Monthly Archives: March 2020

Why Product Packaging Matters 1

Why Product Packaging Matters

Advice & Tips, Cannabis Marketing, Product Packaging,

Without a doubt, product packaging is one of the most vital ways to ensure that a product is appealing to various consumers. This applies to all products, and cannabis products are no exception. Unfortunately, many cannabis companies do not realize the absolute importance of product packaging.

If you are still uncertain about whether you should give your product top-notch packaging or not, here are some of the reasons why product packaging matters:

  • It makes your product stand on the retail shelf

Your product will be sitting beside other cannabis products, so how will it be different from others? Of course, product packaging is the single most important factor that will make it catch the attention of potential buyers. In fact, the packaging will make your product stand out on the shelf.

Generally, there are tons of things you can do with your product packaging. You can allow it to come in a particular container or shape that others do not usually have. Or ensure that it has a design that will make look different from others in an awesome way. Whatever packaging you want to use for your product, make sure that it will not make the product look odd in a way that will discourage the retailers from stocking it.

  • It gives important information about your products

If you are new to the cannabis market, it is likely that most consumers do not know anything about the products that you are selling. Therefore, you need to provide certain vital information about your brand as well as the product itself. Luckily, you can take advantage of product packaging to give various pieces of information about the products.

The set of information that can be on the product packaging includes the name of your brand, product type, net weight, batch numbers, ingredients, and warnings. It is worthwhile to note that your location may determine the information that you can add to the product package. Whatever the case may be, product packaging will still enable you to provide useful info about your cannabis product.

  • It enhances the experience of the customers

As a canna-brand, your concern should not just be about selling your product to customers. You need to associate a positive experience with using your cannabis product so that the consumers can always come back to buy from you. The experience that consumers will get from unboxing a beautifully wrapped box of cannabis products will be different from one that is shabbily and unattractively shaped. So, consider using your product packaging to offer buyers a one-of-a-kind experience that will make them become your loyal consumers.

All these benefits of product packaging will draw more consumers to your cannabis product as they will be willing to have a taste of what you are offering. This, in turn, will lead to improved sales for your business, and if your product is good, the consumers may continue buying your product for a long time.

Canadian Cannabis 2

Canadian Cannabis

Canada, ,

The cannabis industry is one of the fastest-growing ones in the world today.  This is quite understandable though considering the number of health benefits that come with the use of cannabis products. One of the leading countries in the industry is Canada. The cannabis industry in the country has continued to gain rapid traction daily.

What does the industry look like?

Everyone knows Canada to be a country blessed with natural resources among which are precious metals and oil sands. However, the cannabis sector is a new industry that has taken the investment and health sector by surprise. After the legalization of marijuana for recreational and medical use, a lot of analysts are now of the firm belief that the Canadian cannabis industry could become as high as over $22 billion in annual revenue. This is bigger than the combined value of the wine, spirits and beer industries.

The market is growing

Unlike what obtains in the US, the cannabis industry in Canada is legal on a federal level. This makes for better safety for all businesses within the industry. As a matter of fact, medical marijuana was legalized in 2001 in the country with the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations. The MMAR gave over forty thousand people to grow Marijuana. However, ever since then, the program has gone through institutionalization and has been extended in 2017 to recreational use. Now, there are corporate cannabis growers in the country.

Tons of opportunities are available

The cannabis industry in Canada is replete with opportunities for investors looking into trying out a new landscape. As it stands, the biggest and best option for cannabis investors looking out to break into the Canadian market is licensed production. This is because licensed producers enjoy a lot of exclusive rights. These rights cover not only the growth of Marijuana but also harvest and processing into extracts, flowers as well as edibles. Currently, there is a decent amount of producers with a valid license issued by Health Canada after a lengthy process of approval and these companies could generate billions of dollars in annual revenue.

What companies are the most viable for coming investors?

For investors just coming into the Canadian cannabis market to invest, it might be a lot helpful to know some of the notable companies in the industrial as well as their market capital. This is highlighted below:

  • Canopy Growth Corp. – $6.969B
  • Aurora Cannabis – $5.071B
  • Aphria Inc. – $1.807B
  • The Cronos Group – $2.844B
  • The Hexo Corporation – $656.233M
  • CannTrust Holdings Inc. – $195.117M
  • Namaste Technologies Inc. – $97.082M
  • OrganiGram Holdings – $549.118M
  • Emerald Health Therapeutics – $101.379M
  • The Supreme Cannabis Company Inc. – $238.736M

The Canadian cannabis market is on the rise as more brands are springing up every day. Therefore, the future is bright for any company that wants to offers the best Canadian cannabis.

Branding Cannabis 3

Branding Cannabis

Advice & Tips, Cannabis Marketing, Trends, , ,

Over the past few years, the Cannabis industry has witnessed lots of deciding moments and this is mostly due to the changes in all the regulations and laws on cannabis in a lot of countries. Some of these countries legalized it totally while some just made the already existing regulations concerning Cannabis usage more liberal. Consequent to these new laws and regulations, the Cannabis market has continued to become busier by the day, which means it is bound to be one of the biggest ministries in years to come. Besides, this means more efforts will be dedicated to Cannabis marketing and branding than before. However, the industry is still in early development, so certain challenges are inevitable.

Strategies and tactics

Strategies are very important in the Cannabis industry but not easy to get. A good amount of companies in the industry have exhausted a lot of money on marketing, but most of the effort has resulted in nothing but failure. What this indicates is that Cannabis branding demands beyond being different. It comes with certain challenges that are not present in other industries. Brand building requires consistency.

The successful Cannabis brands are the ones that are clear about their audience and they deliver to them accordingly. For instance, the brands make use of a sophisticated luxury concept and leverage on their quality product and image. On the other hand, others focus more or an artisan narrative by making use of experiences and tours in their dispensaries.

The importance of partnerships and influencers in the overall strategy can also not be overemphasized. By running influencer marketing campaigns through certain platforms, Cannabis companies can easily get around stringent advertising regulations of social media. In like manner, some brands have been partnering successfully with popular personalities to achieve the same result.

Establishing your brand in the marketplace

It is good to consider how to present your brand to the public. You must be conscious of your consumers and their view about your brand but this is a thing quite hard to achieve in the Cannabis industry. There are lots of misconceptions about the industry and its products so it is often quite tough for a cannabis brand to market itself to the public. Due to the fact that Cannabis is not legal in all places and is illegal by federal law, promoting it is sometimes still frowned upon.

For example, some of the most popular promoting channels such as Facebook and Google prohibit advertising services or products connected to the Cannabis industry. Thus, you don’t have the privilege of using the regular channels that you would if you were selling a different product or service. Therefore, you must contemplate the way to enter the market as well as the effective ways to promote your products or services within the existing restrictions.

The important thing to note here is that there are still certain ways through which your brand can be introduced and marketed to people. The channels to use include publications, websites that belong to the Cannabis industry as well as events, trade shows and social media pages of the industry.

What to look for in a web design company? 4

What to look for in a web design company?

Advice & Tips, ,

A lot of businesses today try to have a website that they use for the purpose of marketing their brands. This is a phenomenon that cuts through all industries, and the cannabis sector is not left out. The benefits are enormous as it makes your brand more visible and approachable to a wider range of audience. However, enjoying these perks will only be possible when the website is one of great quality and this is why you have to be very careful before selecting a web designer for the project.

Thus, below are some of the things to consider when choosing a web designer for your cannabis business.

Niche-specific skills

Web designers exist in plenitude these days. In fact, you won’t have to stress yourself before seeing one around you. However, you have to understand that the cannabis industry is a very distinct one which means you cannot just apply any web development strategy or technique and expect to see desired results. Due to this, it is advisable that you go for a cannabis-specific designer that properly understands both the ins and outs of the cannabis industry.

Experience working with cannabis marketing

Having the skills is not enough, it is also important for you to consider the amount of experience your website designer has with marketing in the cannabis industry. Just as with skills, marketing in the cannabis sector is totally different from what obtains in other industries. For example, there are lots of online marketing platforms that prohibit cannabis. A well-skilled website developer with sufficient experience will know how to work around this kind of situation. He will also be well acquainted with all the cannabis marketing techniques and schemes available.

Reviews

Before you go ahead and hand over the job to any web development agency or professional, you should do well to know their track record with clients. This is easy to determine by checking out their reviews. If the agency has a generally positive list of reviews, then it means you are likely to be delivered a quality job.

On the other hand, where the reviews are predominantly negative, it is advisable to stay off such a professional, agency or company. Similarly, you should try to ascertain the customer’s retention rate of such agency or professional. Thus, even if the reviews are generally positive but they are terrible at retaining clients, then you might have to think twice before hiring such a web development company.

Long term establishment

When you are choosing a web developer for your cannabis business, try to go for a professional or agency with long term establishment. In other words, choose one that will still be around for a reasonable amount of years in case you need them later. This has to be said because lots of people are fond of giving the job to people who offer cheap services or a friend or family member doing the job as a side gig and might not be around later on if there is any problem at some point.

We put together these few pieces of advice to hopefully guide you in your selection for your next web design partner. Please email us hello@420webpros.com if you’re interested in getting the conversation started about your next project!

US Presidential Candidates stance on Cannabis 5

US Presidential Candidates stance on Cannabis

United States, , , ,

Over the years, the use of cannabis in the United States has increased acceptability. To ensure more liberal approach towards cannabis and its industry, it is imperative to look into the positions and attitudes of the different US presidential candidates in the coming elections towards this powerful plant.

Senator Bernie Sanders

Senator Bernie Sanders has stated clearly that the legalization of cannabis is one of his major objectives. He plans to effect this within his first 100 days in office with executive action. He also intends to expunge and vacate all previous convictions related to marijuana. Also, he intends to keep Big Tobacco off the cannabis market and has mapped out a plan to make sure that tax revenue gathered from marijuana goes to the people and communities plagued the most by the War on Drugs.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump is not just a presidential candidate in the United States; he is the current president. He has stated to be “100%” in support of the idea of legalization of medical cannabis during his campaign sessions prior to his 2016 election. However, he has generally been silent on the issue since he was elected. One thing is suggestive of his genuine stance and that is his appointment of now-former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Notably, Sessions was probably the fiercest opponent of the marijuana legalization movement in Capitol Hill. Nevertheless, nothing is still fully established about Donald Trump’s stance.

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Senator Elizabeth Warren has a similar attitude as Sanders toward Cannabis. She has also claimed that, if elected as the president of the United States, she would leverage on executive action to strike marijuana off the list of controlled substances. However, this comes as no surprise, because she has co-sponsored a decent amount of cannabis reform bills such as the STATES Act and CARERS Act.

Joe Biden

A lot of people who know the former Vice President well enough will understand the fact that his position on Cannabis has become significantly liberal over the years. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he used to be one of the strongholds behind the War on Drugs.  Nevertheless, even though his campaign spokesperson told CNN in 2019 that he is in support of the idea of letting states make their own decisions, he has never said anything about changing federal policy.

Michael Bloomberg

The former New York City Mayor used to crack down on violations against cannabis. Between 2002 and year 2013 that he was in office, there was a huge rise in the arrests for cannabis-related activities but he was always voting proposals that canvassed for fines and court summonses instead of arrests for possession of Cannabis in small amounts.

Pete Buttigieg

Buttigieg who used to be a Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, also claims to work with and support lawmakers in Congress for the legalization of Cannabis at the federal level. Just like Bernie Sanders, Buttigieg has talked about the social injustice occasioned by the War on Drugs and he intends to tackle those problems head-on if elected into office.