Steps for a successful cannabis package design

Are you ready to make your cannabis, hemp or CBD product stand out from the crowd? 

With marketing teams focusing on creating attractive packaging for their cannabis products, you will also need to invest some thought into this process.

Aside from the need to make your packaging appear trustworthy and high-quality, the cannabis market presents other challenges. You will need to make sure your packaging complies with the legal requirements for this kind of product.

How to start thinking about your cannabis package design

The process of designing your packaging can be broken down into several key stages. 

Here’s a brief overview of the steps you might want to consider:

• Product and competitor research. Start by gathering all of the boxes you will need to check to ensure your packaging is compliant in your state. Introduce specifications and consider what needs to be stated on the packaging. Then, analyze the packaging of your top competitors to find out what works for them.

• Initial design ideas. If you are skilled in design, you might be able to come up with some artwork for your cannabis packaging. If not, you might want to consider hiring a design agency to brainstorm some initial concepts for you. 

• Test prototypes. Once you have settled on a design you see fit, make sure to gather prototypes to test with your product. Avoid oversized packaging for two reasons: It will cost you more, but also mislead your customer.

More on compliance in cannabis packaging

Ensuring legal compliance will be a key step in your cannabis package design. Issuing a non-compliant product could cost you a fortune in redesign, reprinting and potential fines.

It is often a good idea to leave extra space on the packaging to add new information at a later date. Since this industry’s regulations are ever-changing, your packaging will need to be somewhat flexible.

Here are some things to consider when it comes to legal compliance:

• Does your packaging contain the necessary universal symbols and warnings?

• Is your packaging designed at the correct level of opaqueness?

• If your CBD product is edible, have you printed allergen information and all other FDA requirements?

• Have you ensured your packaging is tamper-evident and childproof?

Some basics for attractive packaging

Now that you have dealt with legal compliance, it is time to start considering the attractiveness of your cannabis or CBD packaging. It has been demonstrated that attractive packaging activates the reward centers of the brain, increasing trust and affection for your product.

• Your ideal packaging will depend on your target audience. In particular, younger buyers are more attracted to simple, honest packaging. They tend to be more resistant to old marketing tropes, but more receptive to celebrity endorsements. A younger audience is also likely to be more appreciative of environmentally-friendly packaging.

• Make sure your cannabis packaging is informative! Clearly explain or illustrate the benefits of using the product. Using medical symbols or similar imagery can help to convey a message of improved health.

• Consider the traditional cannabis leaf carefully. Whilst this is the fastest way to help consumers understand what your product is, the image of the cannabis leaf is widely used. Think about color changes or other manipulations that could set you apart from the crowd.

—Jack Vale is a writer from Happy Writers, Co. in partnership with online faxing service, Faxage.