As a marketing agency, branding is one aspect of marketing that we see brands constantly DIY-ing or rushing through.
With all the excitement around entering the cannabis market, few business owners stop to think about how branding plays a crucial role in long-term success. Most want to get a name and logo solidified sooner rather than later – and this is a mistake.
Your cannabis brand identity is what draws people in. It will make or break the way your consumers perceive you against your competitors.
A sloppy brand can lead to difficulty establishing your name in a saturated market. However, with an intentional strategy, you can stand out from the competition and establish your business as a trusted and reliable choice for customers.
What is cannabis branding?
Despite how consumers may view a brand, cannabis businesses must know that branding is not a name, logo, tagline, or product/service. It is not a website, social media account, or ad campaign. A cannabis brand is not an “aesthetic” or a “vibe.”
These are all elements of a brand, but they do not adequately represent what a “brand” really is.
Instead, branding can be described as an artful and intentional process that is rooted in a human-first approach.
Branding involves identifying your target audience, selecting a niche for your business, aligning with core values and a mission statement, crafting a brand purpose and story, developing messaging and a distinct voice, and designing a visual identity.
Building a strong brand is an essential aspect of any business, as it can help you stand out in a saturated market and establish trust and credibility with your customers. The key to doing this successfully is having a marketing partner that understands your business and how it can be positioned in the larger industry to make a splash.
What are the benefits of professional cannabis branding?
Professional cannabis branding is the difference between a forgettable brand on a dispensary menu and customers that come in looking specifically for your brand.
You could take the exact same two products, change nothing but the logo attached – and the entire shopping experience changes. In other words, the way consumers make their purchase decisions changes based on your branding.
Therefore, the process of crafting your brand must be 100% driven by a strategy that goes beyond the colors and fonts themselves. For instance, you may find that a serif font looks pretty, but perhaps a sans serif font is what your brand needs to communicate your value of modernity and innovation.
A professional cannabis brand strategist can provide you with the tools to craft a brand that will stand out from the crowd – without having to deal with the headache of figuring it out yourself.
Moreover, while many creatives are competent enough to create a beautiful brand, the cannabis industry requires an entirely different set of specialized skills and knowledge. Working with a cannabis-specific marketing agency will allow you to make a name for yourself that carries weight and lasts beyond the next few years.
In fact, hiring a professional will save you money in the long run because you can grow your business faster by attracting your ideal customers without having to do a massive rebrand later on (and possibly harm your brand awareness).
In that way, the benefits of professional cannabis branding actually include more than lifting your bottom line. Done correctly, you’ll have a magnetic and influential brand on your hands; one that you can rally a community around, one that extends well beyond cannabis or your products.
Here are some of the benefits of a professionally designed cannabis brand:
1. Cross-channel brand awareness
As we’ve discussed, a brand exists beyond your logo. Therefore, you need to be able to market your brand across all your marketing channels: social media, email, website, etc.
Having a consistent message and image across these touchpoints will not only increase the visibility of your brand across channels but also make it more recognizable to consumers – and that is key to differentiating yourself from your competitors.
2. Credibility
From your core values and messaging to your packaging quality, your branding created a persona of how trustworthy your products are. A professionally-designed brand can help your company establish that trust and credibility with consumers based on what you stand for and how it’s communicated.
3. Customer loyalty
A brand is all about creating an emotional connection with its customers. By working with a professional cannabis marketer, you can incorporate key design elements and messaging points that lead to long-term loyalty. With customer loyalty comes repeat business and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.
More importantly, loyalty builds longevity. When you craft a cannabis brand that consumers are obsessed with and specifically request, you can quickly expand your business endeavors.
4. Pricing power
From luxury fashion houses to big pharma, strong branding can allow a company to charge higher prices for its products or services. Whether consumers are paying for your commitment to your core values and non-sales-related practices or they are paying for the reputation of the brand itself, having a professionally-designed brand gives you increased pricing power.
Plus, it doesn’t hurt that customers are willing to pay a premium for a recognizable and reputable brand.
5. Differentiation
Certain industries have an established status quo, a way of doing business that is rarely challenged. However, when that one competitor comes along making waves and disrupting everything as it has been known – they stand out.
More than that, customers can appreciate the new option, even if it is as simple as the packaging or visual branding of a product. A strong cannabis brand identity can help you differentiate yourself from competitors and stand out in the marketplace, while still remaining true to your values and relationship with consumers.
Define your stand-out cannabis brand with Cannabis Creative
As you can see, building a cannabis brand is essential to long-term success in this industry. Rather than figuring out how to outsource branding for cheap or doing it yourself, it’s best to partner with an agency that lives and breathes cannabis marketing.
At Cannabis Creative, we’ve helped local and national cannabis and CBD brands of all sizes start from scratch and find success. Our team of professional cannabis brand strategists can help walk you through everything from mission statements and core values to logo design and color selection.
Interested in working with us on your cannabis brand? Learn more about our Brand Identity services.
