Interview: Petalfast’s Jason Vegotsky and Ryan Goldstein On Branding In Cannabis
March 2, 2021Irvine, California-based cannabis company and brand accelerator Petalfast recently launched its latest brand, a premium flower line called Smarty Plants that’s distinguished by its funky art and the mind-bending factoids on its packaging. SND associate editor Danny Sullivan caught up with Petalfast CEO Jason Vegotsky and CMO Ryan Goldstein to discuss developing a strong brand identity in cannabis and Petalfast’s model for managing a stable of brands.
SND: How did you develop Petalfast’s brand accelerator model?
Vegotsky: Petalfast is a route to market solution that’s highly differentiated in the cannabis space, but it’s not far off from the drinks industry. As we progress from where we are today toward ending prohibition and into some sort of legalized framework nationwide, I expect it will develop much as it did with wine and spirits. That was really why we wanted to build something from our backgrounds that wine and spirits executives could understand. There just hasn’t been anybody to take this model and apply it to cannabis. And we’ve had really great traction and we’ve been able to put together a portfolio of brands that resembles a little bit of what a supplier in spirits would do. Being able to sell as a portfolio has a number of advantages.
SND: It also helps with some of the supply problems that California has been dealing with, right?
Goldstein: Most suppliers are so concerned with having product that becoming a brand is an afterthought. Finding a distribution solution is an afterthought, finding ambassador networks or influencer strategies or digital amplification strategies, all of that is an afterthought. The following problem is distribution. Once you hit around a hundred stores, maybe even less, it becomes really prohibitive to distribute yourself. Petalfast’s strategy addresses that because the portfolio approach allows us to build relationships across the retail tier. That’s helping us in California now and it’s ultimately going to help us take brands from state to state in the future.
Vegotsky: There are so many things that make any endeavor like this a massive unknown, and the way we’re building brands and taking them to market, I believe will make a wine and spirits person say, I get it.
SND: How do you approach cannabis branding in general, and where did the brand identity for Smarty Plants come from?
Goldstein: To my mind, effectively there are only two types of marijuana brands, particularly in the state of California: it’s either a kind of hip-hoppy brand or it’s an upscale, farmer-first, Anthropologie-esque brand, and that’s fine when it’s authentic. But it’s all rather vague. We thought there is an underserved group who reside deeply in the cannabis community who are all in on their interest, whether that’s skateboarding or video games or movies or music or TV or Bourbon or anime—and we wanted to speak to that enthusiast and celebrate that, so Smarty Plants’ identity was driven more by psychology than demographics.
SND: What do you have in store for supporting Smarty Plants’ launch?
Vegotsky: We have a number of initiatives. Our label tells the story of the brand, a key component of which is the gramophone logo. We reclaimed vintage gramophones through eBay and antique shops, and we’ve turned them into retail displays—the tin metalwork is gorgeous. We’re doing all sorts of retail activations. We’ll be doing drawing lessons and sponsoring events like a backgammon tournament. Another big thing that we’ll be unveiling is a syndicate of California-based cannabis leaders, comedians, musicians, writers, and artists, which we can’t reveal just yet.
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