The Do’s and Don’ts of Dispensary Branding

Dispensary Cannabis Branding: How Not to Build a Brand

With so many moving pieces and factors to consider, it can be very easy to make dispensary cannabis branding mistakes that can weaken a brand and make it less effective.

Weak brands tend to have muddy visions and mixed messaging that fail to communicate value and purpose both internally and externally. Their lazy brand missions fail to inspire both consumers and employees.

Keeping your brand strong and on point will allow it to be an emotional driving force that helps consumers to better connect with your business and enjoy its products.

Here are a few common branding mistakes that weaken brands and make it more difficult for them to attract and engage consumers. Avoiding these 3 branding ‘don’ts’ will help your dispensary brand grow and thrive!

Don’t Forget to Communicate Value

Failing to communicate to consumers just what makes your brand special will have them wandering away to greener pastures in no time.

Your brand messaging must contain your value proposition. Try to outline what you offer and why it matters, without the overuse of buzzwords or vague terminology.

Additionally, don’t forget to build a brand that clearly communicates positive points of differentiation vis-a-vis similar brands and close competitors. Your brand should do its best to communicate to consumers not just why they should choose your brand, but why they should choose it over your closest competitors.

Don’t Ignore Internal Branding

Internal branding is crucial to ensuring that your dispensary’s employees know what is expected of them and are able to act in unison with your brand’s mission. Internal branding promotes consistency throughout your team and can have a significant impact on company culture, morale, and productivity.

Many businesses limit the effectiveness of their brand by failing to properly and consistently communicate it to their employees. Marketing your brand to your employees through internal branding campaigns will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page all the time.

Your employees represent your brand. And oftentimes they are the main point of contact between the customers that walk through your dispensary’s doors and your dispensary’s brand. Employees need to be aware of customer touchpoints and how they influence and mediate the interactions between your brand and its customers.

Don’t Wait Too Long to Rebrand

If your brand isn’t working for you, don’t make the mistake of waiting too long to rebrand. Rebranding can seem like an overwhelming task, but it may be best to get it over with sooner rather than later.

If you are convinced that certain elements of your branding strategy are not working, or that your brand may need an overhaul altogether, a rebrand may be in order. Especially if your dispensary’s core values, mission, or vision have changed. Just make sure that you are rebranding for the right reasons.

If your sale numbers are slumping or if you are having a hard time expanding your reach, those problems may be indicative of issues with your marketing and sales strategies, rather than your brand. However, if certain elements of your brand are clearly failing to connect with consumers, then don’t hesitate to pull the trigger on a rebrand.

Rebranding shouldn’t necessarily be thought of as a bad thing. In reality, companies can find themselves having to rebrand for all kinds of reasons, like if they are expanding their product line in a new direction or entering a new market.

Dispensary Cannabis Branding: The Do’s of Branding – What You Should Be Doing

Now that we’ve focused on what you shouldn’t be doing, let’s take a moment to talk about what you should be doing to grow your brand successfully. There are a few dispensary cannabis branding guidelines that can consistently improve the effectiveness of all brands, regardless of the industry that they operate in.

Here are 4 things to focus on if you want your dispensary brand to be successful.

Know Your Audience

Before you even begin to build your brand strategy, you need to take some time to understand your target consumer. Your brand strategy should start with your customers. After all, the customer is always right!

Defining your target audience before creating your brand will help you to create the right kind of brand that attracts the right kinds of people.

According to cannabis research company Headset, the average age of the American cannabis consumer is 37.5 years old. Additionally, from college-aged recreational users to elderly medicinal users, cannabis consumers cover a broad spectrum of personalities and personas.

Knowing your audience will allow you to communicate with them more clearly and effectively. For instance, when creating content for your audience, make sure to talk to them in a way that they can resonate with.

And if you are considering a rebrand, don’t underestimate the value of customer feedback. Talking to customers can help to expose weak points in your branding strategy and help you to better understand where, how, and why your brand is failing to connect with your target customers.

Create a Consistent Branding Guide

Consistency is crucial to successful branding. Maintaining brand consistency across all platforms will help to ensure that your messaging is consistent, no matter where it shows up.

Over time, having a consistent brand can work to amplify your message and to build familiarity and trust with consumers. Consistency also facilitates the building of brand loyalty and the establishment of trusting relationships between a brand and its customers.

One way to promote brand consistency is by creating a branding guide that sets forth concrete standards and guidelines for communicating your brand.

Also known as a style guide, a branding guide comprehensively covers the individual elements of your brand identity and provides specific instructions as to how to present, communicate, and manage them. A branding guide typically goes over things such as your logo, color palette, typography, voice and tone, and imagery, among other things.

After creating your branding guide, all that’s left is to apply it consistently in a way that harmonizes your branding efforts across all platforms. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, your website, or your print ads, remember to keep your brand strategy consistent

Look at Your Competition

Taking a look at your competition’s branding efforts can save you time, money, and work by allowing you to see what works and what doesn’t. Additionally, inspecting your close competitor’s brands can also give you ideas for how you can differentiate your own brand to make it more appealing and successful.

No matter how much you prepare, you can never really tell how people will react to your brand until you actually put it out there. Taking a look at the successes and failures of your competitor’s brands can help you to remove some of the trial and error from you own branding experience.

Closely analyzing a competitor’s brand can give you a good feel of their brand identity and positioning strategy. This can help you to build your own brand in a way that positively differentiates it from the competition.

Keep It Simple

Overcomplicating brand elements can make it more difficult to build a brand identity and to communicate what you need to. Your brand should make it easy for consumers in the marketplace to understand what you do, and what you are offering them.

Keeping your messaging simple can help to avoid confusion and eliminate uncertainty. Tag lines, slogans, headlines, and other forms of brand messaging that are short, sweet, and to the point are attractive to consumers

Consumers also have an easier time building loyalty with brands that are simple and easy to understand. Brands that keep their messaging simple have nothing to hide and can communicate with consumers in a way that seems honest and builds trust.