Bohb Blair, chief brand officer at Mary Jones, joins Cheddar News to discuss Jones Soda entering the cannabis industry. 

Between Bells

Jones Soda Enters Cannabis Space

Welcome back to Between Bells, cult favorite software company jones soda is adding a new ingredient to its classic sodas, cannabis for more on the shoulder. Senior reporter Chloe Aiello has more clothes. Thanks so much on a the new mary jones brand will feature an array of products from 10 mg sodas to 1000 mg, served tinctures in four signature flavors. And joining me now is bob blair chief brand officer at mary jones bob. Thank you so much for joining us today on the back of this exciting announcement, let's talk about this brand. What are some of the products and flavors that consumers can expect from mary jones? Khloe, glad to be here. Um, mary jones's proudly featuring the best flavors and most popular flavors from jones to kick off with, we're taking fan favorites, berry, lemonade, cream soda, uh, root beer, green apple, orange and cream. And we're bringing these into our cannabis line and our fans are gonna be thrilled to see them there when and where can consumers actually get these products? We're launching in California in just a number of weeks and you can get them at legal dispensaries throughout the state. We'll be posting updates right on our website as far as exactly which stores are carrying us first so you can get right in there. Um, so we'll be in California soon and then launching out in other states, uh announcing soon. Hopefully and be able to see that information on our website. Very exciting for California consumers now you have sessional drinks like a 10 mg infused soda and then you have multi dose drink 16 ounces for 100 mg and even a 1000 mg tincture. So we see a lot of beverage companies these days releasing micro dose products. What was your strategy and coming out with very different concentrations of products in such a broad range? Well that's exactly it. We noticed that in the micro dose area there's a lot of activity and a lot of clutter to be honest and our our consumers looking for both the full flavor experience, but also we're thinking they're looking for a session experience that opens up a lot of occasions for cannabis. So our 10 mg is very specifically dosed to be a single dose product that you can bring in a four pack to a party, it's a session soda. It's something that really opens up those types of moments for you. But as you mentioned, a 10 dose, 100 mg is something that one consumer usually controls their dosage over time and then that 1000 mg syrup that you mentioned is really exciting as its versatility option. It really opens up any number of of ways to enjoy that, we might recommend a couple. But people are doing all sorts of things for mixing into cocktails, to mixing into sodas topping things. I just the other day put our root beer syrup tincture on vanilla ice cream, and I gotta tell you it was one of the greatest things like that in a long time. Oh wow, that does sound tasty. There are a lot of big names getting into cannabis beverages? We've got constellation brands obviously and some in the alcohol world like PBR Lagunitas, why did it make sense for jones soda to get into cannabis? Oh my goodness. Well, so far every, certain, every person we've talked to has been super excited to see us here and it's because of the things we're bringing, its a loved brand, but that's not enough. We have this equity in our flavors that people are super excited to see coming into cannabis. It's really what's needed right now is to take flavor from something that is simply maybe masking cannabis to something that's crave worthy and that we're excited about and delicious. Additionally, there's a lot of momentum in cannabis around beverages and manufacturing beverages and doing that in the kind of nimble, independent scrappy way that cannabis needs right now. And honestly that's what jones is great at. And so we're excited to bring our brand, bring our flavors and bring our operational, know how into the space. What a perfect segue into my next question because I was gonna mention, you know, as I said that there are quite a few big names getting into cannabis, a lot of excitement around this area, but historically it hasn't been an especially popular product category with consumers. Um so how do you plan to navigate a crowded market and why do you think that beverages, why are you so bullish on this category? Well, we're excited about it because it's where there's a lot of momentum, the legacy of the category and you know about half of the shopping right now is in leaf products and that is a space that were, you know, love, but we're complementing not going into ourselves. Uh it's because there's a lot of new consumers coming to the category and those consumers are looking for cannabis to fill different places in their lives, different occasions they want to bring it to in the formats that we're bringing really unlocked and you know, in addition to the beverage formats and the syrup that you mentioned, we have a gummy as well that these are the perfect vehicles for the flavor we bring and it just opens up occasions for the consumer to choose when and how they want to consume cannabis in these moments. Excellent gummies, that's a good one. Now, you're launching in California as you mentioned, but cannabis is a complex market. So what's, where else are you planning to launch and what will it take to navigate this complex web of regulations? You know, if we look at where jones the strongest were a national brand in the US, but we're also incredibly strong in Canada and we're really a good brand in the UK as well. So we have ambition of being a global cannabis brand. We think in short order you'll see us distributed in all legal recreational states in the US as well as Canada. We have ambition to be the biggest brand in cannabis and we really have plans to get there in pretty short order and we know the biden administration hasn't particularly prioritized cannabis reform and the clock is ticking for Congress to get things done. When are you anticipating? We could see some reform on the federal level here in the US and wasn't strategic on your part to get into this before that happens. 100%. We believe that eventually it will be federally legal. We also believe that might take a minute and there are certain companies that have to structure themselves to succeed in the current dynamics. And we're well positioned to do that. And that's exactly how we're entering the market is to succeed in the way it is now while setting ourselves up to succeed when it goes federally illegal. And last question here, you mentioned gummies, are there any sorts of other exciting progress products that you can tease for us? Well, I mean, the thing about cannabis is just just a wonderful exciting product and there's innovation happening all the time. Are gummies are coming in the shape of little soda bottles, um, that are just a wonderful thing to use and they're split in half when you put two back to back, they make a 10 mg serving versus a five. And so there's a lot of interesting ways to enjoy the category. We even have some candy formats that we're innovating with coming out in the summer that have a dispenser peace to them. And we have some different versions of product of packaging that allow people to dose in different fun ways from the syrup. And so we're always going to be looking at both product formats, ways that we can bring flavor to other parts of the category and then different packaging that opens up different use Educations. That sounds very whimsical. Obviously lots of leeway for innovation there, bob. Thank you so much for joining us today. That's bob blair mary jones, chief brand Officer.