TREC Brands Flower Curation Strategy
Why and how we “search for, secure and launch” high-quality flower under our house of brands
Source:Chris Roussakis/AFP/Getty Images
If you were to tell me prior to October 17, 2018 that part of my career would be to spend time connecting with amazing cannabis growers across Canada and discussing how we can help bring their beautiful flower to market, I would think you’re crazy.
Fast forward almost two and a half years later (although my role as a Product Manager has evolved tremendously from start); we have learned that finding quality cannabis and nurturing those relationships with amazing Canadian cannabis growers is essential to our business here at TREC Brands.
It starts with making connections. The Product Team at TREC Brands has various ways in which we keep a close pulse on the dried flower market, in terms of who’s growing what and where. Canadian Licensed Producers of cannabis in Canada have progressed an incredible amount since legalization. Unique and rare genetics are finally starting to make its way into legal cannabis; a feat once left to the legacy market growers that this industry pays its homage too. Why would a licensed grower want to partner with TREC Brands? Well, the industry is quickly becoming much more demanding. With that, customers (and provincial boards such as the Ontario Cannabis Store) are now requiring certain standards to be upheld for their cannabis suppliers. It’s simply not enough anymore to launch a cannabis product in Canada and ‘hope’ for its success; products (especially dried flower) need real marketing, branding and sales firepower behind them or else they won’t live long. If they don’t sell, the government will return the product and de-list your SKU’s, a big no-no for any registered cannabis supplier or brand. The market is now fiercely competitive, and products absolutely need brand power behind them to move off the shelves and into consumers hands.
This is where the TREC Brands team comes in and does what we do best. It all starts with the product, and we will focus on dried flower here, as this category is the clear winner from a market share and revenue perspective. Our product team has various factors when we are considering a certain grower’s flower to put under one (or more) of our brands. Potency, bag appeal, cultivar uniqueness, terpene strength/profile, where it was grown, how it was grown/harvested; all play a factor into this decision. Once we have narrowed down a few strains from one or various growers we would like to further evaluate, we then bring a sample into one of our co-packing partners (who is also a Licensed Producer and therefore are able to accept a cannabis product on our behalf aka the brand). This is where our Product Team is able to smell, touch, and see first-hand, a representative sample of flower from the batch we are considering purchasing in order to put our brand on it. As you can imagine, having an in-depth understanding of your customer is critical here.
Our main flower brands here at TREC, WINK and Thumbs Up Brand, offer two very different brand promises to its customers. We put ourselves in our consumers shoes:
What are they looking for when they purchase cannabis?
Is it all about highest potency for the cheapest buck?
Or are they looking for a little more sophistication when smoking their cannabis?
Is “how the bud looks” top priority?
Or maybe is it all about the farmer behind the cannabis and the origins story there?
We know our consumers best, constantly scrubbing sales data of what’s working and what’s not. A delicate balance between art and science; the product team curates cannabis based on both data-diving as well as (semi-experienced) gut instinct.
Jonathan “JT” Trivisonno - TREC Brands Product Manager
Our product team has pretty much seen it all; cannabis from large outdoor farms located in the interior British Colombia, all the way to small batch grown flower on the outskirts of the Canadian east coast. No matter where it is grown, every farmer has a different story to tell. We are very fortunate to be able to work with some of the best cannabis growers in the country, paving the way for future cannabis generations.
The above questions ultimately help shape our decisions as to what flower we would procure, and which brand it will go under. There are obviously many other factors that come into play here (current market dynamics, budget guidelines, longer terms strategic plays); but understanding who your consumer is and what they value is key. At the end of the day, in my humble opinion, quality product will always win. But as I have mentioned before, quality means different things to different people. One thing to remember though, is that