Packaging Your Potential: Custom Cannabis Packaging Options
Custom cannabis packaging can be the most powerful tool in your arsenal. A good packaging strategy is essential to any marijuana brand. It can help distinguish your brand, and make or break your success.
The cannabis industry faces a tricky balancing act in regards to marketing, as legalization and mass consumption loom in many states. Large grow ops and industry insiders argue that branding is necessary to legitimize the business and to convince consumers to make the switch away from the black market — all while legislation is calling for plain packaging and stringent advertising. In an economic landscape where marijuana is a commodity, grow ops and dispensaries alike will survive based on their ability to differentiate themselves from competition with custom cannabis packaging.
Sticker Labeling for Packaging
Stickers are a powerful tool for marijuana brands in all stages of marketing development. Whether you’re looking for a budget-friendly solution, or you’re in a product category with seasonal turnover, stickers and sticker labeling are popular solutions to catch the eye of potential customers.
The only limit to your design is your creativity. Sticker labels allow you to print anything from detailed branding and design, to nutritional information, on a single sheet. This is at a fraction of the price it would cost you to print directly on the substrate (AKA the packaging material itself). Stickers also offer ease of use – no special machinery required – and a relatively short production time, dependent on the quality and quantity of stickers.
Stickers can be applied across product genres to create brand unity; Cannabis producers can label everything from Pop-Top Bottles, to Flip-Top Bottles, Reverse Cap Bottles, Pre Roll Tubes, Glass Jars, Barrier Bags, Child Safe Bags, Exit Bags and more. You can procure labels and labeling services from nearly every packaging company and some may offer design services as well.
If your brand is more developed, and you’re looking at semi-custom or full-custom packaging, sticker labeling can allow you the flexibility to stay current without the hassle of changing your design. Want to highlight seasonal promotions? Doing limited runs of flavors? Sticker labeling enables brands to evolve as packaging legislation evolves.
Semi Custom Cannabis Packaging
Semi-custom bags are a powerful next step for companies who’ve built their fan-base and discovered their aesthetic, but are also perfect for new companies with very dialed-in and focused branding. While semi-custom options are a slightly more expensive, the effect of the branding applied directly to the barrier bag, pop top or concentrate container is undeniably elevated. Although there are limits to the color variety and placement which semi-custom packaging can afford, the look of the finished product lends itself to brands shooting for a vintage look, to a clean modern look, to a limited-run boutique look, and nearly everything in between.
Hot stamping, also known as foil stamping, is a popular type of semi-custom printing that has existed since the 19th century. Ink or foil sheets are transferred to the material surface at high temperatures, imparting not only color or sheen, but texture, just like a hot iron brand. This texture adds to that luxury feel that many cannabis brands are after and can be applied in several overlapping colors to both the front and back of barrier bags, child resistant bags, and more.
Select companies also offer an ink printing service with a similar price point as hot stamping for custom pop top bottles, custom concentrate containers and custom child resistant bottles. Only a select few companies offer the affordable, stylish, mid-range semi-custom option for bags and pop tops. If you go with a packaging company like Green Rush Packaging, capable of a full range of semi-custom effects with in house production and short turnarounds, semi-custom branding can be an excellent option. Unfortunately, many companies outsource this process and lead times on production can be long.
Full Custom Cannabis Packaging
Nothing says “the cannabis industry has matured” more than full custom packaging. Cannabis growers and purveyors are starting to recognize the need to force the issue; their product is deserving of the same packaging fate as any commodity fighting for shelf space. Brands hoping to become household names have given up the rastafari color scheme, the Marley caricatures and the bad marijuana puns in favor of clean modern designs. And while some brands still embrace the cannabis leaf itself, the industry is trending away from its use as key to brand strategy, opting for subtler uses instead.
Full custom packaging is the ultimate branding solution, and offers a company complete control over color, format and presentation. Because full custom printing is primarily done overseas in larger quantities, many packaging companies offer full custom services but at a varying levels of cost.
To take full advantage of full custom cannabis packaging, you’ll need a very clear brand message and a well thought out packaging strategy, but it can be the most powerful tool in your arsenal.