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“Know your customers, tell people who you are and walk the talk.” These are the three simple rules for success in the cannabis industry (or any industry, really), according to Tony Magee, founder of Lagunitas Brewing Company, which is based in Petaluma, California. With a mix of down-to-earth whimsy and sharp business acumen, Magee’s every-man nature and love of cannabis is matched only by his passion for branding products and creating a truly unique customer experience.

Magee will share his 25 years of experience in the highly-regulated craft brewing industry when he delivers the keynote speech at the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Seed to Sale Show in Denver, Colorado on Feb. 7. The show, which will focus on innovation within the cannabis industry, is so important to Magee that he has made arrangements to take a helicopter from the cruise ship he and his wife are vacationing on, in order to make it to the event he describes with great earnest as, “The most enormous honor imaginable. No matter what it costs, I wouldn’t miss talking to these guys for anything.”

For us, I don’t think we’re in the beer business as much as we’re in the tribe building business, and our brand rides with that tribe. For marijuana producers, distributors, sellers, whatever . . . creating a brand will matter. They are going to have to find ways to make it personal.”

The rapidly expanding legal cannabis industry has more in common with the early days of the craft brewing industry than many realize, and Magee insists that they are complementary products that pair well together, despite the hesitation among some in the cannabis world to associate with alcohol.

Always a standout in the craft brew industry, Magee also successfully branded Lagunitas in the cannabis world by creating brews like the Kronik, Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale (now that’s a story!), and culminated with the creation of SuperCritical Ale, a cannabis terpene-infused craft beer that was released in limited quantities in August of 2017 in partnership with AbsoluteXtracts.

The similarities between the early craft brew industry and the newly legal cannabis industry are hard to ignore. Both operate under heavy regulation, an ever-changing business landscape, and both industries are largely misunderstood by outsiders. Magee stresses how fast he believes the legal cannabis industry is going to change, based on his knowledge of the early days of the craft brewing industry, and he also knows that early success has nothing to do with long-term success. “You have to pursue early success so that you can survive, but you also have to be thinking about the future,” Magee told CULTURE B2B. The trend of today is just that, a trend, so businesses have to buckle down and get ready for the long haul if they expect to be anything other than a flash in the pan, as many once successful craft breweries became due to being careless about maintaining the relationship they hold with their customers. Talking the talk does not equate to walking the walk. “People have to get to know you, and those relationships have to be personal.”

Magee continued to explain how branding is of utmost importance to the overall statement and the success of a business; it’s what customers will remember long after they have used a product. “Ultimately, if you have a brand, the brand is different from the product. The product has to be beautiful and has to serve a need, but the brand is about personal relationships,” Magee said. “For us, I don’t think we’re in the beer business as much as we’re in the tribe building business, and our brand rides with that tribe. For marijuana producers, distributors, sellers, whatever . . . creating a brand will matter. They are going to have to find ways to make it personal. Just having a cute label isn’t enough, just having a clever name or a strong variety or a flavorful variety isn’t enough.”

Magee further explained that cannabis companies need to create a lifestyle that overall encompasses a brand. “The brand is a three-dimensional thing that acts and lives in the world with the people that partake of it,” Magee said. “That will be a big challenge, because the black market marijuana industry would never allow for space to create a brand because you were trying to keep your head down, not put your head up. It’s a big change for people born of the black market.”

On the subject of changes, Magee gives warning of the inevitability of huge corporations like Unilever and Nestle entering into the cannabis marketplace with the monstrous benefit of already having a household brand established, saying, “It’s what they do.”

As for a possible future for Lagunitas in the cannabis industry, Magee chuckles and says, “No, we’re a beer business. We’ll be good customers to the cannabis industry, but that will be it.”

 

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