Asking questions is a great mental exercise. Positing potential answers is, similarly, a great philosophical exercise.
Hypotheticals are, however, not great for running a business. Businesses need facts and insights to make strategic decisions in order to flourish.
Now let’s look at the market for cannabis, which by every conceivable metric has been growing across the United States in the past ten years. As more and more states legalize cannabis use, the recreational cannabis market balloons.
In this industry, it is just as important to make informed decisions as it is in any others. And in this industry, you need the facts and figures. They’re there – you just need to find them.
Alternatively, you can work with a strategic provider like ISA Group to furnish you with cannabis consumer studies that pose answers to the hard questions.
Hard questions like, why and when do people consume cannabis.
It seems like a straightforward question with a straightforward answer, but you might truly be surprised at how much variance there is among key segments of the market. That is, why and when they consume, what their purchasing behavior is, what they prefer to consume, and even their reasons for doing so.
These are some of the hard questions that organizations like ISA Group have asked in cannabis consumer studies like their CANNApinion Poll, which surveys 1,000 cannabis users in the United States on a bi-monthly basis. It’s one of the most comprehensive polls of its kind.
In it, they ask difficult questions like the one posed above.
So, ask yourself – why do you think your users consume? The answer can’t simply be “they enjoy it.” That is an answer, but to run a business, with products that must be closely positioned and targeted, you need more.
Is it to unwind, to destress or to help with sleep? Well, you probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some consumers do use cannabis for those purposes.
But the truths run deeper. From a recent CANNApinion Poll, ISA Group gleaned some more concrete metrics.
Among professional respondents to one CANNApinion Poll, 71% said they’d used cannabis to relax and unwind. 61% also stated that they’d used it for managing stress. This is unsurprising and you may have expected as much, especially if you operate a dispensary.
But there is more to the picture. 53% reported that they’d used it for controlling anxiety, and 62% for having fun. Again, not entirely surprising metrics.
Here’s the curveball. Apparently, among those polled, nearly half of them, sitting squarely at 45%, reported that they’d expressly used cannabis products either for energy or for staying awake.
Granted, it’s likely that users that consume cannabis to stay awake are consuming different strains or types of cannabis products from those that are using it to relax. Then again, the only way to know that for sure is with a separate cannabis consumer study that actually targets those questions.
Nonetheless, the implications are significant. Knowing that consumers use cannabis for such expressly different purposes can and should impact your targeting, positioning, advertising, and brand management. It should even influence the names of your products if you see a disconnect between naming convention and use.
Being able to develop complex, effective professional strategies to build your business doesn’t just start with asking the questions. It also comes from gathering feedback and interpreting the results.
These are the sorts of things that make cannabis consumer studies so valuable. If your business operates in the cannabis industry and has not yet invested in market research studies to help make strategic decisions, it might be time for you to work with a partner like ISA Group for access to their CANNApinion or GreenTime Polls.
Visit their website for more information on their cannabis consumer studies via the previous link, and get in touch with them directly at [email protected] or at 818-989-1044.
