Branding is the foundation of any business and working on your brand will help you create an identity for your dispensary and a voice that can cut through a saturated industry to reach cannabis consumers. Every cannabis industry entrepreneur goes through the initial details of their business by spending a lot of time figuring out how best to flesh out their brand. How you choose to brand your business will shape the public’s view of your company by influencing what they think and how they feel about your cannabis brand. Creating a brand from scratch can help you create a unique customer experience that will keep your customers coming back again and again. Here are 3 of the most effective ways for you to build a stronger cannabis brand.
Create a voice for your dispensary online
The voice you use when acting as your cannabis brand must be unique because it will be the personality and identity that the public perceives when interacting with you. You can take your voice in several different directions based on how you want to come off to your audience. Everything you say needs to have a purpose, a tone, a language, and character or a persona. The goal is to develop a voice for your brand that people can recognize in the saturated cannabis industry that can motivate people to engage with your brand or dispensary and keep them interested in the future. Here are some steps to creating a good voice for your company:
- Think about how you want people to perceive your brand. Check out the chart below for some ideas.
- Bring your stylized voice into everything you create, whether that’s blog posts, social posts, youtube videos, your website, your menus, etc.
- Establish consistent patterns in your communication style so that people can recognize your brand at a glance. A great example is the social content and blog posts at Muncheez.
- Interact with loyal customers and fans of your brand or dispensary by creating a dialogue through your content or social posts using your voice. This establishes consistency and encourages people to engage with your brand online.
Branding – Voice Identification Graphic
Work on your cannabis brand’s visual design
The first thing many people notice when interacting with a cannabis brand online is its use of visuals. Great visuals paired with a well-developed aesthetic can catch your prospects eye while they browse digital content and help you make a great impression. Here’s how to make yours stand out.
- Develop a logo that stands out from your competition. The cannabis industry is becoming saturated as the market continues to expand exponentially. An eye-catching logo is essential to help you stand out. Avoid stoner imagery, use contrasting colors and make sure that it conveys your voice.
- Create a style guide full of approved fonts, colors, and logo variations. A style guide will take some of the difficulty out of the visual design.
- Use colors and images that reflect your brand’s identity and values. They should be clean and simple and avoid typical stoner imagery, such as tacky pot leaves and tie-dye.
- Stay consistent and cohesive with your imagery, and always include your logo or watermark
- Plan what your visuals will look like in various mediums, such as digital social posts which tend to be different sizes. Additionally, plan how your images will look while they’re printed.
Be compliant with your ads and your cannabis packaging
Compliance sounds obvious, as the cannabis industry is highly regulated on the state level. Legal and compliant packaging is crucial, but the laws are different in every state with medical or recreational marijuana so be sure to study all your local and state jurisdictions’ rules and regulations regarding packaging, labeling, and advertising. Study these laws closely, or you could brand yourself incorrectly and have to start all over.
Failure to be compliant can stick you with a hefty fine. You could even lose your business altogether in extreme cases. Double and triple check that you’re following the rules in your state before printing any of your packaging because catching the mistake after the fact can mean thousands of dollars lost to reprinting costs.
Cannabis branding, from the ground up
When you bring together great visuals, a consistent and approachable voice, and compliance in the legal cannabis industry you can easily establish a successful and well-known brand in a highly saturated industry. If you’re still getting started and aren’t sure which way to take your company, the cannabis marketing professionals at Team MaryJane help our cannabis clients all over the country develop strong, effective content marketing strategies and optimize all aspects of their marketing, including fine-tuning content, providing input on social media campaigns, creating content, and even helping you build your brand from the ground up. As one of the top dispensary marketing firms in Denver, we know we’ve got the tools to help you achieve all of your objectives. Get in touch with us today for a FREE no-risk consultation, or check out our Dispensary in a Box program, which is our most affordable (and most valuable!) full-service marketing package.