When cannabis became legal in Washington State in 2015, Respect My Region dove in. We saw so much crossover between the music we were promoting and the culture of cannabis that it made sense to marry the two. Since then, we’ve become an award-winning music publication and a reliable voice in the cannabis community. As authentic members of cannabis culture itself, we’ve been curating content for years that truly speak to cannabis users.
We approached cannabis marketing with the same knowledge that we accrued from running hyper-local music ads and positioning content geographically in front of a specific audience. Growing alongside the industry and expanding our efforts into other states, RMR has since become able to offer any form of digital content to the industry.
Respect My Region represents legal cannabis in two distinct ways. First, on our media platform where we’re actively spreading culture, info, and education. In the same breath, we’re also recommending products, services, and retailers. The other side of what we do is our media agency where we do all things marketing. These efforts have a hard focus in the digital field, especially online ordering right now.
Mitch Pfeifer, Respect My Region’s founder and CEO, gave me a more round explanation of how we help the cannabis industry. Whether it’s brands, dispensaries/deliveries, or the cultivators, RMR brings value to the table. Pfeifer spoke on how Respect My Region is working to grow, support, and provide marketing solutions for the cannabis industry.
Brands
There are three big values that Respect My Region brings to cannabis brands. Mitch said these are: “a targeted awareness through search engines and social media, thoughtful advertising, and education.” Pfeifer further elaborated, saying “we bring the value of education and recommendation through putting info out on products, trending topics, news, and user-experience.”
Finding out what consumers like from creating this wide array of content then helps us build authentic customer personas that help show us purchasing trends and other useful data. This helps guide brand positioning for brands, retailers, and cultivators.
Dispensaries/Deliveries
There is a short term and long term way that RMR’s platform aids cannabis dispensaries. The short term is the promotion of goods, services, new locations, and dispensary features in our daily content. These find immediate value from the power we yield through our social media distribution. The long term, Pfeifer said, is “the value of search and discoverability.”
The other main way we help dispensaries is through ads and hyper-local targeted marketing. Mitch told me that “our hyper-local targeted marketing is the essence of what we do at scale for content for dispensaries and brands.” He went on to say that we do this by “attacking the exact target demographic and geo-targeted areas in a multitude of ways. These include leveraging content, media, and search engine advertising.” Pfeifer noted that RMR’s ultimate focus with ads and content is “pushing education, brand, and product awareness.” Mitch said these strategies “drive sales in a legal and compliant way.”
Cultivators
For cannabis producers and processors, Respect My Region is able to do quite a bit. Mitch said, “for cultivators, we offer basically any form of digital content. The main things we can do to help are brand positioning, brand awareness, and making the right connections. We have a Rolodex of buyers, budtenders, and influencers.”
Pfeifer spoke of the different types of content RMR can make for brands in the cannabis industry. “We can create videos, farm tours, farm features, brand profiles, and strain reviews.” He said the goal is “when a customer asks for Gelato, you want them asking for your brand’s strain.” “We’ve been producing content that people want to consume,” Mitch told me. “We answer questions they’re asking and direct them to where to buy a product.”
Pre-Coronavirus, Respect My Region has put on countless events bringing together the music and cannabis industry. Until events return, these are some of the main ways that we are going about cannabis marketing. Join us this year as we head into an even more content-driven version of our West Coast Weed Tour.
