How can brands adopt institutional work towards establishing themselves in a highly contested market? Defining contested markets as fields in which the plural logics of the market are in tension with each other and/or with societal level logics, our research explores the institutional work of one pioneer brand – MedMen – in the legal cannabis market in the United States. Analysis of MedMen's marketing communication campaigns and corporate press releases between 2018 and 2020 reveal vesting, mimicry, and constructing consumer identities as the main types of institutional work the brand has adopted. Our findings inform extant research on market dynamics by documenting the types of institutional work brands can strategically adopt to establish themselves in contested markets.
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