Marijuana Business Magazine March 2020

March 2020 | mjbizdaily.com 55 Product Manufacturer Tips Erik Knutson CEO Keef Brands Boulder, Colorado Erik Knutson’s company, Keef Brands, produces cannabis-infused edibles and drinks that can be found in six states and Jamaica. We asked him about how branding strategies for product manufacturers are different than those in other areas of the cannabis sector. What do you see as the keys to successful branding? The keys to successful branding are consistency and clarity. It is vital that you keep a consistent look across all your products and media platforms so it’s clear to consumers who your brand is and who they are looking at. Packaging is the most important thing to pay attention to in this case (product manufacturing). If your brand produces multiple different product lines and types, it is very important to make sure that each clearly fits into the brand family. If you don’t, your different products will get lost in the mix and odds are consumers will not recognize them as being from the same brand. When this happens, you lose a lot of brand recognition that will only hurt you. Some people say branding is overrated and businesses should invest in quality and low pricing instead. What do you think? First, low price doesn’t always equate to low quality. I believe that if you are investing in branding, you are also investing in quality; the two really go hand in hand. Branding helps boost your company name as well as gives it an identity or culture that people can relate to and want to be a part of. Getting consumers to recognize themselves in your brand and branding efforts is crucial to gaining loyal customers who will continue to come back to your products and share them with friends and family. This alone provides a quality to a product that will beat out low prices almost every time. How is your brand strategy evolving as the industry matures? One of the primary goals we set forth in our new branding strategy was to create a mark and image that could be digested and appreciated by a wide range of consumers. As one of the original brands in Colorado, we didn’t want to lose our grassroots/OG feel during the rebrand. We also understood that the new consumer coming into the space is more familiar with traditional CPG practices—and with the industry heading in that direction, we sought out a nice balance of the two. Travis Howard Chief strategy officer Shift Cannabis Boulder, Colorado Shift is a marijuana cultivator that also produces cartridges and pre-rolls for the Colorado cannabis market. Travis Howard launched the company in 2010. How did you come up with the name and logo? The name was something that was always in our language. Day in and day out, people were talking about the paradigm shift, the cultural shift, the political shift. We’ve always believed a brand should be sticky, meaning it stays with you in some manner past seeing the logo or the product. It was obvious the word Shift qualified, and it tied into a few other parts that were really important to us as we founded it. The logo has been reworked since its inception, but we wanted something simple and classic. Something where the outline itself would be easily recognizable, and the font became the logo instead of a symbol or piece of art. In that way, we felt we could make something retro but forward-looking as well. How did you come up with and execute your brand strategy? This was more intuitive for our team. We simply asked ourselves questions as our target audience and began connecting in ways we wanted to connect. We’ve stumbled, and we will continue to do so, but we have a culturally important principle in our efforts. Making mistakes that are directionally aligned with your goal is the only way to ensure reaching your goal. How do marketing limitations affect that strategy? It makes you focus on word of mouth a lot more, ensuring you make your copy sticky, your message part of the story. I just don’t have the luxury of filling up someone’s Instagram feed like Allbirds or Birddogs. – Omar Sacirbey