Cannabis Branding: Top Five Trends for Success

Cannabis has arrived. It’s no longer universally stigmatized. Cannabis distributors are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Cannabis is projected to become a 70-billion-dollar business by 2028.  

The market has expanded to include medicinal and recreational CBD products, various edibles, pre-rolled joints, etc. Cannabis can be purchased online, from subscription-based services or brick-and-mortar dispensaries.

This expansion and move toward legitimacy are long overdue, but it isn’t without new challenges. How do you create cannabis branding that stands out in a crowded and competitive field? Before strategizing, some attention to essential elements of current cannabis packaging trends needs to be locked down.

A logo is no longer required to be an effective marijuana logo design. Now, it’s more critical for marijuana brands to consider the bigger picture of what they want to convey with their cannabis packaging design. The trend toward jokey or puny cannabis dispensary branding is outdated. The best cannabis brands are moving toward more sophisticated and broadly evocative names. It’s essential to focus on the consumer your cannabis product brand appeals to – Modern, Health-centric, Exclusive, Upscale, or Hip. Current cannabis packaging design trends are taking a page from the marketing for organic products, beauty brands, or coffee and tea companies. Each of these verticals has a crossover with designer weed packaging.

Savvy consumers are drawn to well-branded products, not generic bottles and bags. As a result, cannabis brands are using graphics on non-cannabis consumer goods – clean, flat retro-inspired graphics and under-saturated pastels. A serif font, bold ampersands, and illustrations convey a hand-made artisanal touch to the weed package design. According to PMMI’s Cannabis Market Report white paper, Millennials are expected to be a key audience for the cannabis market. And these updated cannabis packaging concepts target millennials effectively.

As the US moves toward federal legalization, weed brands, and cannabis manufacturers are looking ahead at cannabis packaging trends and opting for a child-resistant and tamper-evident cannabis package design that meets compliance regulations in all 50 states. Universal compliance eliminates the need to reconfigure beautiful cannabis packaging when it’s time to expand nationwide. Because pharmaceutical packaging technologies and CR-testing standards are well-established, lawmakers will likely not need to introduce new legislation for weed package design. Establishing universally compliant cannabis dispensary branding and packaging now will help cannabis manufacturers avoid expensive reconfiguring of their cannabis packaging trends in a few years.

A recent study shows that nearly eighty percent of consumers base their purchasing preferences on a brand’s social responsibility, inclusiveness, or environmental impact, making sustainability a critical cannabis branding factor for manufacturers. 

Particularly among younger consumers, sustainability in designer weed packaging influences purchasing decisions regardless of the product type. As recycled and recyclable materials increase in popularity, cannabis brands emphasizing their commitment to the environment through their weed package design will prosper. 

According to Packaging Sustainability: A Changing Landscape, a report from PMMI, the next generation of consumers will demand less material in beautiful cannabis packaging. In addition, companies will need their cannabis dispensary branding and packaging to be attentive to their entire sustainability equation. Sustainability leaders, Millennials are a vital audience for cannabis producers. They care more about sustainability than any other demographic does. This group will likely check cannabis packaging design labels for recycling and sustainability options.

Because it’s become such a lucrative market, cannabis is becoming a favorite target of counterfeiters. Selling inferior look-alike products doesn’t just cut into profits, it damages the brand.

Pharmaceutical companies – particularly narcotics manufacturers – have long been targeted by international counterfeiters. To combat this, the FDA requires serialized codes to verify a product’s authenticity. Technology is rapidly advancing to create better tracking with a variety of overt and covert authentication methods. Serialization as a defense against fraud continues to impact all drug manufacturing, and implementation creates challenges beyond compliance at all stages of the packaging process, according to PMMI’s Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices white paper.

These authentication technologies may be easily visible on the package, such as unique source codes, holograms, and serial numbers. Or they may be covert techniques that only authorities can reference, like UV-sensitive inks and chips embedded in the actual products. Expect to see an increasing number of these track-and-trace technologies coming to cannabis in the years ahead. Serialization requires a data-heavy approach, but it assures consumers they are getting the real thing.

Serialization can also help with marketing – for example, allowing the consumer to engage with the product when they check a product’s unique serial number online.

As the cannabis market expands, brand saturation is becoming a new challenge for cannabis branding. Smaller players with subpar or ineffective cannabis branding can quickly find themselves pushed out. Employing custom packaging for cannabis brands will ensure they stand out in the crowded retail environment. Uniquely shaped products and upscale printing are two ways to catch consumer attention. Advanced printing techniques, such as embossing and metallic inks, cost-effectively express uniqueness and create a custom feel.

How To Get Custom Cannabis Packaging

You can get custom cannabis branding and packaging here at Marijuana Packaging. Whether you purchase pre-rolled cones, tubes, or any other custom pre roll packaging, you can customize the products to add value.

Custom edible packaging is another simple way to upgrade your product presentation. We offer a choice of materials, sizes, and visual designs to create a solid impression for your customers. The combination of options for our custom edible packaging is nearly limitless, from Mylar bags to jars. Your business has the freedom to choose whatever custom edibles packaging best suits your product.

• Our Mylar bags for custom edible packaging are available in sizes from 1g to 448g and come in various materials like polyethylene terephthalate, clear PET (for creating windows on the front or back), and metalized PET material, or durable kraft paper.
• Our glass suction jars are available in sizes ranging from 5ml to 6 oz. The jars for custom edibles packaging are compatible with our child-resistant lids to give you more options for your custom packaging.
• Our Child-Resistant Hinged Pre-Roll Tin Boxes have production times as low as 3-4 weeks with minimum order quantities as low as 5,000 pieces an order. Tin is sturdy and is also a great example of sustainable packaging.
• Our paper drawer boxes are available in 100% recyclable paper-based materials. The open surface space of the paper drawer boxes is the ultimate canvas space for customized designs.
• With multiple choices for child-resistant, tamper-evident, and compliant packaging, the options for custom edible containers are nearly limitless.

Our design team can create custom labels for jars in a few simple steps. You can take the lead from broad concepts like color down to more specific ideas like embossed vs. flat labels. 

We offer an extensive combination of our custom concentrate packaging options – embossing, hot stamping, matte or glossy finish, spot UV finish, and debossing. We have a selection of cap liners and numerous sizes and shapes for our bags and custom weed jars. We also offer recyclable, biodegradable, sustainable, eco-friendly packaging options.

Custom Mylar bags have become an integral part of cannabis packaging design. You can choose from a glossy or matte finish, spot UV finish, hot stamping, embossing, and debossing. Using custom Mylar bags is one of the long-lasting cannabis packaging trends that allows your business to reach and attract new customers.

Our experienced graphic designers specialize in looking beyond a generic pot leaf logo. Our team is eager to take your idea and execute it to your high standards. And if you don’t have a specific concept, they will develop a solution to make you happy. They’ve served countless satisfied customers and can help you achieve your goals.

And we offer custom product packaging quotes within 24 hours. Fast response times enable your business to begin the customization process quickly. 

Our Low Minimum Order Quantities (MOQs) facilitate the ease of operation for cannabis businesses. With as few as 50 pieces an order, you retain the flexibility to quickly adjust your processes to accommodate consumer behavior, seasonal promotions, or unique marketing campaigns.

We also make cartridge filling machines if you’re making your vape pen cartridges. Cartridge filling becomes more manageable and efficient and allows you to produce hundreds or thousands of vape cartridges every day. And our vast selection of glass cartridges and cartridge packaging makes our site a one-stop shop for cartridge manufacturing operations.

In addition, our products have a Price Beat Guarantee. We’ll beat it if you find a better deal from our competitors!

 Branding is more critical to success than ever before. The name, logo, and packaging all combine to tell the customer who you are and what you stand for.  Marijuana Packaging is the best partner to get that right.