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Woah Flow
As a founding member and the Chief Creative Officer, I had the privilege of shaping the dispensary’s brand from the ground up. I led all visual branding, messaging and marketing efforts, connecting with local small businesses and nonprofits to government agencies and NJ’s medical patients and recreational cannabis users.
A gratifying role was ensuring the patient experience felt seamless and educational, whether that meant creating educational kiosks, guiding patients through the efficacy of cannabis modalities, or developing content to help them understand the benefits of cannabis. I also fashioned a SAAS stack with multiple contactless ways to purchase or order pick up in the height of the pandemic, which was a huge win in a market with no federal banking. (Most charges are ACH transactions).
Additionally, I built a strong employee brand with commission-based incentives and gamifying education keep the team engaged and motivated. I was bent on creating a business on trust, warmth, and part and parcel of the Trenton community.
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Creative Leadership
Creative Vision
Visual Identity
Art Direction
Brand Guidelines
Pitch Materials
Digital & Print Education Collateral
Customer Journey & UX
Community Engagement
Employee & Internal Branding
Compliance & Regulatory Branding
SAAS Stack — Contactless Payment (w/o fed banking)
Trenton, NJ
2022
Wordplay — Naming Strategy
From the beginning, we knew the NJ market has a long road to maturation. Colorado was the closest example of comparison with a population of 8m residents. NJ had 9m residents, and the kicker is, Colorado is 14x's larger than NJ.
Another point of comparison is — time and again, we saw that once medical markets opened and patients were supported, recreational licenses followed. (for the most part).
With this in mind, we created a name that would stand out from out medical license competitors and have a head start on the recreational competitors.
Through a wordplay strategy, Woah Flow was born, and we owned the first (2) pages of Google without any SEO optimization.
State, City, & Organization Approvals
Opening Woah Flow came with heavy regulation. We applied for a medical dispensary license with no regulatory body in the state of NJ.
This crystallized our vision — (1) remove the barrier on education to reduce stigma and (2) engage the local community with fruitful partnerships to create lasting impact in NJ's capital city.
Trenton Cares was our first non-profit which would award local residents with small businesses, offering business support and giving them our platforms.
I developed effective communications with clear expectations for Trenton's City Council, Landmarks Commission for Historic Preservation, and the Mill Hill neighborhood association — attaining approvals from all organizations.
User Experience & Wireframes
Our position — To educate the public for free vitrtually and in-person.
The product will sell itself, which means we can focus on connection over sales.
We can sell through context. We can tell stories about patients who've experienced trail & error's and success stories of MS symptoms going into remission. We can share education through our expert partners in growing and manufacturing.
The digital user experience is a massive opportunity in brand building and capturing (1) sales, (2) attention, and (3) creating a true ecommerce experience in NJ's 'green' cannabis space.
The UX is organized as follows:
(1) education
(2) product menu
(3) events
(4) first-time visit
(5) partners
Contactless Payment SAAS Stack
Banking in cannabis is prohibited as a federal level due to it's schedule 1 drug status.
This makes cannabis vulnerable because it is primarily a cash business which opens up opportunity for fraud, extortion, and other unethical practices found in the industry today.
In the midst of this, I structured a fully contactless payment system. Also, it was the pandemic and we need to be prepared for operation in this environment. All dispensaries in NJ accept debit charges. It's an ACH charge where the dispensary rounds up and gives cash to the nearest $5 or $10. This is not contactless. It's band-aid. It's a weird thing that happens during the patient experience, and not acceptable.
With this stack, I structured a true ecommerce payment and in-store payment that is seamless for the medical patient and recreational user.
Below you'll see a comparison of the vertical Dutchie who is OK at many of it's services. The cons out weighed the pros on further research and discussion.
Note: 6 months following assembling the stack, Blaze acquired Tymber making it the most capable cannabis sales vertical.
Visual Identity, Packaging, & Merchandising
With name a name like Woah Flow, the design has to be as enticing and prolific.
The beauty of a good name lies in it's utility, same goes for the logo mark.
I went all-in on creating a wellness brand that can scale to multiple products, new business ventures, and as it scales, the maturation is noticeable.
From wellness subscriptions, an onsite café, high limited-run quality merchandise, and white-labeled Woah Glow products. Again, I was bent on creating attention through generosity, warmth, and trust.
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