The Backstory
The Mobius Trimmer M108 was a new, high-tech, automated cannabis trimming machine that was set to launch into the Canadian market in 2018. The product had been designed for large-scale Canadian cultivators, with a capacity not seen before in the cannabis industry. Additionally, the Mobius had been built with a variety of patented technology that made it easier to use, safer to use, and much faster to clean when compared against competitors. There was significant competition that was well-established in the marketplace, but none that had created an automated trimmer specifically to suit the needs of the massive scale of the Canadian cultivators, providing a positioning opportunity for Mobius. While the direct relationship between Mobius and Hybrid is still new, our Director of Strategy Johnathan McFarlane worked for two years at Mobius and developed the brand from scratch. He even gave the keynote at their legendary launch event in Vancouver, Canada. When Johnathan transitioned from in-house Director of Marketing at Mobius to Director of Strategy at Hybrid, Mobius opted to follow him and partner with Hybrid.
THE CHALLENGE
Mobius faced a variety of challenges, most of them related to their launch into an industry that was skeptical of and slow to adopt new technology. We knew the Mobius was a superior product to the competitors’ in every measurable cannabis trimming KPI, however, the competition was entrenched, and had well-established brands. Thankfully, large-scale cultivators were having trouble with the competitors’ equipment as they scaled and were keen to explore other options. The Mobius was a much higher-capacity cannabis trimmer than anything else available, but that wasn’t going to be enough…
The Strategy
Design + Content + SEO + Traditional + Digital
We believed establishing the Mobius brand as the thought leader in the space and the only choice for large-scale cannabis facilities would be best done with an inbound methodology. That meant that valuable, informative content was at the core of nearly everything we did.
Launch with a bang and drive immediate awareness of the Mobius Trimmer M108 in the marketplace.
Exploit the competition’s pain points and inferior technology.
Position the Mobius as the professional option that was designed specifically for the legalized market.
Win a well-known cultivator as an early adopter, turn them into an evangelist, and leverage their name as a trust-signal to other cultivators.
THE NUTS AND BOLTS:
MESSAGING
Focus on the industry’s pain points that were becoming more problematic as Canadian cultivators grew from start-ups to large multi-facility, multi-national organizations. Differentiate the Mobius from the competition by contrasting the pain points of the competitors machines with the innovative solutions to those exact problems on the Mobius.HARVEST REPORT
Harvest Report is a thoroughly researched and beautifully designed 30+ page white paper that explored industry trends and provided executive-level insights related to cannabis harvesting. It has been released twice-yearly since it’s inception.
BLOGS
Weekly, well-written, and thoroughly researched blogs that were informative and valuable.
MOBIUS ACADEMY
The Mobius Academy is the regularly-updated Mobius knowledge base created as the resource for detailed instructional videos, SOP documents, and photo guides.
SOCIAL & EMAIL MARKETING
These were used primarily as outlets for the valuable content that was being created on an on-going basis.
PERSONAS
Personas were developed to help us tailor our content. Instagram was primarily a channel for the end-users of the machine, aka “Grower Gus.” Website and blog content was written to speak primarily to the middle and upper management of cannabis cultivation facilities, aka “New Leader Lukas.” Using more business and financial terminology, the email marketing, Harvest Report, GMP Guide, and various case studies were tailored towards the decision-makers and executives, aka “Executive Earl.”
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Mobius customer service needed to be impeccable, with zero room for error. With such a small potential customer pool, a reputation for good customer interaction would spread quickly through the industry (so would poor customer interactions!)
LEAD SCORING
To make the marketing and sales efforts more efficient, we implemented a lead scoring system so that we could focus attention on leads most likely to convert and provide business intelligence to tailor sales messaging to each lead.
ONE-TO-ONE MARKETING
Because at the launch of the Mobius there were only approximately 60 potential customers (licensed Canadian LPs), plans to connect with and attract each customer were put in place and executed.
EVENTS
Mobius attended Lift Vancouver and Lift Toronto with a 10×20 booth space to further industry visibility and allow leads to see in-person the technology that they had been learning about across the website. For every event, a detailed plan of attack was created to target specific cultivators.
THE RESULTS
Dramatic results would be an understatement. The Mobius Trimmer M108 and Mobius brand launched on January 30, 2018 with a legendary event in downtown Vancouver. Executives from the world’s largest and most notable cannabis companies were in attendance, and the reception was overwhelming. Virtually all of the companies in attendance went on to become early adopters of the Mobius Trimmer, most notably Aurora Cannabis. We were then able to leverage Aurora’s implementation of the Mobius in all of their facilities across Canada as a trust signal to the rest of the Canadian market.
Within the first year of sales, Mobius Trimmer had gone from 0% market share to over 27%. That share continues to grow as new LPs turn to Mobius as their business scales. The current customer list is a who’s who of the world’s top cannabis companies, including 7 Acres, Tilray, Aphria, Pure Sun Farms, Green Relief and High Park.
Thanks to the steady stream of high-value content, traffic to the Mobius website has grown nearly month-over-month since the website was launched. The Harvest Report white paper and Ultimate Cannabis GMP Guide generate 5-10 new leads per week.
Cookie tracking is implemented on each one of these leads. In addition to the lead scoring system, this greatly assists the limited sales staff to focus their efforts on leads most likely to become customers.
Email marketing campaigns average 30-55% open rates with Click Through Rate averaging above 20%.
As a company, Mobius continues to grow. They add 1-4 employees per month and are constantly optimizing and expanding their production capacity (all manufacturing is done in-house). Despite this, they have the best problem a company can have: Mobius Trimmer M108s are sold before they are even built. With a growing catalogue of products well beyond the M108, the company has recently started early, targeted sales in the US.
To continue Johnathan’s marketing momentum and success that established Mobius as the most professional, respected, and high-tech brand in the cannabis harvesting sector, Mobius retained Hybrid Marketing Co when Johnathan became their Director of Strategy. As a team, we are thrilled to have the privilege to expand on Johnathan’s success and drive the next phase of Mobius’ growth.
