Company
Pyxus International
Work
New Consumer Brand Launch
Background
Pyxus International is a $2 billion dollar, publicly-traded, global agricultural company with expertise in growing crops at scale. Over its 150 year history, revenues strictly came from crops sold in bulk wholesale to a handful of large corporate customers. With Canada becoming the first industrialized country to legalize cannabis nationwide, Pyxus invested in a vertically-integrated cannabis cultivation based out of Prince Edward Island called Canada's Island Garden. With all of its experience in the wholesale channel, I was employee #2 in a specialized division created to develop CPG processes, team / capabilities, and go-to-market strategies to launch a consumer facing cannabis brand. We were tasked with building the department from scratch.
The brand officially launched when the country began recreational sales in October 2018. We created a strong following behind the brand, and as a result, within 3 months became the number 2 brand with a 13.3% share of the market in the provinces it was distributed in.
FIGR GO TO MARKET PLAN
Pyxus closed on the acquisition in January of 2018, and we had less than 4 months to soft launch a new brand at the largest cannabis trade expo in May. The cultivation was 20,000 square feet, with plans to expand up to 700,000 square feet.
As a relatively small operation compared to larger-scale competitors with national brand recognition from sales in the medical market, we faced an uphill challenge to build a brand with ambitions for national distribution, but much more limited resources and distribution than our competitors. Our go-to-market strategy followed three pillars with an end goal of one-to-one communications with our target consumer.
ATTRACT
Maximize mass awareness of Figr as the leading local cannabis brand for the Maritimes and drive them to website so we can follow-up with more one-to-one commsChannels/Tactics:
ENGAGE
Tell deeper story of FIGR and deliver more personalized commsChannels/Tactics:
CONVERT
Stand out in-store and educate people (including staff) about our productsChannels/Tactics:
FIGR BRAND
The current brand, Canada's Island Garden, needed a revamp to compete against our deep pocket competitors. We created a new name, FIGR, with a brand identity and a system of graphics and packaging that stood out on shelf compared to the competition. Similar to a small craft beer brand, we built a Maritime local brand that owned our agricultural heritage and track and trace systems that we've honed in over 150 years.
Product
With the legalization of cannabis, a whole new product category was created that our consumer had to navigate. In addition to helping consumer navigate several different product characteristics like quality, dispersal method, and strain, we were also limited in what we could do with packaging due to strict guidelines set by the government.
But we also wanted our packaging to reflect our brand positioning of being a trusted, reliable, and verifiable cannabis hand-crafted cannabis producer. The concept behind our strain naming was "By the Numbers".
Our marketing would use numbers, created to represent the flavor, and effect of each strain. Additional storytelling would give the reason why each strain was appointed that number using rich photoillustrations stylized to communicate strain qualities, flavors, and scents.
INSTORE VIDEO AND MERCHANDISING
We developed visual merchandising to display the product in the store that would reinforce the handmade qualities of the brand.
SALES KITS AND TRADE SHOWS
We soft launched the brand at the Lift Co. Cannabis Expo on May 25-27, 2018 in Toronto. We wanted to both intrique retailers and drive affinity among consumers. We created an experiential booth where people could listen to the music that was currently being played in the grow rooms. We also created accompanying sales kits.
EXPERIENTIAL ACTIVATIONS
Leading up to launch, we designed an experiential activation called the "Grow Room" at the Cavendish Beach Music Festival.
We celebrated 10.17.18, "Legalization Day" with a series of events in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia position FIGR as the local cannabis brand.
PR AND EARNED MEDIA
We organized a media tour and invited local, regional, and national outlets to the PEI facility for a tour and opportunity to meet with and hear from FIGR’s east coast leaders, including Edwin Jewell and Alex Smith. Media had an opportunity to capture footage, experience the brand and host interviews on-site.
SNAPCHAT
Being in a very competitive space with limited advertising channels at our disposal, Snapchat was one of the only social platforms allowing cannabis ads. We also knew that participatory storytelling drives brand awareness. This was our chance to gain that top of mind space with Atlantic Canada cannabis consumers - at the ground level when this category was just taking off.
WEBSITE
