Every cannabis brand wants to grow. But growth isn’t just about entering new states. It’s about showing up the right way in each one. Without a strong brand identity and a tailored go-to-market plan, scaling can create more chaos than customers.
Over the years, I’ve helped cannabis brands expand, and I’ve seen the same mistake play out repeatedly: companies treat growth as a logistics challenge – focusing on licenses, distribution, and operations. But the true challenge is strategic.
Every new market brings new complexity. Consumers behave differently. Regulations shift. Retail dynamics vary. Without a clear blueprint from the start, things can fall apart fast. That’s why I use a core set of principles to help brands scale without losing what made them successful in the first place.
Define the Brand
The first step is clarity. If a brand can’t articulate what makes it different, or why a consumer should choose it over the competition, there’s no foundation to scale from.
At Sun Theory, one of the first things I did was launch a “reasons to buy” exercise. We surveyed the team anonymously, asking everyone to list the brand’s top three selling points. We surfaced assumptions, aligned on what actually mattered to the consumer, and built a core identity that the entire company could rally behind.
Understand the Market
Once you know who you are, you need to understand where you’re going. Every market is unique – in its regulations, consumer maturity, price sensitivity, and preferences.
I always start with a full market assessment: how recently cannabis was introduced, how categories are trending differently, how fragmented the competitive set is, and how the retail environment operates.
The structure of the retail landscape, in particular, plays a big role. In some markets, a concentrated group of operators controls the majority of shelf space. While that can pose a challenge, it also creates an opportunity: when you build strong relationships with a handful of key players, you can drive meaningful results quickly and efficiently. Depth wins over breadth in these situations, and the right partnership can accelerate awareness, trial, and long-term velocity.
For example, Missouri was a strategic choice for Sun Theory. It’s an emerging market with healthy pricing, a relatively small competitive set, and white space for premium products like rosin gummies.
Adjust Your Offerings
A smart portfolio strategy aligns with both consumer demand and local regulation. Some markets skew value. Others support premium.
In Arizona, a price-sensitive state, we’d lean on lower-funnel tactics to drive trial. In more mature markets, we can focus on storytelling and positioning. Pricing, pack size, cannabinoid content – all of it needs to reflect local dynamics.
Define What Success Looks Like
Before launching, I always ask: What does success mean here? Market share? Margin? Brand awareness? That clarity informs everything else, from sales structure to pricing to how we measure impact.
Some markets require deep focus on a few high-volume doors. Others demand broader distribution from day one. Either way, your KPIs should shape your go-to-market plan, not the other way around.
Build a Killer Team
Your field structure should match the market. In states dominated by a few chains, you may need fewer traditional reps and more strategic account managers who can go deep with key partners. In more fragmented markets, a broader team with strong store-level coverage is essential.
But before you can build the right structure, you need to embed yourself in the market. Every cannabis scene is its own ecosystem – tight-knit, often incestuous, and hard to crack from the outside. You’ve got to dig into LinkedIn and Reddit, get out and walk the doors, start conversations, and most importantly, really listen. The best hires aren’t always posting resumes, they’re already moving weight and influencing the floor.
Engage in the scene and you’ll be rewarded. The right talent can supercharge your brand’s presence and pull at retail. Your structure shouldn’t just reflect what worked last time, it should be built around how things actually get done here.
Match Your Marketing to the Market
Marketing must evolve with market maturity. In new states, education is critical – especially for premium formats like rosin. In more saturated markets, it’s about differentiation and conversion.
Execution is just as important as strategy. We equip our teams with playbooks, training decks, and merchandising guidelines tailored to each market. Even the platforms budtenders use vary, so we adapt our materials to match.
Stay Adaptable
Even the best plans need to flex. Pricing shifts. Competition ramps up. Consumer preferences evolve. What worked at launch might need to pivot six months later.
We stay close to the data, to our retail partners, and to the consumer. Sometimes that means expanding a product line (like we did in Colorado with minor cannabinoids). Other times, it means narrowing focus. Either way, we act early.
Scaling a cannabis brand isn’t about adding zip codes – it’s about consistency, adaptability, and clarity. The brands that get this right don’t just grow. They build loyalty. They earn repeat customers. And they last.
