Looking for a way to stay profitable during economic uncertainty?
Check out these five reasons why affordable premium pre-roll joints might be the answer.
5 Reasons Pre-Roll Joints Are the Answer to a Tough Economic Climate
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10th, following a cash crunch, sent shockwaves through the tech world and widespread speculation on the reason for the failures.
The short version is there was a failure of assets versus liabilities. SVB’s clients, mainly tech companies, headed for the doors to meet liquidity concerns all at once, and the bank couldn’t issue the capital fast enough to maintain operations. Signature Bank, boasting a heavy cryptocurrency sector clients list, faced similar liquidity issues that forced regulators to shutter its doors.
With inflation and consumer credit card debt still running hot, consumers are feeling the heat as well. But despite high inflation, pre-roll joint sales (including hybrid and infused) saw the highest growth of any product category in 2022. In this blog, we will discuss how pre-roll joint automation with the Blackbird commercial cannabis joint rolling machine can help create a premium product at an affordable price point, increasing brand loyalty during tough economic times.
Puff, Puff, Pass the Savings: How Pre-Rolls Help Companies in a Recession
You don’t have to be a world-renowned economist to know consumer behavior changes when the economy dives. Consumers tend to prioritize affordability, convenience, and stretching the value of each dollar spent. Cue the entrance music for pre-roll joints.
With pre-roll joints seeing some of the most growth of any product category over the last several years, cannabis companies can stand out during leaner consumer spending by creating brand loyalty with affordable premium products when the price of everything else is parabolic.
Reason 1
Affordability
As consumers grapple with sky-high pricing on everything from rent to a caffeine fix, cannabis companies can stand out with an affordable premium joint experience that helps you forget about the price of a used car for two minutes.
We’ve discussed the current state of the pre-roll in-depth, but the short version is that many common pre-roll problems like clogging, uneven burning, and harsh-tasting smoke are due to the process for creating them – volume-fed commercial pre-roll machines.
The Blackbird reduces the average pre-roll joint production cost from $.12 to $.03 per joint. Not only does it provide significant production savings per joint, but the nice thing is that you are upgrading the entire smoking experience with a top-shelf, hand-roll quality product that increases profitability without raising prices. Think of it as creating an “affordable premium” product.
One company that has successfully created “affordable premium” products is The Ordinary. which offers high-quality, clinical skincare products at radically accessible prices. Their products are formulated with effective ingredients and packaged simply to cut costs, making it possible for consumers to achieve premium skincare results without breaking the bank
Reason 2
Variety is the Spice of Life: Make Your Pre-Rolls Stand Out
Even though the economy isn’t officially a recession, consumers don’t need an official prompt to already start behaving like there is one. Consumers may look to new options and flavors during a recession as a cost-saving measure if they feel their go-to brands no longer provide the value they should.
Don’t go overboard with choices or risk Netflix-on-Friday-night-level decision paralysis. Providing a meaningful lineup of limited option joints helps make purchase selection easier, budtender education more straightforward, and eliminates post-purchase regret.
The pre-world has evolved from its 1-gram solo doob days to the emergence of half-gram joints, two-packs, five-packs, and ten-packs, Headset shows. Brands looking to establish themselves as a “brand of the people” during tough economic times should consider the number of pre-rolls in a pack and the story you craft around it. The Blackbird rolling machine is the only machine on the market that allows manufacturers to select their own paper, further opening a world of product variety opportunities and unique value differentiation.
Reason 3
Improve the Smoking Experience
Apple is one of the best examples of a company that created an excellent, premium product experience during a downturn that continued with success long after the Great Recession ended. On June 29th, 2007, Apple released the iPhone and completely changed the world of phones forever.
One of the downsides to many pre-rolls is that the best aspects of top-shelf strains can’t adequately show through, and the experience suffers as a result. Just because a joint is hand-rolled means it’s better than many pre-rolls. Try rolling joints with shaky hands.
A well-rolled hand joint burns evenly and smoothly, allowing the smoker to enjoy the flavors and effects of their pre-roll. You can take a page from Steve Jobs’ notebook by releasing a joint people rave about.
An industrial joint rolling machine, like the Blackbird, can help produce a perfectly rolled joint that burns consistently and smoothly, providing the same experience as a well-rolled hand joint. The Blackbird radially compacts the flower to create even-density premium pre-rolls.
Obviously, joints aren’t iPhones, but you can’t ignore the increase in Apple’s bottom line – from $37.4 billion in 2008 to $65.2 billion in 2010. Releasing those higher-quality products allowed Apple to capture market share, establish brand loyalty, and cement itself as a tech giant.
Reason 4
Establish an Emotional Connection
Customers with an emotional connection to a brand have a customer lifetime value over three times higher than the average customer, according to Hubspot. If you can focus on creating positive and memorable customer experiences, especially during lower budgets (and higher stress), consumers are more likely to have a more emotional connection to your brand and can capture the hearts and wallets of budget-conscious customers in the long run. The kind that keeps them coming back long after the economic dust has settled.
Reason 5
Turn Down the Financial Risk
No one has a crystal ball to see when inflation might recede, but one way to turn down the dial on uneasiness over the unknown is by reducing risk. In this case, financial risk. Investing in tools like the Blackbird commercial joint rolling machine can help cannabis companies mitigate financial risk in three ways:
The Blackbird Rolling Machine offers the benefit of scalability baked into your pre-roll joint automation. This allows companies to increase their production capacity without sacrificing quality or consistency
The Blackbird ensures that each joint meets hand-roll quality consistently at scale, which helps avoid losing recurring customers due to inconsistent quality from joint to joint. When consumers are more mindful of spending, a high-quality and consistent product can help you retain customers and maintain sales with recurring customers.
With a higher quality pre-roll at a lower cost per unit, pre-roll brands and cannabis companies can lower their production costs and increase profit margins, which is crucial when budgets are tight.
Reducing financial risk is vital to survival in a volatile economy, and what’s more financially risky than wasting valuable time and resources on manual or subpar pre-roll production? Invest in a Blackbird joint rolling machine and turn down the risk from 11.
Why Pre-Roll Joints are Tough Enough for Tough Economic Times
Pre-rolls are a match made in heaven for establishing yourself as a consumer favorite during sluggish economic conditions. From affordability to variety to reducing your financial risk, using the Blackbird commercial pre-roll machine to create a product that sets you apart while also providing an affordable product can position you to snag long-term market share after the dust has settled on bank failures.
