Comfy Tree Marketing Campaign
By: Laura Marie Carroll 12/17/2013
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Comfy Tree Executive Report Problem: Marijuana use for medicinal and recreational purposes has yet to be legalized in the state of Georgia, making the marketing of Comfy Tree more difficult than in other states. We must create a marketing strategy that utilizes supportive outlets to get the word out about Comfy Tree, without legal implications.
Target Market:
The target market for this campaign includes varying segments of the marijuana friendly population. We have divided our target into three different identities: 1. Marijuana Promotion Organizations 2. College Students/Organizations 3. Marijuana Friendly News Outlets Each of these distinguished target markets exhibits beneficial traits to the Comfy Tree marketing initiative, the first and foremost being our main partnership with the organization, Georgia CARE. This organization, along with others similar to it, is fully supportive and actively demonstrates for the legalization and decriminalization in the state of Georgia. These groups are filled with people from all across the state, as well as across the country, with people who are passionate about medicinal marijuana usage, dedicating their lives to the lobbying for legislation and marketing marijuana to the public. Our second target market, college students, are important to our cause because simply, they can gain the most ground and traction with the least amount of effort. It is clear based on our research, that there is enough interest in the marijuana legalization movement within the state of Georgia, that students at the University of Georgia (Athens) have created a student-‐run organization branching off of the Georgia CARE organization. These college students are constantly connected to social media and technology, and have an overwhelming accepting opinion of marijuana
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legalization. This target market segmentation will be very beneficial in spreading the word about Comfy Tree and its affiliates. Thirdly, we have our news outlets. These news outlets have been selected for their openness to marijuana legalization press and would be the most likely to reach the highest volume of consumers. These outlets have picked up on press releases relating to the Georgia CARE organization without casting any negative shadow on the movement; therefore we believe these outlets to be of the best benefit to Comfy Tree.
Implementation & Strategy: GeorgiaCARE:
As stated before, our biggest promoter and relationship will be with the two organizations, Georgia CARE and its collegiate counterpart at the University of Georgia (Athens). Our first move would be to contact James Bell, the main contact for Georgia CARE, and discuss what kind of support we could gain from him and his organization. Based on the research done on the organization, it seems that this will not be a problem, and the organization would be more than happy to do a mutual promotion partnership, where we promote their cause through our company and they promote ours as well. The organization has social media presence and has had their press releases picked up by professional news outlets, so partnering with this company could give us access to a very large audience for no monetary cost.
The Collegiate Sphere: Our second step is to move into the collegiate sphere, by opening communication with the University of Georgia (Athens) chapter of CARE and asking for their support in our marketing efforts. Again, we can bolster this relationship by a mutual promotion strategy. Next, Comfy Tree would start a “campus brand ambassador” program. Where we recruit members of organizations similar to CARE, or simply students passionate about the legalization of marijuana in the state of Georgia, to initiate lead marketing efforts on the University of Georgia (Athens) campus, and eventually spread to all other U of G branches, along with other college campuses within the state. These brand ambassadors would place flyers, host brand related events, head campus specific social
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media postings, all in the effort of gaining brand awareness in the collegiate environment. Events could include, but are not limited to, speakers, networking events, demonstrations, informational sessions, all centered around Comfy Tree and the overarching initiative to legalize cannabis in the state. Speakers could come from both Comfy Tree, or its supporting organization, Georgia CARE, helping to boost the movement’s momentum and simultaneously that of Comfy Tree. After taking hold of the collegiate sphere, these brand ambassadors would reach out to the other listed organizations in hopes of gaining their support and promotion. Many of the organizations are not solely limited to the state of Georgia, and therefore would have social media audiences across the country. Our main goal in this campaign is awareness and development of brand loyalty and support. Through joining forces with organizations fighting similar battles, we can create a strong network of cannabis supporters and in turn, market our brand. The emphasis of this campaign is not to push Comfy Tree, but to unite all of the marijuana legalization organizations in the name of Comfy Tree. By being the company that creates this network of unification, it will in turn establish brand identity, loyalty, and eventually customers.
News Networks: Finally, the news networks—as with any network, they look for what will bring them the highest volume of viewers, readers, etc. As we have already established that the listed news networks have published marijuana legalization material in the past, it should be no problem to attract these outlets to the Comfy Tree cause. Once the collegiate network begins buzzing with the Comfy Tree brand ambassadors and their hosted events, we can reach out to these organizations with press releases promoting our brand and narrating the story of the Comfy Tree initiative and how it has united cannabis supporters across the state. Our events will tug at the heartstrings of the news networks, as we have patients who would benefit from medicinal marijuana, tell their heartbreaking stories of pain and anguish. They would highlight their attempts to utilize synthetic drugs, but showcase how detrimental those drugs were to their condition and that with medicinal marijuana, they could finally live a normal life.
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This campaign is all about framing the issue, but inserting Comfy Tree into the mix. In order to promote a brand, the brand must have an identity and a presence. Through this campaign, Comfy Tree will not only create a presence within the state of Georgia, but will build a following of loyal promoters and customers who believe in the cause that Comfy Tree is fighting the battle for. People rally behind a cause, and news networks promote those who rally. It’s a simple, yet effective, strategy to build brand identity and awareness within a niche market, taking Comfy Tree from just another domain on the World Wide Web, to a name in the hearts and minds of cannabis legalization efforts within the great state of Georgia.
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Comfy Tree Contact List
Weed Pricing Site in the State of Georgia http://www.priceofweed.com/contact
GACare
http://www.gacareproject.com/ Largest movement in GA currently to legalize marijuana usage.
GACare Main Contact: James Bell https://www.facebook.com/jamesbell30122
GACare Supporters: Stevie McConathy https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000578424666
Paige Sams https://www.facebook.com/PaigeBuddeSams
Ron Williams https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000106184063
Donna Gombardella https://www.facebook.com/donna.gambardella.1
Founder of Collegiate Chapter of GACARE at University of Georgia –Athens Joshua Wayne
jfwayne@uga.edu
News Outlets: All News 106.7 @allnews1067
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Patch Media Corporation http://gwinnett.patch.com/groups/james-‐bells-‐blog/p/treat-‐weed-‐like-‐ wine-‐by-‐james-‐bell_4dbf9622
The Daily Chronic http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/25057/georgias-‐plan-‐to-‐legalize-‐ medical-‐marijuana/
Fox Atlanta www.myfoxatlanta.com @Fox5Atlanta
Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) @MyAJCTweets
Other Organizations: NORML www.norml.org
Cannabis Career Institute www.cannabiscareerinstitute.com (800)-‐753-‐2240
HighTimes http://www.hightimes.com/
Weed Maps https://weedmaps.com/
Stealth Products http://stealth-‐products.com/
Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org/
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FAMM http://famm.org/
LEAP Law Enforcement Against Prohibition http://www.leap.cc/
WeedBiz http://www.weedbiz.us/
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Related Twitter Accounts:
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(Text List) @MedicalMMJMan @AtlantaGA_News @Strainwise @MedischeWiet @JENESISMAGAZINE @Celebstoner @accessatlanta @Cannablissradio @420Revolution @mindnovelty @cl_atlanta
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