Multistate cannabis operator Cresco Labs has launched a new value brand, High Supply, with the goal of offering quality products to consumers who want to spend less on cannabis and more on life experiences.

“We’re always looking for areas where the industry and our company can better serve consumer needs,” Cory Rothschild, Cresco Labs’ SVP of Brand Marketing, told Cannabis Dispensary. “From our standpoint, High Supply is just that. It’s a new brand in our growing portfolio … focused on the savviest consumers in the cannabis category. It’s offering quality product at affordable prices, and we know, particularly right now, it’s what consumers need the most. Hopefully by saving on cannabis, they can put that money toward other priorities in their life.”

Photos courtesy of Cresco Labs

The product portfolio includes vape pens, popcorn, shake and pre-rolls sold in bulk, single-serve packages. The products are produced from Cresco Labs-grown cannabis and are available at a lower price point than many of the company’s other offerings.

The High Supply brand initially launched in Illinois in January and expanded to California earlier this month. Cresco Labs plans to expand the product line to every state in which it operates over time.

“We’re hoping that, just like the rest of our portfolio, this becomes one of the first national brands in cannabis,” Rothschild said.

In launching its High Supply product line, Cresco Labs identified an opportunity in the market to provide better-priced products, Rothschild said. As more cannabis brands invest more in packaging, celebrity endorsements and marketing, it becomes more difficult for consumers to identify a no-frills brand that offers quality cannabis at a good price.

And since the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, value has become even more critical to consumers, Rothschild added.

“We definitely see the need for that brand in general, and I think what’s been obviously apparent in the recent weeks is that we need that brand really soon,” he said. “We’ve accelerated our launch in California to make sure that we’re delivering that need to consumers as quickly as we can. We’re really excited to offer High Supply … so that everyone can continue to buy larger bulk product that can be consumed at home and at a fair price when everyone is budget-conscious.”

So far, the brand seems to be delivering on its promise.

“From a retail/wholesale partner standpoint, it seems to meet the needs that they’ve been asking for,” Rothschild said. “It brings them the right product to their shelf that offers the choice that consumers have been desiring.”

The brand has already attracted 125,000 followers on Instagram, which shows Rothschild that it has quickly resonated with consumers.

A Brand is Born

Cresco Labs has set out to build a portfolio of brands that meet a wide range consumer needs, Rothschild said, from medical to adult-use, from high price points to low price points and from existing consumers to those using cannabis for the first time. When launching the High Supply brand, the first step was identifying the new target market: those looking for added value.

Next, the Cresco team entered the product development phase, where they sought to create products that

met the company’s high quality standards, as well as the standards of its customers. As with all of its product lines, Cresco Labs developed and manufactured products for the High Supply brand with the approach of a consumer packaged goods company.

“[Now], we’re in the process of actually producing and scaling that production so we can meet the full market demand,” Rothschild said.

From a marketing standpoint, Cresco Labs worked to not only develop the name and identity of the brand, but also brought it to life across its social media and other digital channels, as well as in stores with displays and merchandising strategies.

The company is currently exploring new advertising platforms for the High Supply Brand, with new campaigns slated to launch as the brand increases distribution across the country.

“From a short-term standpoint, our hope is to build distribution and awareness,” Rothchild said. “For us, High Supply represents everything that you need and nothing that you don’t, so you have money left to spend on essentials like groceries or hopefully, in the future, more of the fun in life that we all look to have on a day-to-day basis.”

Longer-term, Cresco wants High Supply to be the brand that discerning consumers and even budtenders go to when they want a product to meet their needs at the right price point.

“We’re just really excited to be able to bring this to market, especially at this moment in time when we know that consumers need it the most,” Rothschild said. “As much as we are excited to be building such a loyal following on our social channels and everywhere else, I think we’re most thankful that we can offer the right solution at a time when everyone needs more bulk purchases and also needs it at a more affordable price."

After several years of success with its wide range of products, Willie Nelson’s cannabis brand, Willie’s Reserve, has taken on its first medical cannabis market with an expansion into Maryland.

Since introducing its first products in 2016, Willie’s Reserve has expanded into six states and has also launched Willie’s Remedy, a line of hemp-based products.

The Willie’s Reserve team was attracted to Maryland largely because of what VP of Brands Elizabeth Hogan calls a “sensible medical rule.”

“The voters in Maryland approved something that makes a lot of sense, and the way that it’s come to market has been that they’ve set out to do it one way and that’s what’s been able to be accomplished,” Hogan tells Cannabis Business Times. “We love what we’ve been able to see from the Maryland market.”

Willie’s Reserve has partnered with Baltimore-based Culta, a state-licensed, vertically integrated cannabis operator, to bring its products to Maryland’s medical cannabis patients.

“Maryland is our first medical market, and it’s been interesting to see how the brand is received there,” Hogan says. “We’re delighted by the opportunity to get to work in more of [a] patient[-based] environment.”

While serving patients may be new for the Willie’s Reserve team, the brand has leaned in to Culta’s experience in the market and has approached customer engagement in Maryland from a new perspective.

“One of the things we were cognizant of in the beginning is that we wanted to engage in our conversation with customers a little differently,” Hogan says. “While we can certainly take a celebratory, freedom-loving approach in our adult-use markets and that really hits the right tone, in a medical market, we shifted the conversation a little bit.”

Willie’s Reserve led with ratio products in Maryland that contain varying amounts of THC and CBD, which Hogan says helped the brand resonate with the market’s patient base.

“Our thinking there was that it would be a good way to engage the consumer or shopper in a conversation about how cannabis works in the body,” she says. “That proved to be a great way to do that and a great introductory point for the brand in Maryland.”

The ratio products have been so popular that Willie’s Reserve now plans to roll them out in other markets, as well.

The Willie’s Reserve team also uses conversations about terpene content to help patients find the right products, Hogan adds.

Last year, the brand partnered with fellow musical artists Margo Price and Nathaniel Rateliff to further its message by offering not only Nelson’s story, but new stories from different walks of life that consumers and patients might be able to identify with.

Photos courtesy of Willie's Reserve

Margo Price’s All American Made collection launched in California in early 2019 and has expanded to Maryland in the form of a new concentrate cartridge.

“That collaboration was born from hanging out backstage,” Hogan says. “She and Willie make music together and smoke pot together. From the beginning, she just expressed a ton of interest in what we were doing in the cannabis business. It got her wheels turning [and] it was a really natural extension of that conversation to do this project together.”

Last summer, Willie’s Reserve launched its Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats collection in Colorado under the Nightstache brand, which has also expanded to Maryland.

“They are very involved and outspoken in a number of different causes, and something they got interested in as Coloradans was the impact that the changing landscape of marijuana was having on the local economy and on their experience out on the road,” Hogan says. “They could see different laws and that different groups of people with different access were responding differently to the potential of cannabis, so they really wanted to get behind it as well.”

Willie's Reserve partnered with Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats last summer to launch the Nightstache collection in Colorado, and has since expanded the product line to patients in Maryland.

Culta provides the consistency that Willie’s Reserve needed in a partner in order to launch these brands in Maryland, Hogan adds, and the dispensary does a good job of helping patients to find the products that are right for them.

“I think that shoppers … are really looking for multiple layers of information about the products that they’re going to use,” she says. “What I’ve seen is that providing some science, some first-person account, and some culture and context really goes a long way for helping people navigate. When it comes to normalization, confident shoppers are so important.”

As in any emerging market, supply and demand in Maryland has taken some time to find a balance, but Willie’s Reserve has observed how other brands and dispensaries in the state have navigated market trends, and the team is optimistic about the future.

“I think Maryland is going to be a really important and strong cannabis market,” Hogan says. “We are growing our product line across the brand and always looking to add new products and new experiences.”

Part of these plans include new packaging. The brand’s five-pack tin has been a success among both consumers and design circles, Hogan says, and Willie’s Reserve is now in the process launching a new tin with new artwork to keep things fresh. The brand also plans to implement changes to its packaging lineup to reduce its environmental footprint.

“We’ve found a way that we can eliminate a couple pieces of our signature ready roll packaging for pre-roll joints, and that’s also coming out soon,” Hogan says.

Next week, the Willie’s Reserve team will host a live variety show featuring artists, comedians and chefs to celebrate 4/20 virtually in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the public health crisis has left many with a sense of uncertainty, Hogan says Willie’s Reserve continues to look ahead to additional expansion opportunities in new states.

“One thing we’ve learned over the last couple of years is that Willie’s Reserve has a role to play in a lot of … cannabis consumers’ lives, and we want to keep getting out there, spreading the word and keeping the show on the road in that regard."