Marketing For a Tough Industry

Doug Downs (00:14):

In 2018, Budweiser launched a new campaign to promote responsible drinking drink wiser. The core of the campaign was to encourage consumers to drink responsibly. A part of the outreach was a video featuring Danny Green of the LA Lakers and actor Anthony Anderson, who was Dre on Blackish and a very recognizable actor and game show host. In the video, Anderson sees his buds drinking water between Budweisers and decides to do the same. He gets such mental clarity, he draws up the winning play for the Lakers.

Anthony Anderson (00:48):

Alright guys. Alright, look, we're down two with 0.1 seconds left. We got this all right. I want you to pump fake, double drip, but don't travel. You got it? Alright. 1, 2, 3, 3.

Doug Downs (01:01):

And even times the winning shot.

PA Announcer (01:03):

Yay. Hold on. Okay. Go

(01:07):

Danny Green for the win. Yes, he did.

Doug Downs (01:15):

The campaign was well received and praised for its proactive approach to promoting responsible alcohol consumption. It also helped reinforce Budweiser's image as a socially responsible brand that cares about the wellbeing of its consumers. We've seen other companies in other industries do this. PAX Labs launched the Pax era campaign for their cannabis vaporizers positioning their products as a premium sophisticated choice in a market, often stigmatized by negative perceptions. Heineken's Open Your World campaign focused on bringing people together despite differences using their product as a means of fostering connections and tackling social issues. Philip Morris International launched the Un Smoke Your World Campaign to promote its smoke-Free products. Smith and Wesson's. The Guardian's Campaign currently highlights stories of individuals who use firearms for personal protection, sport and hunting. And PornHub had a campaign over Valentine's this year called All You Need is Hand offering single individuals a tongue in cheek alternative to traditional celebrations. You might be very much opposed to some of these industries and campaigns, but they are legal and the focus is on how to provide marketing support when it's a tough industry to market today on stories and strategies, campaigns that conquer controversy, turning tough industries into trusted brands.

(02:50):

My name is Doug Downs. My guest this week is Michael Mejer, joining today from Raleigh, North Carolina. Hi Michael. Hey, good afternoon, Doug. I would imagine it's warm in Raleigh, a home of a thousand parks and a million oak trees if the internet has it right?

Michael Mejer (03:06):

Yeah, no, it's a great place. Not too bad. I kind of compare the city of Raleigh to Central Park in New York City and just kind of say it's Central Park, but if you just expand it out, that's pretty much the quote the city feel that you get down here in Raleigh.

Doug Downs (03:21):

What's the last month of the year that you will cut the grass? Is it December or January? Do you actually get a winter where you're not mowing the lawn at some point?

Michael Mejer (03:30):

I would say maybe October is the last. Okay. Yeah, it could depend on the season, depending how warm it is and all that kind of good stuff. But right around October is probably the last time, maybe November.

Doug Downs (03:43):

Yeah, I feel better about that. You got other stuff happening in October, sometimes in North Carolina as well. So Michael, you've got just about 10 years now experience in marketing and publicity. You founded Green Lane communication to specialize PR in the cannabis realm, developing opportunities for the industry leaders with earned media exposure. So this episode really caught my eye because a big chunk of my own time within the walls of corporate communications was spent working for what I thought was a tough industry. I worked in electricity sometimes on the retail side, sometimes on the transmission side, but I learned to speak kilowatt. Definitely everybody uses it. Nobody wants to pay for it and definitely nobody wants to see the infrastructure needed to get it from point of generation to point of what's called load point of use. So Michael Greenland communication, you decided to focus on the cannabis industry. Why did you choose that one? And is it as tough as I think it is?

Michael Mejer (04:44):

It's not easy, but it's fun. I'll say that just to start and then why I chose it. So I actually got started in publicity, actually working in the book publishing world. And I was working for a boutique firm in New York at the time. And what we did was some really cool stuff. So we pretty much worked with a lot of founders basis, CEOs of successful big companies where they saw an opportunity to add an additional revenue stream through coaching, consulting, keynote speaking, things like that, outside of their regular nine to five. And so right around that time, what they would do is they would say, you know what? I have a zone of genius. I have an area of expertise. I'm going to put out a book to help start developing my thought leadership. At the time at the firm I worked for, what we did was we would do the publicity, we would secure earned media placements, interviews, coverage, things like that around the launch of the book.

(05:32):

And we would secure placements in the Forbes, the fast companies, the Inc. Magazines of the world. And then what that group of people would do is they would basically take that coverage, roll it into their sales and marketing material and use that as authority, credibility, trust, building assets to help them get into the doors of the Fortune 500 companies like the Toyotas, the GMs, the sprints of the world. So I loved all of that, but fast forward about three into it, I stopped by a hemp wellness store in New York where adult use cannabis was not legal at the time. So I stopped into the hemp wellness store and I'm speaking with the owner, just trying to get a sense of, okay, how does this work at a physiological scientific level? How does it interact with the human body? And so I'm learning a lot. And about five minutes into it, in came an older gentleman, you could just see he was really just battling really severe, debilitating tremors.

(06:25):

I don't know exactly what the situation was, but his wife basically had to open the door for him. She did all the talking because he couldn't really control his body. The tremors were so severe. And so she just looked at the owner and said, look, we've tried everything under the sun, but nothing seems to work. And anything that does give us a sliver of hope comes with a laundry list of side effects that really outweigh the positives of what's being administered. And so do you have anything here that can maybe potentially work? And so the owner just said, look, I'm not going to make you any promises, but I have something that I think may help move the needle forward. If you want to just take a seat, we can try it out, give it a shot and see what happens and we'll take it from there.

(07:03):

So the gentleman sat down, took the tincture, which for those who are listening and aren't familiar with it, it's basically just a little dropper of some kind of CBD oil ingested that. And then about 120 seconds later, I look over to my left and boom, I start to see his tremors subsiding. He's able to regain control of his body. And the real kicker here that gives me chills every time I share this story is that he looks up at the store owner and just goes, I need the biggest bottle of whatever shit it was you just gave me. And those were the first words to come out of his mouth once he regained control. And at that moment, the switch flipped for me and I said, you know what? I love doing pr. I don't want to get away from it, but lemme see if there's an opportunity here for us to shine a positive spotlight and educate the general public about the healing powers of this plant, how it works, who it can benefit, and just how this entire industry ecosystem and community really works and how this is all going to play out over the next several years.

(08:02):

And that's kind of how it all started.

Doug Downs (08:04):

So I take it that's one of the strategies here is to identify anecdotal real life stories that you can tell that highlight benefits that would measure to all of our shared values. The story you just told was about someone who was in pain, they found relief for their pain. That's a value. Michael, obviously you and I are going to share stories are part of the strategy here.

Michael Mejer (08:25):

Yeah, 100%.

Doug Downs (08:27):

Two things make it a tough industry and under tough, and that's the only reason I'm using the word tough for cannabis is A, it's heavily regulated. Second, there's a stigma when someone says to you, what do you do for a living? Well, I help market cannabis. You're going to get one of two reactions. Oh, awesome. Can you get me some on the cheap? Right. Depends on what state you're in. Can you get me some or can you get me some on the cheap? And you're also going to get that look right, that Oh, cannabis. Oh, I see. So talk to me a bit about how heavily regulated and how you try to overcome the stigma. Yeah,

Michael Mejer (09:05):

Great question. So the fact that it's so heavily regulated really makes it challenging for brands, businesses, and leaders to actually get the word out about what it is that they're doing in this space from a business perspective. So marketing and advertising are very, very challenging. And one of the things early on that I picked up on from having conversations with brand owners, leaders, marketers, et cetera, is that because of those challenges, earning media coverage and connecting with journalists, reporters, podcast host like yourself, just coming in from an educational perspective and really shedding a light on the facts, figures, and logic behind all of this from a B2B perspective, B2C perspective, medical perspective, whatever it may be, was really a tremendous work around to those restrictions around marketing and advertising. So in my world, that's really what I see a lot of. Armenia is just a great way to go about that because again, if you're trying to put an advertisement out there, you may not be able to do it through a lot of traditional mediums. And B, if you do get away with it, there's a good chance that platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, they will pull your ads down because after 24, 3 hours,

Doug Downs (10:15):

The stigma, the stigma,

Michael Mejer (10:15):

They end up realizing that it's not allowed and your ads are coming down. So it's a great workaround in that sense. And then as far as the reactions that you get from people, it varies. It, it's like a coin toss. It could be just like you said where it's, oh wow, tell me more about that. Or on the flip side, you'll get a weird look and you'll realize that you're talking to somebody who really is just a firm believer in the devil's lettuce and that's what it is. And there's no and or buts about it, but

Doug Downs (10:44):

You may as well be tobacco, adult entertainment, alcohol. And

Michael Mejer (10:49):

Funny you say tobacco too, probably with some folks, if I were to say, Hey, I'm doing public relations for a tobacco company, they may not even look at me as funny as if I am saying cannabis because it still is such a new industry in its infancy stage. So super interesting how that works. But I definitely think those conversations are starting to change and look a little bit different. And I think people are starting to see cannabis in a different light. So there's still a little bit of a negative stigma attached to it, but I think we've made a lot of progress compared comparatively to let's say 3, 4, 5 years ago and what that looked like.

Doug Downs (11:25):

Okay. One of the strategies you shared, tell stories, anecdotal, real life, true, honest stories that adhere to our shared values. What are some of the other strategies for a sensitive industry? So like pharmaceuticals would be listening to this and thinking it too is in a very sensitive industry, how do you go about it?

Michael Mejer (11:45):

Yeah, so especially from a media relations standpoint, when you're reaching out to journalists and reporters or editors and you're trying to get a across and explain a narrative, it's one thing if you're just going to reach out and say, Hey, this impacts this in this way, and you just leave it at that, you're not going to get very far. But if you have a case study, if you have data, if you have what I like to call just a receipt to back up your claim, that is going to get you significantly farther than if you're just running around trying to make a bunch of claims with nothing to support. So I always say if you're trying to make a point, get a narrative out there, you want to have a receipt, whether that's a study that you've done, a survey you've conducted, but you really want to make sure that you have proof to back up whatever claim it is that you're trying to push out there,

Doug Downs (12:32):

Anchor yourself to a shared believable source, shared values, shared sources. That's what I'm hearing

Michael Mejer (12:38):

100%.

Doug Downs (12:40):

Any limitation to the tools you would use? You talked about earned media, would you approach all traditional media or would you try to target specific social media? What does a social media strategy for cannabis look like?

Michael Mejer (12:55):

Yeah, so it's going to vary based on whether you're B2B, B2C, and trying to understand from a business perspective what your target audience looks like, what they do, where they spend most of their time. I think that's really where you want to start. And then from there you can sort of reverse engineer, okay, do I need to spend more time focusing on reaching my audience through Instagram or Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook? And if so, I need to understand how those channels feel towards cannabis related content. And what are some of the, I don't like using this word, but what are the hacks or the workarounds to posting content that doesn't get flagged or hit a trip wire that ends up getting an account taken down that's got hundreds of thousands of followers that's taken years and tons of blood, sweat, and tears to build up

Doug Downs (13:45):

That understanding audience that I can understand is a key part. And I always draw this Venn diagram in my mind, and it goes much deeper than this, but those very much in favor of what you're offering those completely and utterly against those somewhere in between. And I call them the curious, and sometimes they lean a little bit toward, well, I could and sometimes they're, well, I could, but no, that's not me. And then there's this huge part of the Venn diagram above it. I haven't even thought about this. Do you market only towards those who love what you're selling and what you're offering and how do you try to pull the curious into the love and the open into the curious?

Michael Mejer (14:32):

Yeah, so that's a great question, especially as it pertains to cannabis, because you are dealing with so many different categories, and folks in those pockets of the Venn diagram, you have a category that's referred to as the can curious. And so these people are just, as you described, these are folks that not against it, and maybe they're a little bit older in age and maybe they've been around it and they're in their seventies let's say, and they've got really bad arthritis and they're hearing murmurs that there is a cream, let's say a topical that you don't even ingest, you don't even feel anything, but it's just a simple lotion that you can apply all these pain points and the pain can go away. And those sometimes you just want to get a better understanding of, okay, what products or solutions are maybe better fit for somebody who falls into that curious category where there's a little bit less friction and trying to get them to give it a shot.

(15:30):

Cannabis infused beverages are another big, very hot product category right now that's picking up a lot of traction. And it's because, well, people are used to drinking a cocktail or having a beer or a glass of wine when they're getting together with their friends or family socially. And so when you have a very low dose infused beverage, that eliminates a little bit of the friction because people are used to drinking and taking in a substance like that through the form of a beverage. Very low dose means that you can stack just as a beer may have a very subtle effect, but if you have one or two or three over the course of an hour, maybe two hours, you can sort of control how that effect comes onto you. And that's exactly how cannabis infused beverages work. So understanding, going back to understanding your audience and then having an understanding of the product or the solution that you're bringing to the market and how it fits into their lifestyle or how it addresses their pain points. If you have an understanding of those two things, you can reverse engineer a lot of your strategy, whether it's communications, marketing, earned media, it's all going to come together, but you need to have a solid understanding of those two things first before you do anything.

Doug Downs (16:38):

We live in this age of misinformation and disinformation. Two parts to my question, how important is it to identify and address misinformation and disinformation that's opposed to the cannabis industry? And how often are you labeled as offering misinformation and disinformation, and how important is it to refute that? So coming from both sides,

Michael Mejer (17:06):

So as a brand or business in it, in the industry, you want to make sure that whatever you are putting out there has receipts. Not to go back to what we talked about receipts earlier, receipts, but you got to keep those receipts not for the only reason that you want to keep the tax man away from you. You want to be in good standings with the IRS, but keep those receipts because if somebody comes across and questions your data questions, your claim questions, anything that you put out there, you want to be ready to explain. And sometimes people come at you with questions not because they're necessarily trying to bash or squash anything that you've put out there, but because they're genuinely curious and they want to have a better understanding of, okay, I like this. I took an interest into this. I think this is important, but do you have any other anecdotal evidence or data or something that I can personally look into to have a better understanding of this? So whether it's a good reason or a bad reason, you always want to keep those receipts regarding any claims or any kind of big, bold statements that he put out there.

Doug Downs (18:07):

Do partnerships and collaborations play a part in the marketing effort here?

Michael Mejer (18:11):

Yes, big time especially. And you see a lot of that happening, especially in industry trade shows or conferences, expos, things like that. That's just a great way to blend audiences and also show the community and the industry as well where your values are and how you are aligning with those values and making it very clear to the target audience where you stand and what you're trying to bring to the market.

Doug Downs (18:39):

You were kind of talking about it a couple of minutes ago, illustrating an older demographic, the benefit of an older demographic is it typically has money, very true to spend, and that just kind of makes it appealing. But how do you leverage an older demographic that has used or is using a cannabis product to demonstrate to the rest of that older demographic? Look, there are people just like you and they've chosen to do this, and it's okay for them, and I'm sure that's another strategy.

Michael Mejer (19:11):

Yeah. So I think that goes back to just case studies, reviews, testimonials, and being able to, again, not to beat a dead horse, but having those receipts, having the proof. This is not just something that we're coming out and saying works or doesn't work or whatever it may be, but we have people that look like you. They live a similar lifestyle as you. They're battling the same challenges as you, and this is what they're using to overcome those challenges and solve those pain points. And I think if you can just really understand your audience and communicate to them in a way where it's easy to understand, it's digestible, it's consumable, and it answers their specific questions because they may have different questions about cannabis than let's say a early, mid, late 20 or early, mid, late 30-year-old demographic. So being able to understand who you're speaking to and making sure that whatever you're communicating to them is understandable and digestible for where they're at currently in their life is going to play a massive role in being able to make sure that what you're putting out there is understood clearly and correctly.

Doug Downs (20:18):

And it sounds like for your industry, medicinal is one of the key entry points here because we can all agree that medicine, when it's effective is good. And that's an angle that tobacco can't use. Alcohol has tried saying red wine is good for you. And I think that's pretty much been, sorry if that's news to you, but that's pretty much been deflated by now. That's a key entry point for you when you're dealing with that part of the Venn diagram, the medicinal message.

Michael Mejer (20:45):

And we've even seen it too, as far as legalization goes. Of course, cannabis is not federally legal and it's been left up to the states.

Doug Downs (20:53):

It's about half the states though, half the states. It's legal now, is it? Yeah.

Michael Mejer (20:56):

And a lot of those states that have transitioned into legalizing cannabis for adult use, how did they start out? A lot of them started out legalizing a medical program that then ultimately transitioned into California. Exactly, yep. That ultimately ended up transitioning into an adult use market. So just like you said on that front, you can even tie it back to the politics and the legalities of it being activated in certain states. So I definitely think the medicinal entry point serves a benefit and a use case in a lot of different ways in this industry.

Doug Downs (21:27):

Awesome. And just for listener curiosity, I am not on the side where I use it. I don't care if somebody else does. I don't like smelling it necessarily, but if somebody else is consuming cannabis, it means nothing to me. I don't care, but I don't, and where I'm at, it's legal all across Canada. But I really appreciate your time today, Michael. Thanks for this.

Michael Mejer (21:52):

I appreciate you, Doug. This has been a great time, and thank you so much for the opportunity to come on. I had a blast.

Doug Downs (21:59):

If you'd like to send a message to my guest, Michael Mejer, we've got his contact information in the show notes. Stories and strategies are the co-production of JGR Communications and Stories and Strategies podcasts. Check out our YouTube channel. Segments from the podcast are available on video. Thank you as always, producer Emily Page. And lastly, do us a favor forward this episode to one friend. Thanks for listening.