Anne-Marie Fischer
Data is everything in cannabis right now. With this “data race” going strong, the cannabis industry is benefitting from useful data as firms compete to release the most interesting data on the profit-driving consumer behaviors of cannabis users.
Now, we have new insights on the why around cannabis use and overall cannabis attitudes, thanks to a new cannabis-related data set that the analysts call a “giant sandbox of data to play in.”
Consumer Research Around Cannabis has partnered with Radium Research LLC to provide the cannabis industry with insights they have never seen before through the use of predictive analysis, an approach to data that allows analysts to make predictions about future behaviors, attitudes, and consumer patterns.
Whereas the cannabis industry thus far has relied on attitude surveys, Point of Sale data and state reports to understand the who, what, where, when, and how of cannabis consumption, these new research partners are offering the why… and you may be surprised by what they found.
Using data from over 110,000 local market surveys that spanned the Greater Toronto Area and 85 U.S. markets, the analysts mined the 15 key factors that drive people to say that they support legal cannabis. Key indicators included voting behavior, whether they drink alcohol, whether they use tobacco and even looked at whether they attend religious services on a regular basis.
In their analysis of the data, what stuck out most is that the choice to support the legalization of cannabis is an issue of morality, and largely coincides with a person’s likelihood to attend regular religious services. For instance, in the case of Illinois, the analysts found that those who attended regular religious services were 83% opposed to cannabis legalization, while those who did not attend religious services were 89% in favor.
Jeffrey Stein, VP of Consumer Research Around Cannabis explained to Green Market Report that asking several hundred behavioral questions on medical and recreational cannabis use can offer predictive analysts a window to understanding the “key ingredients” that lead someone to support legal cannabis.
Dr. Paul Crowe, President of Radium Research, who created his company to apply his experience in predictive analysis in product innovation and segmentation, reminded us that a lot of the data going around in the cannabis space right now is like looking through a “rear view mirror”, whereas the approach of predictive analytics allows us to look ahead, and innovate.
“Innovation is the lifeblood of any company,” says Stein, “If you don’t innovate you’ll sink because someone will always innovate better than you. Once the “big guys” of the cannabis industry jump in [to the data game] you’ll need to know the future.”
This partnership between Consumer Research Around Cannabis and Radium Research offers the cannabis industry, policymakers and companies from other industries an opportunity to truly get into the heads of potential, current, and future consumers in order to predict what makes them tick.
An example of how this data can be used by cannabis companies is comparing purchasing data, for instance, individuals who use a vaporizer to consume cannabis, and their attitudes towards cannabis, and the reasons they use it. Companies in their marketing approaches can now understand certain drivers for consumers and market their products based on these indicated attitudes.
This team has partnered with NORML of Illinois & Chicago to offer their data, and the approach of predictive analysis, as a tool to help this group “know exactly where they need to go to change attitudes.”
