H+K Releases New Cannabis Consumer Preference Study

Canadian attitudes and behaviours assessed over the last six months, heading towards the availability of edibles, infused beverages and topical products.

TORONTO, Dec. 17, 2019 /CNW/ - Hill+Knowlton Strategies (H+K), one of Canada's leading public relations and public affairs firms, has released findings from their national survey of adult Canadians about behaviours and attitudes related to cannabis in Canada. This comes as a follow up to an earlier study from May 2019 to see how the consumer climate has changed in this early stage of legalization, and what the landscape looks like heading into Cannabis 2.0.

The survey took place in the first week of December, shortly in advance of when newly approved product formulations were expected to hit retail shelves. The study looked at four separate market segments from non-consumers to regular consumers. It provided detailed findings on how Canadian adults source, consume, and view their current cannabis products and looked at how these may have evolved in the last six months. New for this research is in-depth statistics on how Canadians view alternative cannabis consumption options and derivatives, including edibles, cannabis-infused beverages and topical products. Notable findings include:

• Medical and wellness reasons dominate consumption. 9 in 10 consumers now cite "medical and/or wellness" as driving all or part of their cannabis use.
• Greatest opportunity to attract new consumers is with non-intoxicating products. 41% of who those who rarely consume cannabis indicate they're either very or somewhat likely to try non-intoxicating cannabis in the next year (almost twice the likelihood of trying intoxicating products).
• The illegal market remains a strong source of cannabis purchases. Over one third (34%) of consumers use this channel – a number that remains unchanged since May 2019.
• For all but regular consumers, understanding what they like and where to get it remains a mystery. At most, 4 in 10 of these consumers have this knowledge.
• Aversion exists around CPG and cannabis infused products. Almost 4 in 10 (37%) non-consumers say they would walk away from a favourite food and beverage brand if that brand started producing cannabis infused products.

"Our data shows that the greatest opportunity to attract cannabis curious consumers into the market is through non-intoxicating cannabis products geared towards consumers in the health and wellness space," said author of the research Elliott Gauthier, H+K's Senior Vice President of Data + Analytics. "Consumers who haven't already tried intoxicating products are unlikely to do so at this point."

Navigating the landscape as the industry continues to evolve presents both an exciting and potentially challenging opportunity ahead. Since 2013, H+K's integrated team of experienced marketing, policy, communications and research professionals have been helping dozens of Canadian companies successfully navigate the increasingly complex regulatory, social, and political environment in which they seek to operate and build their brands.

"This report suggests that more needs to be done to help licensed retailers and brands effectively compete with the illicit market on price and convenience," said Omar Khan, H+K's National Cannabis Lead. "A large proportion of regular consumers still frequent the illicit market. In order to survive and thrive, licensed brands will need to convince this cohort of consumers to migrate to the legal market."

For more information on H+K's national survey of adult Canadians behaviours and attitudes related to cannabis in Canada or if you'd like to connect with a member of H+K's team please see contact information below.

About Hill+Knowlton Strategies Canada
Hill+Knowlton Strategies Canada (H+K) is a public relations and public affairs consultancy providing services to local, multinational and global clients from its eight offices across the country.

The firm works with clients to solve complex communications challenges and deliver award winning campaigns and is focused on continued innovation for the industry. H+K offers deep sector knowledge and breadth of public relations and public affairs expertise including specialists in health + wellness, technology, government + public sector, energy + industrials, consumer packaged goods, financial + professional services, food + drink, retail + leisure and sports.

Globally, Hill+Knowlton Strategies Inc., has offices in more than 40 countries as well as an extensive associate network; and it is a member of WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY), one of the world's largest communications services groups.

About the Study:

Research experts at H+K authored this research (design through reporting). The sample was provided by Leger Opinion (LEO) online panel, however, H+K fielded the survey on their feedback platform, Perspectives+. In total, n=1,000 Canadians were surveyed over the period of December 2^nd to the 6^th, 2019. Sampling was done within age, gender and region quotas. The survey was fielded in English and French. Length of survey was 5 minutes. Data were weighted on age, gender and region according to 2016 census figures. An associated margin of error for a randomly selected sample of this size would be ±3.1%, 19 times out of 20.

News provided by: Hill+Knowlton Strategies
hkstrategies.ca

SOURCE Hill+Knowlton Strategies

For Media Enquiries: Jillena Oberparleiter, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, [email protected], 416.413.4577