The cannabis industry is in a constant state of change, but several industry trends are making it abundantly clear that cultivators who will win in their markets in the future need to prioritize consistency more than ever. Let’s take a look at four key trends and how they tie into consistency and corresponding opportunities to build competitive advantages.

1. The Thriving Illicit Market

We can all agree that the piecemeal approach to cannabis legalization in the United States has not stopped the legacy market. In fact, illegal sales are thriving in many states, and there are no signs that will change in the near future.

For legal cultivators, consistency is the differentiator that could make all the difference today and in years to come when the legacy market shrinks (and hopefully, disappears). When your crops provide a consistent quality, there is a measurable difference between products produced with your cannabis versus the black market.

As more consumers enter the cannabis market in search of high quality, safe products, brands that have established reputations for delivering consistent quality will rise to the top in terms of consumer preference, demand, and sales. Consumer education will be critical to ensuring buyers understand the potential risks of buying illegal products as well as the benefits of choosing legal, consistent quality brands.

In addition, while legacy cannabis consumers are highly price sensitive and thus, more likely to buy from the black market, research shows that newer consumers and medical cannabis patients are less influenced by price alone. This creates an opportunity to establish a market leader position as the brand known for consistency before steps are taken to effectively reduce and eliminate illicit sales.

2. Coming Federal Legalization

Federal cannabis legalization is coming – eventually. With federal legalization will come a plethora of regulations related to quality, safety, reliability, and more. At the same time, many opportunities for growth will open for cannabis cultivators. Which cultivators do you think will have the greatest chance to seize those opportunities and thrive post-federal legalization? My money is on the cultivators who own the words “consistency” and “quality” in people’s minds.

Whether a cultivator manufactures its own products or sells its flower and plant material at wholesale, consistency matters. Buyers of every kind need to know that you provide consistent yields and crops so they can plan and be confident that their needs will be met. Deliver a crop that’s inconsistent with what you projected and promised to a wholesaler? That’s a big ding on your reputation. Produce low quality and inconsistent products or fail to fill dispensary shelves because you can’t deliver consistently? Those are lost sales and unmet expectations that can destroy brand reputation and loyalty.

Bottom-line, now is the time for cannabis cultivators to take every step possible to improve consistency, because waiting until cannabis is legalized at the federal level will be too late. Things will move really fast when that happens, and winning cultivators will be the ones who are already well-known for consistency.

3. Opening Interstate Commerce

Once cannabis is legalized at the federal level, interstate commerce won’t be far behind. In fact, some interstate commerce could happen even sooner. A number of states are considering or already working together to determine how they can develop interstate commerce. However, the waiting game could be over based on the Dormant Commerce Clause and legal precedent.

In simplest terms, the Dormant Commerce Clause says states cannot enact policies that intentionally discriminate against any goods or economic actors from other states. That means state laws that don’t allow people from other states to apply for cannabis business licenses and state laws that bar interstate commerce are likely illegal.

The Dormant Commerce Clause was put to the test in 2019 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Assn. v. Thomas that states could not require a person to have lived in the state for two years in order to get a license to open a retail liquor license in the state (a requirement that many states have for cannabis business licenses). The Supreme Court referred to the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution as the reason why the requirement was unlawful – because it would create trade barriers between states. In addition, the residency requirement for a retail liquor license also violated the Dormant Commerce Clause.

Today, there is a lot of buzz about leveraging the Dormant Commerce Clause as a path to interstate commerce before federal legalization happens. Whichever path forward opens first, cannabis cultivators need to be ready with a brand reputation built on a foundation of consistency.

4. Rising National Brands

National cannabis brands are coming. It’s that simple. For any cannabis business with dreams to develop a national brand, it all starts with consistency. In fact, consistency is one of the key factors of building a national cannabis brand according to branding experts. As Madeline Scanlon of Brightfield Group explains, “Cannabis has reached unprecedented levels of adoption and acceptance, and is now officially a consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. And as with any CPG company, good marketing and branding is crucial to success.”

While larger cannabis operators will soon invest a lot of time and money into building national brands, which will require crop consistency to meet consumer expectations, that doesn’t mean smaller cultivators won’t have opportunities to seize market share through branding as well. They do, and those opportunities could be very big.

For example, the increase in mergers and acquisitions in the cannabis industry shows just how valuable a cannabis brand, its processes, its people, and its intellectual property can be. Cultivators who establish a strong brand position could capture the attention of investors, larger multi-state operators, or even larger single-state operators looking to expand further within that state or across borders.

In other words, craft cultivators and cultivators who reliably grow consistent crops can carve out significant opportunities in the coming years – either to expand with capital raises or to expand as part of another company through a strategic merger.

Key Takeaways about the Importance of Consistency for Cultivators to Gain a Competitive Advantage

In an industry that is constantly changing and filled with challenges, it’s important to recognize and seize opportunities as early as possible. There are big benefits that come with first-mover advantage, but you won’t be able to gain any advantages if you’re not producing consistent crops on a consistent basis.

Keep in mind, so much related to consistency depends on your grow media. The experts at bio365 can help you find the best grow media to get the consistent, high quality results you need to build your brand reputation and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Contact us and let’s talk.

Stay tuned to the bio365 blog for our upcoming series of articles dedicated to the importance of consistency for cannabis cultivators. We’ll cover why consistency matters to your company internally, to your place in the industry, to your bottom-line, and more. Subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss anything.