Think Outside the Leaf
Branding for the Cannabis Industries.
What is the importance of branding for industries like Medical Cannabis?
The Medical Cannabis industry is relatively new, it has been around for less than 5 years and every month it is legalized for medicinal use in new cities and states. This is why it’s very important to reposition cannabis and transform the existing stigma as something recreational and anti-cultural, to something legal and medicinal. Since the act of selling and distributing marijuana was illegal, it didn’t require any branding, no one invested in making a brand. After being legalized and regulated, cannabis starts to compete in another market that is not exclusively recreational. This opens up the market to a very diverse public from millennials to senior citizens.
Cannabis regulation also opens up the possibility of products derived from the flower, like edibles, vaporizers, drinks, infusion, and others, that compete for the consumer’s attention. When you enter a market that is growing so big and fast, it’s necessary that your product has its own identity, that it communicates its values and that it also stands out from the competition. This is why, it’s really important to generate a solid brand that gives value to the products, and that those values are visible in your brand. In that case, branding is essential to set you apart from the rest.
Celina Nogueras Cuevas, Senior Chief Creative Strategist of Muuaaa CBD talks to us about the creative strategies and design that they have implemented for their clients in the ever growing Cannabis Industry.
How do you see current branding in the Medicinal Cannabis Industry?
I see that branding for the industry is going through 2 very different roads, one that still represents a very recreational identity, psychedelic, even hippies. The other road is more professional, related to health and, pharmaceuticals. For example, Kuni is an edibles and lotions brand that we created to have more fun, colorful, and exciting identity. On the other hand, we have Cannalytics Laboratory that focuses on being a Seal of Quality for products and dispensaries. It’s very easy to fall in the same cliches of using the marijuana plant and the color green. If we do a fast evaluation, we can say that more than %70 uses the flowers explicitly. Not doing that, or doing it in a creative way turns into a design challenge.
Think outside of the leaf. This is something that we ask ourselves all the time in the office. How do we make an attractive brand that explains itself, without falling into clichés? In the case of talking about the medicinal aspect, you’re talking to a public that is scared of trying cannabis or what will people think and false convictions. This is the public that needs to be presented with a product that is well presented, with its specifications and clear methods of consuming; they want to feel secure about what they are buying. We can’t forget that we are talking about a medicinal product, and it should behave as one, a product that will help their health or lifestyle. In other words, we always design thinking about that person that has not to expose himself to marihuana before and could be a victim of prejudice. You should focus on that client first, the rest will fall into place.
What type of Cannabis Brand have you worked on?
We’ve worked on 3 Medicinal Cannabis brand, each one is very different from the other and focused on different segments. The first two brands impact patients while the other is focused on reaching cultivators and the industry in general. The first brand we worked on was Bwell Healing Center with 3 dispensaries in Puerto Rico. Our second brand was Kuni, which specializes in comestibles and lotions. Lastly, we have Cannalytics, which is a laboratory that does quality testing.
What is your focus for Bwell?
For Bwell we designed a brand focused on wellness and more of a spa feel than a dispensary. Since the industry is new and our name doesn’t mention cannabis, we decided to make an abstract pattern of the marijuana leaf and put inside of the B, this gives us a lot of space to develop the brand and create a diverse line of products not necessarily focused on cannabis. In other words, we created a premium health and wellness brand that is contemporary, clean, and elegant, and at the same time doesn’t intimidate people.
What sets you apart from other dispensaries that have invested in branding?
For Bwell, other than just design, we’ve implemented different growth strategies. We’ve positioned the brand to be a premium dispensary and also associated with wellness. We wanted to highlight the Healing Center aspect and at the same time support to create activities that go in hand with people’s wellbeing like yoga, massages, chiropractor, participate in health fairs. We want consumers to view us a dispensary with a holistic view, where you can feel assured that we can help you.
What is the reaction of people outside of the Cannabis Industry about Bwell’s branding?
You start to see that your branding is successful when you notice people are wearing it out in the streets. For Bwell, we focused on creating an attractive brand and taking advantage of its design so that we could create merchandise like clothes, keychains, leggings, towels, pillows, and others. You start to notice that even people who don’t use cannabis recognize the brand and that can tell you a lot about the brand’s success.
Did you use the same strategy with Kuni?
With Kuni, we used a different strategy, the challenge was different. You see Kuni when you are already inside the dispensary, so we wanted to create an identity that could catch your eye on the shelves. Since the market is rapidly growing, we understand that this product can be in any dispensary competing for attention with the other products, so we decide to think ahead and create a design that would stand out with a color system that you can easily identify from the stands. Each color is attributed to a feeling or condition so patients can easily identify which one best fits their particular needs. We also decided to come up with a short and catchy name, Kuni is an abbreviation for Kunibu, which means cannabis in Sumerian.
Cannalytics being a B2B company, what strategy did you use?
Cannalytics Laboratory provides cannabis testing in Puerto Rico, giving patients a 100% transparent understanding of their medication. To reflect this, we had to create a brand that looks professional and corporate. Our goal while we analyzed the company was to create a brand that represented a seal of quality that assured people that their products were safe and also to demand the seal on their packaging. The logo was made by using an isotope derived from the data analysis graph and that becomes the seal of quality. We picked the color navy blue to give the brand seriousness and added a kick of neon green for details. The slogan “You grow it, we test it” allows our wording to be casual and understanding for our clients.
Do you think that branding for medicinal cannabis influences people’s perception about cannabis and its consumption for health-related issues?
Absolutely. Right now, there are two major groups of patients. There is a young generation that might have already experienced cannabis recreationally, and there are the Baby Boomers or Senior Citizens, that have medical conditions and cannabis turns into a very real option to remedy the pain or better health conditions. It’s important for new brands to reflect security, a lot of people are influenced by perceptions when they buy products, so branding plays a very big role in sending a convincing message and give credibility. A lot of people don’t know about regulations in the industry, about design or packaging, so it’s a good opportunity to send that message.
We know that Muuaaa, other than designing, creates strategies for brands and that current regulations make promoting and marketing cannabis difficult. What strategies do you use?
Other than creating Bwell, we also run what we know as Growth Strategies, in a regulated industry, for example, your not allowed to put money into ads on social media or promote on traditional media outlets, so we have to constantly come up with new strategies to educate people through different mediums. On social media, we vow to create valuable content for clients so that they can become ambassadors of their brand and spread the word. Another strategy is organizing social responsibility campaigns, alliances with associations, and/or influencers. Our studio particularly stands out because we love getting creative and changing the formula of what traditional agencies do.
What is your take on the future of the Industry?
This is an industry that is just beginning. We’re going to see a lot of growth and we believe that eventually, in the long term, cannabis will be legalized in a lot more states and the market is going to become even more competitive and demanding, making design an even more important factor. Cliche strategies will no longer work and we’ll need to think outside of the flower. In addition, Brand Growth strategies are going to become more aggressive. In our case, we love this industry and we’d love to work on more projects.
Muuaaa CBD is a cannabis, branding and design studio focused on innovation creating fresh brand experiences. We specialize in making new brands and refreshing existing ones.