Why CBD products need a strong and clear brand building
In any industry, building a brand can be a delicate process. It’s crucial to find a way to clearly communicate the place of the product in the consumer’s life. With something relatively new, like CBD products, a lot of work has to be done at first glance. The name and the packaging have to communicate quite a bit in a brief moment. Yet that first look must also align with the information given about the product and the actual experience of using the product. Here are two hemp-derived CBD product companies that achieve the goal of defining their brands in ways that are easy to communicate.
What is a brand?
Though brands are sometimes thought of simply as logos, the contemporary understanding of what the term brand encompasses is much broader. Branding consultant Daryl Web presents a useful description of what a brand is in his book, “Brand Seduction: How Neuroscience Can Help Marketers Build Memorable Brands.” He describes a brand as a “collection of associations in the mind, both conscious and unconscious.” Practically speaking, that means everything mentally associated with a particular product or a particular company is that product or company’s brand.
For a product, that means the name, the packaging, the price, the story the company tells about the product, the outlets where the product is found and the stories customers tell each other about the product may all play a role. This definition may make the process of branding sound incredibly complicated. But if a company can sum up the brand of each product or of a line of products in a single sentence, then all else can flow from there. The following examples of how two leading CBD product companies have addressed this problem illustrate how a new industry sector is moving forward to reach its customers.
The definitive backstory
Charlotte’s Web, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Charlotte’s Web Holdings Inc (CSE:CWEB, OTCMKTS:CWBHF), offers a limited range of hemp-derived CBD products that are presented in such a way that clearly emphasizes their health-related benefits. Yet, despite not being clearly presented on their site, Charlotte’s Web’s brand is built on a backstory. The tale of Charlotte Figi is what initially defined the company’s identity and remains implicit in the company’s name.
The story of Charlotte Figi’s incredible response to a high CBD, very low THC strain of medical marijuana grown by the Stanley Brothers is one of many tales that have caused CBD to be known as a wonder drug for those suffering from epilepsy. Helping Charlotte with her condition inspired the Stanley Brothers to launch Charlotte’s Web with a specific focus on hemp-derived CBD. This story was broadcast widely in the press and came to define the company in many people’s mind.
Perhaps the company was concerned about appearing to exploit her story or causing people to think that their products were only for epilepsy. These are fair concerns. You can find a brief mention and photo of Figi on the company blog. There’s also a brief mention that their hemp extract is not just for epilepsy and that the Figi story may have created that myth in their Hemp Myths FAQ. So it’s understandable that they downplay the story — although a bit confusing — given that they named their company after Charlotte.
Tying together diverse products
Diamond CBD, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PotNetwork Holdings Inc (OTCMKTS:POTN), has a broad product range and is part of a group of subsidiaries that includes First Capital Venture, a CBD research and production firm. PotNetwork Holdings ties its CBD companies together with an emphasis on high-quality hemp-derived CBD. The big message is that no matter which of Diamond CBD’s many products you choose, they all contain the best CBD available.
PotNetwork Holdings also regular refers to the health benefits of its CBD products. So one might say that the underlying message tying together PotNetwork Holdings diverse brands and product lines found on the Diamond CBD website, is that all contribute to good health due to the high-quality CBD each product contains. This is actually one of the few ways you could tie together such products as Tommy Chong’s “Chong’s Choice” line and Lawrence Taylor’s “LT PainMaster” line given that Tommy Chong and Lawrence Taylor are, in many ways, polar opposites.
It can also be said that the Diamond CBD site itself helps connect all of the hemp-derived CBD brands owned by PotNetwork Holdings by offering them via e-commerce in one shared location. And, at the in-store level, Diamond CBD makes the connections between its products with a select group displayed in its CBD Sales Center. Featuring Diamond CBD’s best-sellers, the CBD Sales Center attractively presents its group of products all at the same $19.99 price point.
Many routes to the same goal
The ways these two leading CBD product companies define their brands illustrate that there are many routes to presenting your’s brand in a unified manner. You could also consider the messages communicated through product names and packaging since that is how many people first encounter a specific brand. The important thing is that in branding any product or product line, not just CBD products, you ensure that the message is clear and communicated at all customer touch points of your public presence.
