A few weeks ago, we learned Ionic Brands Corp (OTC: ZRRRF) was implementing a new blockchain-based Internet of Things platform, Lucid Green, aimed at increasing trust and transparency for cannabis consumers and brands.
This week, Lucid Green launched a new product they call SSOT, or “The Single Source of the Truth for Cannabis products,†aimed at standardizing product information in the cannabis market.
With dozens of companies claiming to build transparency for cannabis companies, we wanted to find out what makes Lucid Green special, and different from its competitors. We decided to catch up with the company’s president Paul Botto.
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The Value Of Detailed Data
As Botto explained, Lucid Green turns normal packaging into a “fully interactive experience for the brand to reach retailers, budtenders, and consumers.†What’s interesting is the info displayed is not just generic: it goes down to the batch of actual cannabis the product came from.
“QR codes are rarely a rich, timely, and targeted experience as it is with Lucid Green,†Botto told Benzinga. “No other platform can combine budtender training, budtender incentives, consumer direct communication and product guidance, and loyalty all in one place. The analytics coming from this integrated offering is unprecedented.â€
With plans to operate “wherever cannabis is sold,†Lucid Green is focused on Colorado and California. Botto says rollouts in with Washington, Nevada, Illinois, Florida, Arizona and Massachusetts will come soon.
Beyond the U.S., Lucid Green is looking at Canada as a potential market to expand into.
“It is unfortunate that the U.S. has relinquished the opportunities that come with a global outlook, but it presents an advantage for us being so close and with so many companies operating on both sides of the border in one way or another,†Botto said.
Google It
Botto is applying the tools and strategies he learned from his years at Google.
“We follow a similar model to Adwords,†he said. “Lucid Green is based on a pay-for-performance model - you only pay when you get your desired result like budtenders training and driving brand engagement and consumers scanning and engaging directly with the brand right off of your products.â€
Brands can boost or lower their costs based on actual performance.
The company also borrows heavily from the supply chain industry, where both Larry Levy, Lucid Green’s co-founder and CEO, and Botto have experience. This can be seen in “how every individual package is uniquely tagged, allowing users to see exactly where it has been, where it is going, and how it has been used among many other benefits,†Botto said.
“Larry has a tremendous background in software, machine learning, and blockchain as well, which adds a focus on proven product development for new technology and an interest in building Lucid Green for how businesses will grow and adopt other new technologies.â€
A Long-Term Play
Botto says Lucid Green is a long-term play, aimed at providing the standard for trust and transparency, as well as guidance for cannabis companies and consumers.
"[H]aving consumers able to interact deeply with the brand at the point of consumption, being able to train budtenders on a scalable and accountable platform, delivering a true brand loyalty component to further your consumer relationship and having all of this rolled into one system delivering data on how one drives the other - these things will never stop being an essential part of a modern cannabis brands market strategy," said Botto.
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