Canopy is launching Vert, a new premium flower brand geared towards giving the Quebec market a locally-made brand consumers will be loyal to.

A Sativa and an Indica strain will be coming out of the brand’s Mirabel facility to a region that values products grown locally, according to Canopy Growth’s VP of global flower, Kelly Olsen.

Vert is being positioned as a premium brand, complementing Twd, Canopy’s value-focused brand that Olsen says is performing well. Vert is also being made available in dried flower and pre-roll formats. While other formats like edibles, beverages and concentrates have been heavily predicted to lead growth, according to Olsen, flower continues to be an important part of Canopy’s offerings.

“We are continuing to refine and strengthen our overall brand and product portfolio,” she says.

When the cannabis brand looked specifically at the Quebec market and the Quebec consumer, Olsen – who became familiar with differences in consumers there during her time with Holt Renfrew – says Canopy Growth wanted to create a regionally exclusive brand that focuses on locally grown products.

“The Quebec consumer is so different from the rest of Canada,” Olsen says. There are regional nuances everywhere, but she says a French-forward, unique-to-Quebec brand with products grown in the Mirabel region is something that’s going to have resonance with that consumer.

According to Olsen, Canopy Growh anticipates a lot of growth in the Quebec market, and two years post-legalization 50% of consumers from the illicit market, have transferred into The Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC), the crown corp that handles all cannabis sales in the province.

As such, Canopy is working very closely with SQDC to bring its “budtenders” up to speed about Vert, and it has also created an exclusive education video to supplement the launch. Marketing for Vert being done in-house.

Loyalty has been a great challenge in a category that has had to try and create differentiation in a regulated environment, but Olsen says that now, there’s more choice and consumers are becoming more educated.

“We at Canopy are focusing on that brand differentiation and we are seeing brand affinity beginning to emerge,” she says, and that comes from it having a unique point-of-view.

When it comes to the cannabis in-store experience, Olsen says it’s highly important – in addition to providing the education that helps with differentiation, it’s one of the few avenues people can get a look and feel of brands given the regulatory landscape.

Olsen says Vert’s premium positioning also looks to help with product loyalty. She likens it to the fashion business: there’s a quality standard in the luxury segment, and brands that meet that standard also deliver on loyalty.