Building Cannabis Brand Loyalty: How Spherex Replaced Discounts With Community Events

From MJ Biz Con Week: A conversation with Katie Mattox on creating emotional connections, reducing promo budgets by 80%, and why free bowling beats consumption events

When your product category is "basically all the same," how do you build brand loyalty that survives economic downturns and fierce competition? Katie Mattox, VP of Marketing at Spherex, cracked the code—and it had nothing to do with deeper discounts or flashier packaging.

After six years with the Colorado-based distillate vape brand, Katie has witnessed the industry's evolution from COVID boom to economic uncertainty. Her unconventional solution? Stop training customers to shop on discount and start building genuine community through free, activity-based events that have nothing to do with consumption.

The results speak for themselves: record-breaking sales month after month for two years straight, while simultaneously reducing their promotional discount budget by 80%.

The Discount Trap: Breaking the Hockey Stick Effect

In 2021, as the world reopened post-COVID, Spherex faced a common cannabis industry problem. Sales would spike when their product was on promotion, then crater when the discount ended—all the customers would simply move to whichever distillate vape brand was on sale that week.

"We noticed the hockey stick effect—sales would go up when your brand was on discount and then they would drop when it wasn't. And all the sales would go to the next distillate vape brand. If people are trained to shop on discount, they will continue to shop on discount. And the only way to get sales is to keep discounting your product."

This created an unsustainable cycle where brands funded increasingly aggressive promotions through dispensaries, competing primarily on price rather than value. Building cannabis brand loyalty seemed impossible when the only differentiator was who offered the biggest discount that week.

Katie and her team realized they needed a fundamental shift in strategy. The question became: how do we create brand loyalty where budtenders recommend Spherex by name, and consumers specifically ask for it—even when competitors are on sale?

Understanding the Post-COVID Consumer Landscape

The breakthrough came from genuinely understanding what consumers were experiencing in 2021. Gas prices were rising, inflation was accelerating, and people's budgets were tightening—directly impacting their cannabis purchasing behavior.

But simultaneously, people were craving community and shared experiences after being isolated during COVID lockdowns. Concert tickets had become prohibitively expensive. Going out to eat was draining budgets. The desire for connection was high, but the ability to afford it was low.

Spherex made a bold decision: instead of spending their massive promotional budget on product discounts, they would invest it in creating free community experiences that people could actually afford to attend.

Building Cannabis Brand Loyalty Through Unexpected Generosity

The strategy was counterintuitive for the cannabis industry—host free events that weren't centered on consumption. No purchase necessary. No sales pitch. Just genuine experiences designed to create emotional connections with the brand.

"We started hosting free events for the community and they were not just cannabis events. We actually got away from consumption events because we found the consumption events are great for people who already smoke weed, but they're not very welcoming for people who don't."

The first event drew 40 people. Then 80. Their most recent event? Over 700 people.

Activity-Based Events: Bowling, Skating, and Race Cars

Spherex's events focused on activities anyone could enjoy: bowling, roller skating, race car driving. Attendees received free drink tickets and initially free food (though they've scaled back as events grew too large). The goal wasn't to push product—it was to create memorable experiences.

Cannabis consumption was available via a consumption bus outside (the legal method in Colorado), but it wasn't the focus. People could consume beforehand, during, or after—just like any other social activity. This approach actually expanded their market reach beyond existing cannabis consumers to curious newcomers who felt welcomed rather than pressured.

The exchange? Attendees signed up for the email list to receive high-quality branded merchandise. No timeshare presentation. No aggressive follow-up. Just a simple way to stay connected with a brand that had given them something valuable—a fun experience they didn't have to pay for.

Why Experiential Marketing Works for Cannabis Brand Loyalty

Traditional marketing channels are severely restricted for cannabis brands. No social media ads promoting products. No e-commerce advertising. Building cannabis brand loyalty requires creativity when the standard playbook is off-limits.

"If on average a consumer needs to see your brand at least seven or more times to even consider buying, the more we could get our brand, our logo, our name out in front of these people—which is very hard in cannabis because you can't do the social media ads."

Spherex's events solved this problem elegantly. Attendees didn't just see the brand seven times—they experienced it deeply once, creating lasting emotional connections. They wore branded merchandise afterward, extending brand visibility. They brought friends to subsequent events, organically growing the community.

Most importantly, budtenders—the crucial gatekeepers of dispensary sales—developed personal relationships with the Spherex team through these events. When customers asked for vape recommendations, budtenders had a choice: recommend an unfamiliar brand on discount, or recommend Spherex, "a whole community and an experience."

The ROI Question: Measuring What Matters

Competitors at Spherex events (yes, they attend) consistently ask Katie the same question:

"How much money do you make on this event?"

Her answer? "I honestly don't know."

"Which sounds kind of absurd to them when you have an ROI based mindset. But what my counter is: I honestly don't know. I just know we've had record sales month over month for the past two years."

While competitors were focused on immediate, quantifiable returns, Spherex was playing a longer game focused on the buyer's journey. Instead of spending a dollar to get $1.50 back immediately, they invested in building relationships that would compound over time.

The results validated the approach:

• Record-breaking sales month after month for two years

• Consistent growth during periods when other brands saw declines

• 80% reduction in promotional discount budget

• Customers buying at full price instead of waiting for sales

From Hosting to Sponsoring: Scaling the Strategy

After hosting 14 events in 12 months—an exhausting but successful year—Spherex evolved their strategy again in 2024. They began sponsoring large-scale events with 5,000-30,000 attendees, including Iceland's Winter on the Rocks and a campaign with Zeds Dead at Civic Center Park.

At these larger events, they distributed 3,000 free beanies in four hours at a winter festival, collecting emails in exchange. The poker chip program drives attendees to chain dispensaries with coupons, creating trackable conversion while maintaining the generous, community-first approach.

This evolution allowed Spherex to touch thousands more people while reducing the operational burden of planning entire events from scratch. They could focus on creating exceptional booth experiences while leveraging someone else's event infrastructure.

Cannabis as the Great Connector

Katie's approach recognizes something fundamental about cannabis culture that consumption-focused events miss: cannabis has always been about connection—first with ourselves, then with each other.

In an era of widespread loneliness epidemic affecting all demographics, and mental health crisis across the country, building cannabis brand loyalty through genuine community building isn't just good marketing—it's serving a real need.

"Cannabis users, whenever they wanna use cannabis, they just do it. They know what to do. So it didn't impact us that consumption wasn't the focus. The focus was the experience."

By removing the pressure to consume in specific ways at specific times, Spherex's events became more inclusive. No peer pressure to take dabs as hot as the next person. No competition over consumption. Just people coming together with cannabis as an enhancer rather than the entire point.

The Emotional Value Proposition

At the core of Spherex's success is a simple truth: people do business with brands they know, like, and trust. In an increasingly technological age where face-to-face connection is becoming rare, spending time with customers in person creates bonds that discounts simply cannot.

When dispensary customers think of Spherex, they don't think of a discount or even a specific product feature. They think of an experience—the Halloween skate party, the free beanie at Winter on the Rocks, the night they went bowling with 700 new friends.

That emotional connection is what transforms casual buyers into brand advocates who ask for Spherex by name, even when competitors are on sale.

Building for the Long Term

After 10 months without hosting their own event, demand for the Halloween skate party was so high that people were literally begging for it to come back. That kind of brand anticipation and loyalty cannot be purchased through promotional discounts—it must be earned through consistent, generous community building.

As the cannabis industry faces continued economic uncertainty and increased competition, Spherex's model offers a blueprint for building cannabis brand loyalty that survives market fluctuations. Quality product matters (Spherex maintains less than 1% failure rate on 250,000+ monthly cartridges). But in a category where products are "basically all the same," the brand that creates genuine community wins.

Want to hear the full conversation? Listen to the complete podcast episode to dive deeper into Spherex's evolution from discount-driven to community-focused, Katie's 10-year cannabis journey, and practical tactics for building brand loyalty without breaking the bank.

Want to connect with Katie? Find her on Linkedin!

https://www.wearespherex.com/

This conversation was recorded at MJ Biz Con Week 2025