Why women hold the real keys to the Entourage Effect
From purchasing power & consumer spending to tireless advocacy & the women who vouch for the ‘best’ products. Women in the CBD community should feel empowered to aim high & embrace change
Written by Roisin Delaney | Founder It’s Neon Green
It was in Mobile, Alabama in 2017, about two and a half hours east of New Orleans, when I encountered CBD oil for the very first time. No one was really talking about it, and even fewer were admitting to using it. Sound familiar? At the time, I was working for a regional lifestyle publication in the Deep South. ACCESS Magazine was founded by one of the most formidable women that I’ve been fortunate to surround myself with so far.
Prior to this, I had been working for national media, including newspapers, local radio and Ireland’s largest magazine network, Harmonia Publishing, owned and run by a Dragon’s Den judge. There, I found myself surrounded by a team of 30 women working under the same roof across every best selling women’s magazine on shelf, serving the minds and trends of 21 to 65 year olds between them. Across seven titles, we had the whole women’s market at our fingertips. It was in our nature to shout about a product, female founder or brand that we loved. We were a PR manager’s dream!
Though my time as a journalist in Dublin, Belfast and the US were miles apart in many senses, the two common denominators were the wellness space and the inspirational women I met who weren't afraid to challenge the norm. Looking back now, I suppose the focus that was put on wellness products then was sowing the seeds for something like CBD to take off in the future. We just didn't know it yet.
Fast forward to the present day and CBD sits next to all of the other supplements we’ve been told to fit into our day. You’ll find it on every high street in Britain and on most mainstream online marketplaces. The way we shop has changed, and as a result CBD is more accessible, it isn’t whispered about anymore.
More doctors, lawyers, politicians and journalists are comfortable having a conversation on cannabis therapies. Even the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has embraced preliminary talks for the UK’s first medical cannabis clinical trial through the NHS. Conversations like this just weren't welcomed five years ago. I think the accessibility of CBD has forged this back room, support network that has grown over time for the medical cannabis cause. While different, both product categories share a synergy. And both camps are led by fearless female campaigners who work tirelessly for the wider patient community.
Selfishly, I like to think the role of publications like those I have worked at, many of which are run by women, have had some influence in the sway towards cannabinoids in recent years. During my time as editor of The CANNAVIST magazine, I saw the interest in CBD grow month-on-month. Right before the pandemic got its grip on the world, it appeared there was a revolutionary CBD product launch happening once a week in London.
If there is a silver lining to the pandemic for this community, it’s this: brands and movements have had the time to think their next move through. The pandemic forced many of us to realise what’s important and in doing so, it has reaffirmed our values of what we want from our own lives. Speaking for myself, I think it has also made us more comfortable with the concept of some things being out of our control. Maybe we’re more open to change now?
Our health, mental and physical, has never been more of a priority. We’ve been locked down, let out, half-in-half-out and sadly, some of us have carried unbearable loss, during a time where our community was already grieving for what we will look back on as being ‘normal’ life.
With so much outside of our control, I felt empowered during this time by what I could control. For me, that aim was to reach a new height of creativity and productivity while working from home, when there was little else we could do. I wanted a change, to feel passionate about my work again. Earlier this year, I shed the 9-to-5 and took the leap to work for myself. I launched It’s Neon Green - a content and communications clinic to help the legitimate cannabis space sharpen up its image and mature as we hit the resume button. I have been overwhelmed with the positive response to my manoeuvre and I have since met several women who embraced similar career changes at a point in their lives. This boosted my self-confidence as I made the jump. The overall theme of our conversations isn’t challenge or the instability of being self-employed. Rather, the conversation is on working smarter, not harder, this is the new way to work and we can do it. Many of these women run their own brands from home, have created successful wellness platforms, events, publications and practices. These are women who have spent their adult lives engrossed in wellness and it shows in their drive.
From innovative brand creators to advocates to doctors to influencers and all the way into the hands of the consumer. Women play an integral role in communicating, demystifying and breaking down the message on cannabis therapeutics because these products are purpose-made. Life gave us a problem, we made this to help.
That’s why I think women hold the real keys to the Entourage Effect - we are a group of people who make our common denominator better and more effective. That’s not to say that the men of our community aren't doing the same. Many of the leading minds and figures on cannabis in the UK are brilliant men. But when it comes to wellness products, women own the purchasing power and we like to talk. I’ve found the network of women in the British & Irish CBD and medical cannabis space to be incredibly empowering and I hope that support network grows and spreads in tandem with the wider industry.
Why CBD is sure to play a part in the future of women’s wellness habits
Women own purchasing power, especially when it comes to wellness products, accounting for 85% of overall consumer wellness purchases. From an economic standpoint, this makes us leading indicators. To borrow a phrase from Bridget Brennan, the founder and CEO of Female Factor, “historically, many of the changes that women pioneer eventually go mainstream among all genders and age groups. Women are a compass for a changing world.”
Research from this year puts the global wellness market value at more than $1.5 trillion USD (that’s around £2.8 trillion) with annual growth set for 5 to 10%. More than three quarters of this will come from women buying wellness products, including those rooted in cannabinoids.
Green Shoots, a joint report published in the spring by the Association for the Cannabinoid Industry and Centre for Medicinal Cannabis, shows how our consumer driven CBD community here in the UK accounts for £690 million and counting. I for one would be interested in seeing the demographics of who in the UK buys the most CBD, and why. To hazard a guess based on the US figures and overall global picture, I would estimate that women make up a large proportion of the UK’s purchasing power when it comes to CBD products.
Where does CBD fit in the bigger picture of wellness? According to McKinsey Insights, there are now six dimensions to consider when we talk about our striving for total wellbeing. Better health, fitness, nutrition, appearance, sleep, and mindfulness. CBD - and hemp itself - fits into each of these consumer desires.