Angela Pih is aware of find out how to market to customers as a result of she’s perceptive and delicate to her viewers’s distinctive wants. Coming from an promoting and vogue background, Pih understands that branding is all about understanding the buyer. She now works as the top of promoting for StateHouse Holdings, which can sound just like the identify of some type of hedge fund however is definitely one in every of California’s main hashish corporations and residential to such manufacturers as Dime Bag, Kingpen, and Urbn Leaf. Excessive Instances sat down with Pih to speak about how she helped construct a few of The Golden State’s most recognizable manufacturers.
So when you simply need to speak about how you bought into this area and the way you bought to the place you’re as we speak.
My present trajectory got here from 20 years of being within the international promoting company world, predominantly engaged on Fortune 500 tech manufacturers. Manufacturers have at all times been part of my profession by way of what evokes me. I’m unsure if you’re conversant in a girl by the identify of Christina Wong of Fruit + Flower. She is a hashish culinary author and influencer. She and I have been having breakfast someday earlier than she was in hashish, and she or he goes “There’s a job at Papa & Barkley and so they’re in search of a CMO. Why don’t you go get that job and rent me as a result of I actually need to get into the hashish business?” And I bear in mind saying to her, “What’s it about this firm that you simply actually love and that you simply suppose that I ought to take a look at?” And he or she goes “Nicely, it’s one of many actually well-respected corporations. It’s education-first. And it creates and develops actually great merchandise which have helped individuals.” And in order that was my hook. I reached out instantly and actually fell in love with the model story of serving to those that you’re keen on essentially the most with unbelievable merchandise. Six weeks later, I used to be employed after which 4 weeks after that I employed Christina.
Being within the business with a Chinese language background and being a girl, do you’re feeling accepted? Or do you’re feeling just like the business nonetheless has much more work to do with regards to treating individuals who simply aren’t white males as equals in business?
I’ve been fairly fortunate that I’ve not skilled any stage of discrimination from being a girl or being Asian. I do discover that BIPOC [are] not as effectively represented inside the hashish business. A seat at a desk to be a call maker, to be a pacesetter inside the business, shouldn’t [be] tied to what you appear like and what the colour of your pores and skin and your origin [is]. It needs to be tied into what you contribute to that dialog.
One of many issues we’re beginning to really feel right here in Colorado is the growth busting with hashish. Which might be scary, however I additionally realize it’s inevitable as extra locations legalize and there’s not essentially the identical sort of marketplace for vacationers. So what recommendation are you giving manufacturers at present that you simply’re working with with regards to this unprecedented time in hashish?
You’ll want to perceive who your core prospects are. Proceed to just remember to’re caring for them. And actually have the ability to search for affinities with underserved customers who chances are you’ll not have had conversations with or invited into sure occasions. Be capable of converse to their wants so that you’ve a wider, addressable market. [Cannabis is] very a lot a boots-on-the-ground sort of enterprise. [It requires] conversations, schooling, understanding shopper habits.
I do know one other huge factor that you simply advocate for is sustainability. So how do you’re employed that in once you’re working with a model and ensuring that they’re profitable, but additionally sustainable?
Right here at StateHouse, since we’re absolutely vertical on our farms, we’ve converted lots of our energy utilization, working instantly with PG&E by way of utilizing much less electrical energy in our cultivation practices. packaging, which frequently is wasteful, how can we scale back that? And we’re taking a look at methods of with the ability to be sure that we’re acutely aware by way of how we’re making all of our merchandise.
Do you have got something that you simply need to particularly be certain we spotlight or speak about?
We’ve just lately opened our West Hollywood Urbn Leaf dispensary proper on the Sundown Strip. So somebody was asking me, “Why are you so enthusiastic about having a hashish retailer on the Sundown Strip?” It’s [a] prime location. First technology hashish retailers have been in industrial areas and zoned in locations [that are] hidden someplace [and] type of troublesome to seek out and look a bit shady regardless that it’s a authorized, correctly licensed facility. Being proper on the Sundown Strip, we’ve actually come a good distance. [The store has an] open shelf buying expertise, so you’ll be able to simply decide up a little bit basket and drop your merchandise in and really store as when you have been in a grocery retailer. I like the expertise of self-select the place you get steerage with a budtender and have one-on-one conversations, however extra importantly, you’ll be able to truly decide up a product, take a look at the label and never really feel that you simply’re being rushed.