The CBD Industry Requires a Shaping Strategy

The CBD Industry Requires a Shaping Strategy By: Jon Orozco, MSc., SHRM-SCP. I already laid out the foundational knowledge of strategy. If you missed it, review it before continuing. That also means you have the essentials in place: a properly structured company, established branding, a style guide, formulations made or acquired, basic packaging, a reliable supplier, and a marketing budget big enough to drive brand awareness in your target audience. Without these you will be severely hindered. In this piece we focus on a Shaping Strategy in CBD and how it will define the industry for the next forty-eight months. A shaping strategy assumes there is not much to the industry yet. That is true for CBD. CBD derives from THC, but the target audience and price points are entirely different. And CBD is not the life of the party. We just want to get to the party with minimal pain. Zoom out for a moment. If your Strategic Intent is to bring quality products to the elderly community, your plan might look like this. Hold seminars titled “What is CBD? And how can it help me?” Bring product samples to retirement homes and centers in your market. Be intentional about staying focused on these activities for the agreed-upon timeline. A shaping industry throws a lot of distractions at you. First things first. Build an appropriate Adaptive Strategy with 30 to 60 day goals and objectives. Allocate enough resources to compete. New competitors and products will keep arriving and disappearing. Some will tell you to watch your rivals closely. I suggest a cursory glance. Your rivals will likely change in the next 90 days.