How Franklin's Became America's #1 Blunt Brand with Headset Insights

Missouri's cannabis market moves fast. With dozens of new brands entering every month and consumer preferences shifting by the week, operators who rely on gut instinct are playing catch-up from day one. Franklin's decided early on that they wouldn't be one of them.

What started as a small, dedicated team with a passion for blunts has grown into the #1 blunt manufacturer in the United States — a licensed facility in Missouri, 14 employees, and an expanding portfolio that now spans blunts, pre-rolls, vapes, and beverages. And at the center of that growth engine sits Headset Insights.

The Challenge: Competing in a Market That Won't Sit Still

Franklin's had the product. They had the brand. What they didn't have was the kind of real-time market intelligence needed to stay ahead of a market that was evolving faster than anyone anticipated.

Three specific challenges were holding them back. First, they lacked precise, ongoing visibility into sales velocities — making it difficult to spot market shifts before competitors did. Second, pricing strategy was largely a guessing game; balancing premium positioning against competitive pressure required data on consumer willingness to pay that simply didn't exist in their workflow. And third, with over 120 dispensary partners to manage, inventory complexity was mounting — stock levels, shipping timelines, and restock cadences all needed sharper inputs.

Noah Marsh, Franklin's Director of Marketing, puts the stakes plainly: "Headset Insights and Bridge are as crucial to me as email. These services allow me to track changes in a dynamic, new market that sometimes has dozens of new brands entering every month."

Making Data a Weekly Habit

Franklin's didn't just buy a platform — they built it into their operating rhythm. The team runs weekly data analyses using Headset Insights, reviewing category sales trends, brand performance metrics, and competitive intelligence to inform decisions across the business.

That cadence touches everything. On the product side, they monitor SKU-level performance over time to determine which lines deserve additional investment and which need to be reconsidered. On the market side, they combine historical data with real-time signals to forecast shifts, detect emerging niches, and measure how their products stack up against the field. And through Headset Bridge, they track inventory velocity and sell-through rates at the retail level — critical for a brand that ships to 120-plus dispensaries and can't afford to let shelves go empty.

Smarter Pricing, Sharper Promotions

One of the most immediate wins was pricing. With Headset's real-time market data, Franklin's discovered they had room to elevate prices on their premium blunts — consumers were willing to pay more than the team had assumed. The result was higher margins without a corresponding dip in demand.

On the promotional side, the data kept them disciplined. Instead of running broad discounts and hoping for the best, Franklin's now times campaigns to peak traffic windows and targets only the products and moments where data indicates the strongest return. No more sweeping markdowns that erode brand equity — just surgical, data-backed moves.

Noah tracks these category dynamics closely: "Staying 'fresh' and having your core product line and new products is key to being a successful brand. Headset Insights shows me what categories are changing the most — like how infused pre-rolls are growing as a share of the pre-roll mix, and how 2g disposables are a climbing subcategory in vapes."

Climbing the Rankings

The results speak in hard numbers. Franklin's hasn't just defended its #1 position in blunts — it's surged in categories where it was barely a factor:

• Pre-rolls: Jumped from 16th to 11th in market ranking
• Vapes: Climbed from 102nd to 44th
• Premium blunts: Double-digit year-over-year sales growth

These aren't incremental gains. Moving nearly 60 spots in the vape rankings signals that Franklin's identified an opportunity in the data — the rise of 2g disposables — and moved on it decisively before the window closed.

Case in Point: Launching Guy's Soda

Perhaps the clearest example of Headset Insights driving strategy is the launch of Guy's Soda, Franklin's entry into the cannabis beverage category.

The data told a compelling story: one competitor controlled over 80% of Missouri's beverage segment. But rather than seeing a locked-up market, Franklin's saw a gap. Headset's consumer data revealed demand for new flavors and different price points that the dominant player wasn't addressing. Armed with that intelligence, Franklin's launched Guy's Soda into a category that most brands would have avoided — and carved out a position in one of cannabis's highest-potential growth segments.

It's the kind of move that doesn't happen without data. And it's the kind of move that separates category leaders from everyone else.

What's Next

Franklin's isn't slowing down. The team is using Headset's analytics to evaluate expansion into new state markets, refine consumer segmentation to tailor offerings for evolving demographics, and continue launching products grounded in evidence rather than intuition.

The through-line is clear: in a market where dozens of new competitors appear every month, the brands that win are the ones that see the shifts coming before anyone else. For Franklin's, Headset Insights is how they keep that edge.

See What Insights Can Do for Your Brand

To learn how Headset Insights can help your brand identify market opportunities, optimize pricing, and outmaneuver the competition, reach out to our team today.