Cannabis Branding - Consumer Definition and Brand Foundations

If You Want to Build A Great Brand, It All Starts With Thoughtful Choice

When building your consumer-directed brand, everything you do is in pursuit of delighting your target consumer. And like any target, there is a bull's-eye. The centre. The one person that defines the segment. This is the Pen Portrait.

Now, we know we are not in business to delight only one person (they would have to buy a lot of our brand). But by forcing ourselves into choosing one person, and taking a life and category walk in their shoes, we can better create a picture in our heads. Even though we name them, give them a gender, a job and a place to live, we know our brand's relevance will extend out from that single person.

But again, by forcing choice, we force discipline and preciseness.

And once done, we can define the brand that will delight them through the Brand Foundations. What the brand is, what it does, and by extension, does for our consumer, and its point of view on the world.

To follow is an example (some elements removed) of what that could look like, for a cannabis brand. This work should be built internally, and then taken out and refined and then validated, with the consumer. Both the target and general population, to understand where the relevancy and consumption starts and ends, where the likes and uniqueness ratings sit. How the language lands.

The result will be a well constructed and market validated consumer and brand, which forms the beginning of a successful business. And everything you do, going forward, is in the pursuit of delighting that consumer - Good Marketing.

Brand Foundations Exercise

Target Consumer – Bull’s-Eye Pen Portrait

K is a 32 year old Caucasian male, living in P, O. He is an intelligent guy, having finished high school and attended college, but he is driven more by experiences than pure academia.

K has been successful in work, focusing on roles that provide him with a level of freedom and an ability to express himself. The result has been an annual salary of $70,000. He enjoys work and takes pride in what he does, but it is not his passion.

What really defines K is his life outside of work – that is what consumes him. K takes his experience-based mantra to the limit. He is physically active, ideally outdoors, be it hiking and rafting in the summer, or snowboarding in the winter. Want to try something new? K is up for it. Travel equals new experiences, so K sets aside time and money to go abroad – this does not mean an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. This means a backpacking trip through Vietnam or India.

K is dating but marriage is not on the immediate horizon. He is socially active and in most situations, he leads the group. He is equally comfortable being on his own, and there are times when he just wants to “experience K”.

K enjoys unique food and drink – craft beers represent an opportunity to try new and different brews that are based on a passion for quality – when he finds one he likes, he adds it to his list, but he is still on the lookout for the next new one. After all, that’s a new experience.

K has been consuming marijuana since high school, with his understanding of, and standards for, continuing to increase over time. Now, K primarily consumes extracts – he does that because they provide the best experience. It’s an important part of who he is. He takes it because it makes him better. He is more focused, happier, more in touch with his life. Because of this, he consumes daily. It is not an addiction, rather, it’s just part of what an experienced life is all about.

Our purpose is to delight K. To provide K with a brand that embodies his beliefs and delivers on his needs.

The C Brand

i. C Brand Positioning Statement

To K (Experience-Driven Artisans) C Is the cannabis extract that delivers a clearer, more focused euphoric experience. That’s because C has pioneered a proprietary method of mechanical trichome head ...., that guarantees the freshest product at the time of use.

C is the Purest .....Plant, so you have the Purest .....Plant

ii. C Brand Benefit Ladder

Product Attributes

- Same day trichome head .....

- Critical volatile .....

- Proprietary mechanical separation process using ....

- Full cycle refrigeration to ensure optimal freshness at the time of use

Product Benefit

- Freshest and most natural

- Most true to the original plant in look, feel and effect

Consumer Benefit

- Clearer, more focused, more euphoric experience

Emotional Benefit

- It maximizes my relationship with myself and the world around me

iii. C Brand Personality

C is a philosophy, a way of looking at life. C is cannabis, but cannabis as a pathway to betterment.

C believes that maximized experiences lead to our fullest potential. C believes that nature has given us what we need and our responsibility is to provide the most exact version in the cannabis products we produce. Technology is not a bad thing, as long as it is used to allow the most natural form of the product to be presented.

When making C, this philosophy pervades everything we do. We look at the plant in its most natural form and apply our expertise, our passion and our creativity, to deliver products of outstanding quality, but most importantly, products that truly represent the natural form.

C is the Purest ....Plant