* This story was originally published in the October 2017 issue of Marijuana Venture, on sale now online or at a store near you.
The Marketing Executive
Wendy Bronfein
Director of Marketing and Product Development | Curio Wellness | Baltimore, Maryland
Following one delay after another, Maryland’s first wave of state-legal marijuana growers have finally been licensed.
The state’s much-maligned process to launch its medical cannabis industry began with the governor’s signature in 2013, but roadblocks at every turn forced prospective licensees into a years-long game of wait-and-see. In the interim, there was only so much Wendy Bronfein could do in her capacity as marketing director for Curio Wellness, one of the first eight applicants to be approved for a cultivation license on Aug. 14.
“I tell people that last year I got my job,” she says, “and this year I can actually do my job.”
Bronfein brings a wealth of television production and marketing experience to the cannabis industry. She handled on-air marketing for some of the most well-known entertainment brands in the world, including BBC America, Comedy Central, MTV, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros., winning awards for her work for John Oliver and “Live with Kelly & Michael.”
Bronfein’s goal had been to eventually run the network, prompting her to go back to school to get her MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. But shortly after her graduation in 2014, during a family getaway in Colorado, the concept of starting a cannabis business began to materialize.
She pitched the idea to her father, Michael Bronfein, a highly successful entrepreneur in the health care space, and now Curio’s CEO. Without any way of knowing how much Maryland’s application process would be delayed, they began researching opportunities in the space, looking for a reason to either back off or go full-speed ahead.
“There was nothing that was saying no,” Wendy Bronfein says. “Everything just kept spurring it along.”
Now, more than three years later, Curio Wellness is on track to launch its first product line in November.
The company has the exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute Dixie Brands products in Maryland. Along with flower, these will be the company’s first products on the market, with vape pens and tinctures coming at a later date. Curio’s high-end production facility features nine hygienic cultivation chambers, high-tech water filtration units and a chiller system with independent air handlers in every room.
In addition to the marketing efforts, Bronfein is also responsible for product development, working directly with the company’s Scientific Advisory Board.
“I’m an aspirational consumer by nature, so I think I definitely lean toward creating an aspirational brand,” she says. “I think it’s well-matched here, because you want to feel like you’ve got a good product and you’re choosing something that’s making your life better.”
While she’s not likely to produce a television commercial for Curio Wellness in the near future, many of the skills she honed in television will cross over perfectly to cannabis — albeit with a much higher level of regulation.
“It’s frustrating to be constrained,” she says, “but I think it’s a nice challenge.”
At the same time, being limited to the Maryland market mitigates the burden of launching a national brand. It’s easier to work directly with the dispensaries, to meet people face to face and spread the Curio brand through word of mouth, Bronfein says.
And in marketing, whether it’s an entertainment brand or a consumable product, one of the most important elements is being able to engage the audience.
Bronfein has spent years laying the groundwork, researching the market and overseeing the brand development.
Now all she has to do is deliver.
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