Key Points in This Article:
- DFMC partnered with the City of Boston’s Cannabis Equity Program, an initiative supporting entrepreneurs disproportionately affected by the War on Drugs, to provide marketing and branding technical assistance.
- Our engagement included long term branding and marketing strategy, one on one consulting, performance analysis, brand development, and digital strategy support for four cannabis businesses.
- We also participated in a “speed marketing” event, offering condensed, high impact consulting sessions to additional cannabis entrepreneurs in the program.
- This work reinforced how much foundational marketing guidance matters for first time cannabis entrepreneurs navigating both a new business and a highly regulated industry at the same time.
- The experience deepened our understanding of the practical, on the ground marketing challenges cannabis equity applicants face, knowledge that now shapes how we support cannabis clients in other markets.
A Program Built on Equity
In November 2019, the City of Boston passed an ordinance establishing the Boston Cannabis Equity Program, a City initiative created to help ensure that people disproportionately affected by the War on Drugs could participate in, and benefit from, the legal cannabis industry taking shape around them. The program certifies qualifying applicants as Boston Cannabis Equity Businesses, prioritizing people with past cannabis related convictions, residents of areas disproportionately impacted by prior drug enforcement, and individuals from Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Indigenous, and Asian communities, among other qualifying criteria.
Certified businesses gain access to a range of benefits, including priority licensing and personalized technical assistance from contracted providers specializing in areas like accounting, legal services, architecture, and strategic marketing. That last category is where DFMC came in.
Our Role: Marketing and Branding Technical Assistance
DFMC was engaged to provide strategy consulting and marketing guidance to businesses participating in the program’s technical assistance track. Over the course of this engagement, we worked directly with four cannabis businesses, providing:
- Long term branding and marketing strategy development
- One on one consulting sessions tailored to each business’s specific stage and needs
- Performance analysis reports to help business owners understand what was and was not working in their existing marketing efforts
- Brand development support, from foundational identity work to refining brands already in progress
- Digital strategy guidance, helping business owners think through their online presence and digital marketing approach
You can see an example of this kind of engagement in our long-term marketing strategy and digital performance analysis work with a cannabis delivery company.
Each business came to the table with a different starting point. Some were still refining their brand identity before opening their doors. Others had an established presence but needed a clearer, more strategic marketing plan to support their next stage of growth. That variation meant every engagement looked a little different, which is exactly what good technical assistance should do: meet business owners where they actually are, not where a generic program template assumes they’ll be.
Speed Marketing: Consulting at Scale
In addition to the one on one work, DFMC participated in a “speed marketing” event hosted through the program, a condensed format connecting cannabis entrepreneurs with marketing consultants for focused, high value sessions. This format gave us the opportunity to offer guidance to a wider group of business owners beyond the four businesses we worked with directly, extending the reach of our support to entrepreneurs who may have had just one specific marketing question standing between them and their next step forward.
Events like this reflect something important about technical assistance programs generally: not every business needs a months long engagement. Sometimes the most valuable thing a marketing consultant can offer is a focused hour of clear, practical guidance at exactly the right moment.
What This Work Reinforced for Us
Working directly within a technical assistance program gave us a close look at the specific challenges cannabis entrepreneurs face that don’t always show up in broader industry conversations. Many of the business owners we worked with were building a brand and a business for the first time, while also navigating licensing requirements, compliance considerations, and an industry still actively defining its own norms. Marketing guidance in that context isn’t just about brand strategy. It’s about giving business owners the confidence and clarity to make decisions in an environment that can otherwise feel overwhelming.
This experience continues to shape how we approach cannabis marketing work more broadly. The foundational questions we worked through with these four businesses, how to build a brand that reflects who you are, how to market clearly and compliantly, how to think strategically about growth from day one, are the same questions cannabis entrepreneurs in any market are asking, whether they’re part of a formal equity program or building a business independently.
A Partner With Real Experience Supporting Cannabis Entrepreneurs
At D. Foster Marketing, our work with the Boston Cannabis Equity Program reflects the kind of hands on, relationship driven approach we bring to every cannabis client, whether that’s a business just beginning to define its brand or one ready to scale its marketing strategy. We understand what it takes to build a cannabis brand from the ground up, because we’ve done it alongside business owners navigating that exact process.
Ready to work with a marketing partner who understands what it takes to build a cannabis brand from the ground up? Contact D. Foster Marketing today for a free clarity call and let’s talk about where your business is right now, and where you want it to go.
Dawn Foster is an unapologetic branding and marketing nerd who is passionate about research, analytics, and great storytelling through words and images. She is focused on helping business owners build and evolve their businesses with the right branding and marketing strategies and tactics. She has helped transform business owners into powerhouses through research, strategic planning, content development, education, and empowerment so that they can achieve success and reach their goals. As a business owner, her goal is to see others win, support her community, and do what she loves.
