Understanding Cannabis Culture: Implications for Brands and Investors

As a business journalist, I spend most of my time looking at spreadsheets, earnings reports, and Federal Reserve statements. So, when I started asking around about the existence of a “cannabis culture,” I expected a straightforward answer. What I found instead was a fierce, foundational debate that cuts to the heart of what this industry actually is. For operators, marketers, and investors, the answer isn’t philosophical. It determines whether a brand earns durable trust or simply rents attention for a single fiscal quarter.

After speaking with five experts who have collectively spent over a century inside this space, a clear pattern emerged. Rob McPherson, with 25 years in major CPG companies like Procter & Gamble, offered the bluntest market correction. “There is no one ‘cannabis culture.’” he told me. He sees the category behaving like any other consumer packaged goods sector, segmented by distinct motivations and beliefs. The danger, he notes, is when a brand mistakes one segment – often the one that includes its founders – for the entire market. This is a classic strategic misstep, akin to a car company designing only for luxury performance drivers while ignoring the family sedan buyer. It’s a failure of basic market segmentation, and in cannabis, it’s happening in plain sight.

But if the market is segmented, what ties it together? Brendon Robinson, Chairman of the New Jersey Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, argues it’s a shift from counterculture to community. “Today cannabis culture is a community built around a shared belief in the value of the plant.” he explained. This isn’t just sentiment. From a business perspective, this redefines the product. Successful companies, in his view, aren’t merely moving units; they are building ecosystems. The trust generated by consistent community engagement, advocacy, and education becomes a tangible asset on the balance sheet, one that can outperform competing on price or THC percentage alone. A 2023 study by Brightfield Group supports this, noting that “community-driven branding” is a primary purchase driver for 44% of core consumers in established markets.

This idea of community is rooted in a complex and often painful history. Luna Stower, a Certified Ganjier with over 20 years from legacy cultivation to corporate boardrooms, emphasized this with palpable intensity. “This industry emerged from prohibition and pain.” she said. For her, cultural fluency isn’t about marketing aesthetics; it’s critical market intelligence. Companies that lack it misread consumers, misuse language, and develop products based on boardroom assumptions rather than lived experience. She frames a crucial due diligence question for investors: does the leadership truly understand the history they are now commercializing? Are the people who carried the risk and knowledge prior to legalization compensated and in leadership roles, or are they merely featured in marketing photos? As the U.S. Department of Commerce data shows, industries that fail to integrate legacy knowledge often face consumer skepticism and higher market entry costs.

Few understand the tangible value of that lived experience like Jim Belushi. On his 93-acre Oregon farm, he chases what he calls “the magic” – a quality of trust and craft that he believes the consumer is desperately seeking. “The consumer walking in now is a little scared.” Belushi observed. “What they really want is to trust the experience.” That trust is the culture, and that’s what people pay for. He argues the industry is hyper-focused on a single, easily marketed metric – THC percentage – while the real value drivers are the terpene profile, the story, and the craft. This aligns with emerging research from firms like Headset, whose analytics consistently show that brands with a clear craft or legacy narrative command significant price premiums and repeat purchase rates over generic, high-THC options.

Ultimately, these perspectives converge on a single, human principle. Lulu Tsui, co-founder of New York’s Revelry platform, has built a decade-long business on it. “Healthy industries are built on healthy ecosystems.” she stated. Her view, forged in the trenches of New York’s complex legalization rollout, is that enduring companies will be those that invest in trust and community as diligently as they invest in capital equipment. “Community creates culture. Culture creates opportunity.” she said. It’s an unglamorous, compound-interest model of brand building that stands in stark contrast to the splashy, venture-funded marketing blitzes that have characterized so much of the sector’s early years.

The business takeaway is both simple and profound. For investors and executives, cultural fluency must be moved from the brand deck to the due diligence checklist. It is a measurable form of category expertise. It reveals itself in a company’s:

• Hiring practices
• Supply chain partnerships
• Lobbying efforts
• Authenticity of its product lineage
• Consumer engagement strategies
• Product development processes

When leadership lacks this fluency, the weakness eventually surfaces – in a tone-deaf marketing campaign, a poorly received product, or an inability to retain consumer loyalty after a promotional spend ends.

The data is beginning to tell this story. According to a comprehensive 2024 market analysis by MJBizDaily, the cannabis brands showing the most resilience in crowded, competitive markets are overwhelmingly those with authentic roots, clear community ties, and a narrative that extends beyond mere intoxication. They are not always the best-funded, but they are often the most trusted. In the end, cannabis may be a plant, but it is sold as a story. And in business, as in any good story, authenticity is the only currency that never depreciates.