When Marketing of Wine and Cannabis Collide

Sorry, I'm a little too buzzed to be speaking
to you all right now

  Francis Ford Coppola, owner of the Coppola Winery here in Sonoma County, recently got into the marijuana business. Now that it's lawful to grow and sell in California there are lots of entrepreneurs trying to figure out how to make money legally.

  As any self-respecting vintner-type would he has teamed up with a grower to do a "limited edition" of special strains calling it the Grower Series. And he'll charge a lot for it since his name is on the packaging. Sorry, no nickel bags. One report called it the luxury marijuana business.

  For better or worse it got me to thinking now that California is in the cannabis biz maybe they should copy some of the verbiage from the wine biz just like ol' Francis did.

Appellations
  There are wine-growing areas called appellations or American Viticultural Areas. These are places like Napa Valley or Sonoma Valley. There are hundreds of them. Their purpose? You can charge more for wines with an appellation on the label so the cannabis business definitely needs to copy this.
  Can't call them AVAs so maybe Buzz Zones? Or ABZs (American Buzz Zones). If you want to include Canada, where weed is also legal, it could be NABZs. So a typical question in your "tasting room" might be something like, "Dude, what nabz do these brownies come from?"

Wineries
  There are establishments called Wineries, Vintners, Cellars, or Vineyards making and selling wine. For marijuana let's end everything in Dude. As in, Bryan's Stellar Stash, Dude or Best Buds, Dude. In marketing the first step is to know your audience.

Varietals
  With wine there's Chardonnay, Cabernet, etc. With cannabis there are a zillion strains with weird names like Afghan Skunk, White Widow, and Agent Orange. I'm sorry, but how do you expect to charge Napa Valley prices with names like that? Change these to Afghan Petit, White Franc, and Muscat Orange.

Alcohol Content Labeling
  Wines have to give you the approximate level of alcohol in the bottle. Some use this as an indicator of the style and flavors in the wine. Others look for the largest number for the smallest amount of money.
  Cannabis labeling tells you how much THC is in the product, but I don't really know how to read this. Maybe borrow from the hot sauce makers. Instead of mild, medium, and hot go with functional buzz, listen to Pink Floyd buzz, and you'll see God buzz.

Print Ads
  Wine ads feature beautiful Caucasians dressed like a million bucks. This is not how you want to sell your cannabis. What do you see in a marijuana store--I'm sorry, a Dude producer retail outlet. I'm thinking man buns, tattoos and, or course, lots of old folks trying to cure their aches  and pains without those nasty pharmaceuticals and their unpleasant side-effects. So I'll leave it to you to find a 60 year old with a man bun and tattoos to be the face of your business. Think about the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World and cross that with either Cheech or Chong.

You're welcome. Perhaps I should get into cannabis marketing.