Cannabis Branding | Going from Business to Brand
Hi I’m rachel with Why Workshop and on today’s episode of building a cannabrand we talk about how you go from Business to Brand..
So if your a newly Licensed company or you already have a businesses or a product and you have found yourself worrying about that growing number of competitors or if your starting to see your being outsold by your competition , then this video is for you..
You Probably already know about the importance of Branding your company but let’s just talk really quickly about what that means.
Your brand consists of assets that include your logo, fonts, color palette, illustrations or patterns and imagery.
Branding is the art of taking those assets combined with your unique brand story and creating all your advertising and marketing to connect directly with your target audience. It refers to how people perceive your company and how they interact with it and it is the difference between an iconic brand making millions of dollars in revenue versus a business that is barley getting by.
Business to brand.
These are the things you need to do to go from business to brand.
1. Know your why – Your why is the reason behind why you do what you do, why should anyone care? and let me give you a little hint here.. it is NOT money. Money is the result but it should never be the why. Figuring out your why is a long process that delves deep into your beliefs and is much to long to go into right now but There is an exceptional talk by Simon Sinek on youtube that I encourage you to watch that explains how to devise your why as he compares Apple to Microsoft.
I’ll give you an example:
we worked with a cannabis company a couple years ago that hired us to create clean, minimal packaging based around an already created logo and color palette created by a previous designer.
Our first question was about their company mission statement and key differentiators. First Red Flag, They didn’t know either. So we came in and really started to interview the owners and ask hundreds of questions to get them to start thinking about thier why. The process was uncomfortably long and difficult. But it was clear to us at that point that there why was purely financial.
Now at this point we could have walked away but we decided to stay and help them develop their why. After all we are very passionate about the Cannabis community and we thought we could help them learn how to connect effectively. But during the first 3 months of working with them we watched as they put money into packaging design but because money was their why they cut costs on cultivation and ingredients making for poor customer reviews and repeat purchases just drop of. it became clear that They didn’t care about the crop, the process or the community. So we decided not to renew our contract.
We have a saying here that good packaging will sell anything once and then it is up to the product. That saying came from working with that company.
Needless to say they plateaued quickly, never reached their monetary goals and more importantly never connected to the customer. They closed their doors only 2 years after opening.
2. Figure out the main qualities and benefits that your brand offers to customers.
There are almost certainly going to be brands in your industry that are larger than yours, which is why your main focus should be to differentiate your business from the competition. Find a need that is not being met and fill it. Il give you an ice smoke – I live in Las Vegas and High CBD strains are hard to find because the majority of people want high THC strains. High CBD strains are great for people needing to help treat medical conditions and is great for anti-anxiety, stress and depression. if I owned a dispensary I would connect with a cultivator that has a good reputation and I would do a collaboration where they created high CBD low thc flower specifically for me. Now I own the only dispensary in town that offers strains specifically for medical purposes and I start to market the heck out of that in places like senior citizen communities.
3. Revisit who your customer is,
You can do this looking at your current customers and asking them questions, check you social media for insights, and by performing extensive customer research. Once this is done you should be able to better understand your customers and what they want from your business.
4. Research your competition, NOT to copy them but to make sure your new branding elements and offerings are different and that you will stand out.
5. Build a brand guidelines book
this includes your “why” and all your brand assets and the correct way to use them. It includes your color palette, fonts, logo, slogans, outreach channels, patterns and backgrounds, a standard call to action, animation and video styles, and a messaging style. This style guide can be used to keep your branding in check across all digital materials and marketing, it makes sure that your brand is constant and everyone from the CEO to the new employees are working from the same set of guidelines.
6. Update all your brand assets to match your new brands standards. Business cards, packaging, website and social media everything a customer will come in contact with.
7. Improve you online channels and website. Make sure the new brand messaging is consistent everywhere your customer will find you and that the key messages are clear. .
These are some Sure fire ways to fail when rebranding.
If you Say one thing and do another.
If you have Poor customer service.
If you Start cutting corners after you have established a loyal fan base.
And if Stop interacting with your customers or caring what they think.
Now here are Sure fire ways to succeed –
You Find a need and meet it.
You Do everything from pricing your goods to creating new products with your customer in mind.
You remember to Sell solutions NOT products.
There are a lot of moving parts to a successful brand update and we have helped numerous companies go from business to cannabrand quickly and effectively so if you are feeling a little overwhelmed by it all, give us a call and we would be happy to do a quick free 15 min company discovery session.
I hope this helps and see you next time.