How Thoughtful Design Supports Luxury CBD Brands

Best practices for CBD branding, according to NYC-based design agency, Any Studios.

While mass CBD brands often struggle to stand out in a sea of green packaging, luxury CBD brands face a different challenge: how do you justify a higher price point and convey exclusivity within an equally saturated market, ripe with bandwagon trends?

First, it’s vital to establish your niche within the luxury market, asking questions like:

What does your brand truly care about?
What world do you imagine your ideal consumers living in?
Now, how can your product seamlessly fit into that world—providing real value?

Once you’ve established your niche, you’re ready to begin doing the work in developing and rolling out a unique brand and product offering. In this article, we’ll explore the following CBD branding ideas—the goal being to differentiate yourself in a super-saturated market:

• Deep brand storytelling
  We’ll propose ways to create brand narratives that build desire and ultimately justify value
• Packaging built to show off
  We’ll consider how premium packaging helps convey a feeling of exclusivity for high-quality products
• Driving home brand promises
  We’ll get into how incorporating verbal and visual systems into every touchpoint—from the Instagram feed to the packaging—can reinforce a strong brand story and convert consumers

1. Go all in with brand and product storytelling.

Once you’ve established your niche, communicate deeper stories that your audience will resonate with. Elaborate on your mission, values, ingredient sourcing, sustainability initiatives, founder and origin stories … it should all paint a cohesive, convincing picture.

We incorporated soft colors, wisps of smoke and flowing lines of poetry into Highborn’s brand booklet. See more on Instagram.

Tip: Focus on elements that convey originality and exclusivity, like a unique font or custom formulation.

2. Create packaging consumers will be proud to show off.

Luxury products might end up proudly displayed on a bedroom side-table or bathroom counter, but they’re also often toted around, to be used on-the-go. When designing a product that consumers will want to pull out of their bag, there are a few key elements to consider—like heavier components (glass > plastic), subtle shades and elegant fonts. While high quality is ubiquitous in the premium market, when it comes to luxurious packaging design, less is more.

It’s all elevated, modern and a little bit magical: from the frosted glass bottle to the iridescent script.

3. Emphasize high quality, in every consumer interaction.

Luxury CBD products take a consumer on a journey of discovery, and driving home your brand’s quality is essential: from the moment consumers lay eyes on your product, to when they first discover your feed, to their very last spritz from that frosted glass bottle.

Is your CBD tincture sourced from a particular hemp farm? Tell us about it. Did you infuse your products with Neroli oil because it moisturizes while adding to the complex floral-citrus aroma? You did, so get into it.

Here, Highborn’s Instagram naturally incorporates product claims into a triptych with branded icons and lifestyle shots.

Tip: The more consumers truly understand what your brand stands for—from the founder’s story and values, to the ingredients & packaging that align with them—the more likely they’ll be to buy.

Conclusion

No doubt, there are a million CBD brands on the market. But by conveying value beyond just your product, elevating each element of your packaging and driving home ingredient stories on social channels, you’ll stand apart from the competition.

If you’re looking for more direction and guidance, get in touch with our team at Any Studios.