To Market or Demarket? Public-Sector Branding of Cannabis in Canada

• DOI: 10.1177/0095399721991129
• Author: Kyle Murray,Jared J. Wesley
• Published date: 01 August 2021
• Date: 01 August 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399721991129

Administration & Society

2021, Vol. 53(7) 1078 –1105

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0095399721991129

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Article

To Market or Demarket?

Public-Sector Branding of

Cannabis in Canada

Jared J. Wesley1 and Kyle Murray1

Abstract

Many governments provide goods and services that are deemed too sensitive

for the private sector to deliver. This places public administrators in the

difficult situation of having to sell products while also shaping consumer

demand. Government agencies in Canada found themselves in this situation

when the country legalized cannabis in 2018. Our findings suggest they

responded with a demarketing approach, attempting to limit and shape,

rather than increase, consumer demand. We conclude this demarketing

strategy hinders public agencies’ ability to displace competitors in the illicit

market, a key public policy objective.

Keywords

demarketing, branding, public-sector marketing, Canada, cannabis, injurious

products

In North America, governments have long delivered services and sold goods

to the public. Many of these are viewed as too sensitive to leave to private

business. From administering state lotteries to running liquor stores, govern-

ments across Canada and the United States routinely do business with their

1University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Jared J. Wesley, University of Alberta, 11-24 HM Tory Building, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

T6G 2H4.

Email: jwesley@ualberta.ca

991129AASXXX10.1177/0095399721991129Administration & SocietyWesley and Murray

research-article2021

Wesley and Murray 1079

citizens. In some instances, they maintain a full monopoly; in others, they

choose to compete with private firms. In many cases, governments seek to

displace criminal enterprises in the black market and/or to control consump-

tion of injurious goods. This can place governments and public administra-

tors in a challenging position. On one hand, they face pressure to actively

market their goods and services, whether to produce profit for government

revenue or to seize market share from illicit actors. On the other hand, gov-

ernment actors are simultaneously charged with promoting responsible con-

sumption of potentially harmful products. From this perspective, many

public administrators view their role as implementers of public policy, not

marketers.

Yet, when public administrators operate state lotteries or retail liquor

stores, they are inevitably taking on the marketing function—that is, “the

activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, deliv-

ering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, part-

ners, and society at large” (American Marketing Association, 2020). Implicit

in this definition is the potential for tension between delivering value to cus-

tomers and, at the same time, society at large. For example, public adminis-

trators are tasked with promoting lotteries or liquor stores while also

encouraging responsible gambling and drinking. This tension has been recog-

nized in the marketing literature, and scholars have long argued that, from

this perspective, marketing is the organizational function that is “concerned

with the level and composition of demand” (Kotler & Levy, 1971). Put

another way, although a layperson might think of marketing as focused on

increasing demand, a more accurate conceptualization views it as the func-

tion responsible for managing demand along a continuum. At times, this

means marketing aims to elevate demand by, for example, promoting lotter-

ies and liquor sales to ensure financial viability. At other times, the goal is to

reduce demand, often within specific market segments. For example, alcohol

consumption is discouraged among minors, when driving, or while pregnant.

Such strategies are known as demarketing—a type of marketing designed to

discourage, lower, or even eliminate consumer demand (Kotler & Andreasen,

1991; Kotler & Levy, 1971, pp. 402–429). There are obvious trade-offs

between the profit-seeking motives involved with marketing and the regula-

tory goals found in demarketing.

Our case study of the new Canadian cannabis market examines the tension

created when public administrators are asked to simultaneously engage in

marketing and demarketing. By virtue of the federal government’s decision

to legalize recreational cannabis in 2018, all 10 provincial governments in

Canada were required to design policy frameworks and strategies to sell the

drug to their respective residents. This established a natural experiment in