cannabis (Manu, 2021). However, there are published studies that could help identify online and offline marketing techniques for cannabis entrepreneurs. This study will contribute to the understanding of which marketing techniques cannabis entrepreneurs can use to promote their products and how these techniques can influence consumer purchasing behaviour. Cannabis entrepreneurs have begun to use some marketing techniques to promote their products, and this study will focus on identifying online and offline marketing techniques for cannabis entrepreneurs. It will also discuss the challenges that entrepreneurs face in cannabis marketing.