Mapping the wild west of the CBD market: What brands are doing now to find success
Maybe you’ve seen it in the news, spotted it on the shelves of a local health food store, or heard about it from a friend, but, whether you have or haven’t, CBD is everywhere. Since the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, which made hemp legal on a Federal level, CBD products exploded into a new market — one that has incredible potential but that remains largely unregulated and challenged in its growth by several factors.
And, whether you’re a marketer, someone who cares about their health, an aspiring CBD entrepreneur, or you just like to stay informed, getting the right information on CBD is important purely for the fact that CBD is what people are talking about right now. In order to join the conversation, it helps to have the facts and also examples of how brands are entering the conversation around CBD in a positive and effective way.
So, what exactly is CBD (and does it make you high)?
It’s only natural to wonder, so here’s the deal — CBD does not make you high. Cannabidoil, or CBD, for short, is (as you might’ve guessed) an oil derived from “hemp” aka “industrial hemp.” Marijuana and hemp are two related but different plants. One (marijuana) contains high levels of THC and gets you high. The other, (hemp) contains low amounts of THC. Hemp won’t get you high, but it does contain high amounts of CBD.
Both hemp and marijuana share a common ancestor — Cannabis Sativa in a similar way to how poodles and chihuahuas or broccoli and kale share a common ancestor. Through time and human domestication, hemp and marijuana, along with kale, broccoli, chihuahuas, and poodles all developed different traits to the point where they barely resemble each other or their common ancestor.
Since humans bred these organisms in ways that highlighted different traits, they each have different uses, characteristics, and behaviors entirely different from one another. I mean, you wouldn’t put broccoli in a smoothie …would you?
Although CBD oil won’t cause a high, proponents of the oil claim it provides a natural option for treating a number of ailments, including acne, stiffness, chronic pain, addiction, anxiety, insomnia, seizures, PTSD, OCD, diabetes and even cancer and Alzheimer’s along with a slew of other disorders.
Whether or not the research backs up these claims, that’s another issue as is the regulation of CBD, which as of now, remains largely unregulated by Federal and state governments. And, with limited barriers to entry, the CBD market has quickly become a crowded one filled with brands offering a variety of CBD products — all of them competing for the limited attention of potential customers.
Problems, but potential
As the hype and early commercial success of CBD products demonstrated already, there’s potential for CBD — huge undeniable potential. But, there are plenty of obstacles in the way of achieving success as a CBD brand. Despite the challenges, a few brands are successfully navigating the obstacles and distinguishing themselves from the crowd of competitors.
Here’s how they’re doing it.
How HATH reaches customers through transparency
HATH, which sells CBD patches and capsules, takes on the challenge of marketing CBD by first positioning their products away from the association with marijuana. By branding their CBD products as more of a supplement for regular wellness, HATH moves the association of their brand away from the still stigmatized medical marijuana market.
HATH builds the association between everyday wellness and their product further by how they describe their products to the customer. In a recent interview, HATH’s co-founder, Kelley Ireland-Kelly, told PSFK that,
Instead of saying, ‘This will get rid of your arthritis,’ we say, ‘This can help with those long days post‑workout, it can help when you have a child on your hip all day long, or on some of those big days where you have a big presentation.’
In doing so, Ireland-Kelly hopes HATH can allow people to visualize actual situations where they could see using and benefiting from CBD in their daily lives.
In an effort to address the lack of information and misinformation, HATH embraces transparency with their customers. Besides hiring their own team of researchers to conduct studies on the benefits of CBD, HATH gives customers easy access to credible and factual information on their products.
By scanning a QR code present on the back of any HATH product using their smartphones, customers instantly gain access to lab reports containing scientifically backed product information. HATH first presents this information through easy to read graphics before going into further detail. To Ireland-Kelly, that’s all part of embracing transparency and, in the process, educating the customer.
How Feals lowers barriers between customers & CBD
Like HATH, CBD brand, Feals, also prioritizes education, transparency, and easy access to information when marketing to customers. As with HATH, Feals allows customers to scan QR codes on each product to access scientifically-backed information. Taking that a step further, Feals also offers a CBD hotline that allows customers to interact with the brand directly, ask questions, and find information.
In his own interview with PSFK, Feals co-founder, Drew Todd, pointed out that the biggest issue with CBD is the lack of research to back up many of the claims various products make. “What you find,” remarks Todd, “is a tremendous amount of anecdotal evidence but limited research in terms of the benefits that CBD can provide.” Feals hopes to educate the customer by giving them easy access to legitimate information. But, that’s not all Feals does to entice customers with their products.
According to Todd, he and the co-founders of Feals never created the company with the intent of it being a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand; however, the company soon pivoted to provide DTC services after listening to customer feedback. For Feals, DTC offers just another way to give customers easy access to products. Besides the DTC element, Feals maintains additional touchpoints with customers through their modern internet presence as a digitally-native company.
As HATH and Feals proved already, CBD brands can successfully market to a growing range of customers.
That being said, what can other brands and marketers do to follow suit?
Here’s where to start:
The Takeaway: 4 Ways brands can capitalize on opportunities with CBD
- Embrace transparency — give consumers a number of easy ways to access digestible information that educates and dispels false claims or misinformation.
- Obtain the facts — avoid using lukewarm and unsubstantiated claims about CBD and its benefits. Find or fund legitimate scientific research on CBD from credible sources.
- Shift perspective with branding — position your product away from negative and culturally-ingrained (but constantly eroding) stereotypes surrounding marijuana (medicinal or otherwise). Leave the leaves and apothecary motifs out of the brand kit and position the products in other ways, such as supplements for maintaining everyday health.
- Utilize tech — If customers want information and products, experiment with technologies that give them easy access to facts and answers. A hotline, scanning a QR code, a DTC monthly subscription service, and text messaging might all do the trick in lowering barriers between CBD products and customers.
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The above piece was written by the Latitude Supercharge Research Team, which includes Connor Beck and Carter Jensen
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Resources and original reporting of the above points covered by the following publications— PSFK, HATH, Patagonia, Vox, & Medical News Today
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Additional Resources
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