I had the opportunity to interview the author of Branding Bud at the CWCBExpo in New York last week, David Paleschuck. He was very well informed about the challenges of company branding in cannabis and came from a mainstream background.
Find out more at https://brandingbud.com/
Transcription:
Hey everybody, Richard Lowe with The National Marijuana News back at the CWCBExpo in New York City. I am joined now by the author of Branding Bud, David Paleschuck. Thank you for joining us.
Thank you.
So, tell us about Branding Bud and your new book.
Well, I’m pretty excited to launch Branding Bud here at the Cannabis World Congress. Branding Bud is a 3 year project. The book contains well over 350 brands around the U.S. Some of the better brands, the more interesting brands. The book talks about the political and legal history of cannabis. And then breaks it down into the commercialization and the various form factors that take place within the market today including flower, edibles, beverages, trans-dermal patches, sublingual slips and a whole bunch of others.
Fantastic, so what is your background, you’re doing branding for cannabis, have you ever done branding for any other companies before.
I have, yeah, I have 25 plus years in corporate America working for American Express, Mastercard, Pepsi, Microsoft doing branding and marketing. And about 7 or 8 years ago I saw a lot of my friends leaving those companies to get into the cannabis industry and I thought that was the right space for me. So, I made a place for myself.
So, alright here is the big question. What’s the big difference between doing branding for mainstream companies versus the cannabis space?
Well, I would say budgets and government regulation. So, with that we tend to focus on the various states and the different rules within those states. Then really the budgets, working with the different taste pallets and preferences within each state.
Gotcha, so are there particular states that you are focused on, California, Washington?
Well California is the largest cannabis economy in the world. I happen to be based in Seattle, Washington. So, we cover pretty much the west coast but there is well over 20 plus states now medically available and recreationally as well too. So, there is quite a bit of brands and clients and consumers to help focus it.
Can you let the people watching know about some of the brands that you have worked with so far?
Sure, we have worked with a number of different brands from Western Culture and Dogstar to Gold Leaf, Artisan, quite a number of different brands and they are all really unique. Some of the brands focus on terpenes and the flavor profiles in the cannabis. Other brands, call them baller brands, they are selling cannagars for $15,000 to people flying into private airports in Seattle. But, they really vary and they offer everybody a little bit of what they want.
So, we are here at the CWCBExpo, what’s brought you to this expo all the way from the west coast?
Well, this expo is a special expo. Most of the cannabis shows tend to be, 3 types of shows. One of them is a big smoke out, which this is not. The second type of show is more of a cultivator show which focuses on soil, nutrients, lights. And then there are shows like this. This show is really a business show, specifically what brought me to New York, this particular show albeit one of the smaller shows, it’s more press than almost any of the other shows. So, folks at this Cannabis World Congress are doing a great job working with the media and the press in New York City and creating opportunities for all of us to normalize cannabis.
And finally, you are part of Matters.Group, can you talk a little about Matters.Group and what that does?
Sure, the Matters.Group where I act as the Chief Brand Officer, was started in Seattle. It’s been around for a number of years. The company focuses on information and data and basically creates insights from that data to help cannabis brands better reach consumers and their target audience.
If people watching want to find out how to get Branding Bud or to find out more about Matters.Group, what’s the best way for them to find your book and your company?
You could buy the book now at BrandingBud.com. You could follow me on Instagram and Twitter as well at that same handle. Also The Matters.Group is where you can reach us if you’re looking to learn more about data insights and need help with branding on your products.
Fantastic, well again this David Paleschuck the author of Branding Bud. Thank you for joining us.
Thank you so much.
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