Make or Break: The Critical Role of Packaging in the Cannabis Industry
Throughout our everyday lives we’re constantly interacting with packaging. We perhaps only pause and reflect when coming across a package that really stands out from the crowd for all the right or wrong reasons. Maybe it looks incredible, maybe you’ve lost ten minutes just trying to open it. Either way, you’ll have formed an opinion about it, and the product inside.
What’s particularly interesting about the legalized cannabis market is that it’s still relatively new, creating a rollercoaster for brands to figure out exactly how they should approach packaging. It’s one thing just getting to market but quite another to leverage the power of packaging to capture the attention and imagination of the consumer. The brands out there that are most recognizable or the most successful are often the ones that foresaw packaging’s importance and worked hard to get it right.
Brand Building
Building a brand is important for any company but especially so for legalized cannabis—it’s a crowded market of similar products, limited sales channels, interesting consumer segmentation, outside stigma, legitimacy and trust issues. A strong brand can cut through some of those barriers. It’s going to differentiate from competitors, emotionally connect with customers, instil trust, loyalty and encourage brand advocacy.
Packaging is a great platform to build some of those pillars that make a brand. It can be used to build a brand identity—exploiting the power of print for logos, graphics and typography. Brand values can be embodied within the packaging—material choices showing a commitment to sustainability and the environment or using premium materials and finishes to convey the same qualities for the product. It can be used to position the brand—for example, rooted in tradition or youthful and wild.
Laws and Regulations
Labelling is one of the big challenges. Brands need to include a range of information, and ensuring that it’s accurate and up to date is important. They will often need to include specific information about the product like strain, potency, chemical additives, weight, batch and certain dates. Ingredient lists, allergen information and dosing guidance are important for customer safety. Health warning messages may also need to be included. Some of this information can be pre-printed when ordering packaging and other elements added later during fulfilment by way of stickers or overprinting. Companies need to carefully manage stock levels and have a plan in place to react to labelling changes, replacing packaging without disrupting supply.
Careful Consideration Is Paramount
Packaging should be thought of as a long-term investment in the success of a business, warranted by the opportunities presented by getting it right and the risks associated with getting it wrong. There’s a long list of things that the packaging must do to be merely adequate and exceptional packaging can have a transformational effect for a brand. The worst starting point is the pursuit of the lowest possible cost above all else. In this scenario, neither the customer nor brand owner are likely to benefit in the long term. Putting time, effort and resources into developing the right cannabis packaging solution and a robust network of trusted suppliers is key.