Zesty ✴︎ Branding Agency Vancouver, Package Design, Graphic Design

Branding Agency Vancouver

ZestyBrands

Cannabis Branding

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It’s becoming understood that an investment in strong branding for cannabis companies is key to rising above the glut of hopefuls trying to get a piece of the grassy pie.

With Canada’s federal government announcing it would be legalizing marijuana, we’re seeing a staggering increase of products coming on the cannabis market. This means you’ll be seeing a lot more Cannabis brands in the near future.

Gone are the days of buying weed on a dimly lit street corner. It’s no longer a shady exchange, it’s regulated, legal and it’s a legitimate business—a business opening up an exciting new territory.

At our boutique Vancouver branding studio, we develop brands for growers, investors, dispensary owners and inspired entrepreneurs. We help cannabis companies take an objective look at their brand, develop a strategy for how they want to be perceived and create design and communications to follow.

It’s becoming understood that an investment in strong branding is key to rising above the glut of companies trying to get a piece of the grassy pie. It’s more than just selling marijuana products, this is an entirely new business sector that requires everything from professional and captivating branding to chic package design and fully designed and branded retail spaces.

The importance of remarkable cannabis branding

The sustainability of the cannabis industry is dependent upon strong brands and good design. Beyond just making the product more mainstream, strong branding helps the public feel safer and more well-informed about the use of cannabis. The public needs to see that the industry is legitimate, and branding and package design will be the first and most notable ambassador of change.

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Send us a note to learn more about our branding services

 

Branding & Package Design in 2018

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The brands we buy are an extension of our identity. Products are more than just products, they’re a signal to who we are and the values we hold.

The job of branding and package design is to reflect those values back to the customer. When it comes to adventure brands, we want the products to look and feel exciting and capable. Wellness brands should ooze a healthy and wholesome vibe. Luxury brands need to convey a sophisticated language and personality and their packaging should be high quality.

Many of the trends we will see this year are largely based on the buying power of Millennials. They’re influencing how brands respond to consumers shifting values. Consumers in the 18-34 age bracket are demanding higher standards of design and a consideration on environment and sustainability.

Brand these days need to be more honest and authentic than ever before. The traditional power dynamic where the brand has more power than the consumer is long gone. The Millennials are so well-connected that they know if a product is inferior, the service bad or if the brand is not being authentic. In today’s market, consumers can find an alternative almost instantly or publicly criticize a brand, using social media.

Consumers want a story. They want to know “why” you’re selling your product or service, not “what” you’re selling.  Recent research supports the importance of good brand stories, finding that a brand, its zest-factor and even its font style and color scheme were accurately recalled in the context of an original story.

Retail spaces are becoming brand experience spaces. How you behave is as important as what you say and smart brands will reinvent their spaces for people to connect and interact with the brand in person, versus just online through social media and web.

The key takeaway is to be more authentic and more personal through design.

 

How-to create a successful product launch

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Getting your idea to the shelves

The process of getting your idea to the shelves of major retailers can feel overwhelming. And once you’re there, success not only requires a viable idea but an alluring brand, scaleable business model and healthy supply chain.

Understandably, we all want the instant product success and the brand recognition of companies such as Herschel, Burt’s Bees and Air BnB. But what does it take for a brand to truly break through in today’s crowded market?

It starts with planning. First, you need to define the purpose and value proposition of your product—at our Vancouver branding agency we ask: What’s your zest-factor? Second, you need to focus on storytelling rather than on selling a product.

Your Purpose

It takes more than a great product to pitch the retail buyer. You need to know what you do and why; it’s also important to define what you don’t do.

For your product to stand out, you must have a purpose. And you’ll need to really think deeper on this—it’s a nice sentiment to try and make the world a better place, but ultimately that’s just a vague comment that doesn’t capture attention. Instead, look at your target customers and decide how your products will enhance their lives and solve a problem for them.

Create a story

Stories are the best way to distinguish yourself from the other brands. Why?Because people always remember a good story. If your brand is going to succeed, it has to become something more than your products. You need to tell stories that touches the hearts of your customers.

Great stories have several key ingredients, here are a few to consider:

Theme

Something important the story tries to tell us. A theme ties the character’s (customers) concerns and passions and it will keep your brand on-point with every decision and communication.

Example: Toms shoes, improving lives.

Plot

A conflict or struggle that the main character (customer) goes through and the sequence of events inside a story. Conflict translates naturally to storytelling in products. People use your product to solve a specific problem or to get a specific job done. What will their experience be from purchase to usage and beyond?

Example: Endy Mattress. By offering home delivery in a compact box, the company takes the stress away from the mattress-buying process and even makes it enjoyable in its un-boxing.

Setting

A place and time that gives a vivid mental picture of the world your characters are in, as such, when you can create a setting that your product lives, it gives people a feeling of stepping into a whole new world with your brand.

Example: Is your brand about; the natural environment, a fun atmosphere, on an adventure in the backcountry, a luxurious evening etc? Once you define this, you can enhance and embellish.

Style and Tone

The language that feels right for your story. A brand’s tone of voice should be distinctive, recognizable and unique. It’s job is to communicate effectively with the customer.

Who are your customers

This is one of the first questions I ask my clients. Yet so many times I hear “Everyone. My target is whoever wants to buy my product”.

Knowing your demographic is essential so that we can understand purchase habits, what other brands appeal to them and with whom you might be competing with for their attention on the shelves. Knowing your target market allows us to establish a brand personality and design language that speaks to them.

Understand the space your product will live

Research your ideal retailers and list the type of products that they offer. Look for gaps where your product fits and where there are no competing products. Or if there are competing products see where your direct competition sells and how their product is positioned. Are there advertisements, point of purchase displays, or end-caps dedicated to your competitor’s product or brand? If the answer is yes, you might have a harder time out-marketing them, but, does your product offer a different value proposition or go after a different niche?

Your pricing structure

Obviously you need to do your homework on ingredient/material costs, the cost of your co-packaging or manufacturing costs, any broker or distributor fees, as well as any packaging, design, engineering and freight costs. Beyond that, you need to look at how the brand relates to the price. If you have an $8 box of crackers that will sell at Whole Foods, it should look and feel like an $8 box of crackers in order to appeal to the customers you’d like to target.

A smaller budget and lower retail price doesn’t mean your packaging can’t be well-designed and on-brand—but it’s very important to look you want to achieve with a specific project budget. If your product is purposefully economical, it shouldn’t look like a luxury brand—there would be a disconnect with the customer.

Keep your retailers happy

If your product isn’t selling, it won’t be reordered. It’s as simple as that. You need to make sure your product is top of the list for a purchase order. This means understanding their needs and how you can help make their life easier.

Make your best effort to keep stores informed and educated about your product. This means in-store demos, providing helpful marketing materials and even producing in-store displays or coolers that assist with telling your story for you.

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For more help with launching a product, drop us an email!

 

Why you need a personal brand

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If you don’t have a succinct personal brand, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage in your professional and personal life.

What is a personal brand?

Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room, it’s your reputation. Personal branding means taking an active role in the direction of your life and it will highlight to others what you’ve got to offer. A personal brand put simply is: a neatly packaged set of values, character traits and capabilities that make you unique.

Why you need a personal brand

Personal branding is becoming increasingly important because of the intrinsic relationship between our personal and professional lives. Your reputation, both online and offline has become more impactful than your resume, and personal branding is advantageous for those who want to rise above the rest.

Personal branding not only relates to your professional life, it’s incredibly helpful for increasing focus with regards to personal development, decision-making and overall life satisfaction. The relationship between life success and personal branding, when understood, can truly launch you to new heights; in that when you have a compelling personal brand, people will be more likely to connect with you because they find you interesting, desirable and they understand clearly how you can help them. You’ll become a forerunner in the minds of corporate leaders and a magnetic prospect for like-minded friends and relationships.

How to build a personal brand

Building a unique brand around yourself as an individual is not unlike building a brand for a company. In fact, it’s nearly identical.

Your personal brand is less about your look, and more about finding your authentic voice. It’s about digging deep to uncover why you do what you do and the many attributes that make you unique. You can’t fake your personal brand, at least in the long-term. People these days have a pretty high bullshit meter, so in order to be successful you have to get authentic.

Part of personal branding is identifying your personal style—and that responds to a variety of factors, including your goals, your profession, your skills, your interests, your culture, your life experiences and the quirks of your personality. To pin down your personal brand, you must be clear on who you are and what you bring to the table; it’s the the strengths that others acknowledge in you and things that have always been true about you. You’ll need to resist the temptation to put on a style or adopt a style unlike your natural one, you need to intensify the one you already possess.

Personal brand in business & life

Personal branding fuses your business and personal life; because your business and your life are naturally intertwined!

Like most of us, you initially pursue a career so you can afford to live, but this brings up the critical question: What do you want your life to be like? What is the life that will lead to fulfillment? Although you may ignore these questions for a while, eventually you’ll find your work/life balance is out of whack, and those questions cannot be ignored.

It’s all too common for people wake up and find themselves knee-deep in a life without purpose or passion. When you develop a personal brand, it becomes the torch for finding your way in career, love and life. You’ll increase self-love, your purpose will become clear, and how you can be of service to others will be revealed to you.

Rise above the rest

When you choose to develop a succinct personal brand, you’ll not only be providing clarity to others, you’ll have clarity for yourself. You’ll have more energy and focus because you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing, what you bring to the table and where you’re headed. You’ll rise above your career competition because you’re consistent in your delivery and you take steps to put yourself out there, get noticed and you have courage and conviction to keep going, learning and growing—you create a virtuous cycle.

Be yourself. Everyone else is taken

Being authentic means being able to be your true self, with honesty, openness and transparency. It’s about having the courage to define your own version of what it is to live a successful life and it’s key to experiencing happiness and meaning.

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Check out my personal brand over at zestylife.ca

Why Zesty Brands

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Here at Zesty Brands, our Vancouver branding agency has a heartfelt passion for uncovering your greatness.

Main Squeeze and creative director, Rachelle Hynes inspires you to push the boundaries and make bold decisions. In her experience, it’s in this uncomfortable territory that extraordinary brands are born and radically better businesses are formed.

Everyone wants to have a memorable brand, but very few carve out a relevant difference in the market. Most businesses focus solely on the design, the look and the marketing—branding is SO much more than that. It’s your story, your personality, your purpose and vision, it’s all the tiny nuances that make you unique. Rachelle finds it frustrating to see many companies waste thousands of dollars playing it safe on “me-too” ideas; they miss the point of working with a strategic branding company.

Brands that really move the needle have one thing in common: bravery.

Being brave means making investment in your brand a priority. Memorable brands possess a laser-focused relentlessness and determination to champion the things they believe in, and make a difference to their lives and the world they live in.

It takes bravery to be unabashedly true to your brand. Courage means breaking away from the kinds of communications that you see from your peers and doing something creatively different. Rachelle believes if you’re not afraid of your business decisions, it probably means the work does not have enough zest! Breaking new ground is scary, but moving towards fear is the only way to realize incredible growth and remarkable success.

About Rachelle

Rachelle holds a Design + Illustration degree from Capilano University and her work has achieved accolades from several publications including; DesignEdge Magazine, Thedieline, Kitwatch, Awwwards and Men’s Fitness Magazine.

Rachelle has spent over a decade working with an amplitude of companies such as; Hitcase, Paladin Security, Bean Around the World, Rescue Project and Lucky iron Fish. Rachelle’s multidisciplinary background in graphic design, branding and illustration combined with a fierce love of outdoor adventure inspired her decision to create ZESTY BRANDS—a branding agency that is hyper-focused on helping emerging brands with big plans.

Gaining traction in a peloton of brands

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Strategies for getting ahead of the competition are often based around the principle, be better than the rest. This can be an uphill battle if you’re one of many in a peloton of brands.

If you’re a startup or small brand looking to breakout, you’ve gotta think about micro-specialization. What do your customers need and how can you narrow your offering down to something you can become known for. If your brand were a cyclist, would you only fight for the yellow jersey when you have the opportunity to change gears and competently grab the polka dot?

Does this brand understand my problem deeply enough to solve it?

This is a question potential customers think about when making purchase decisions. Imagine for example, you crashed your bike and you need surgery on your left shoulder. Are you going to head to the nearest surgeon, or would you rather visit the one who specializes in left-shoulder surgeries?

By concentrating on a niche, you can stand out amongst the competition, give your prospects the confidence to listen to your pitch and seriously consider your offering. Eventually they’ll decide to purchase from you instead of the more generally-focused competitors. The expertise your brand offers makes it the first and often only stop for your customers.

Gaining traction in a crowded market

Let’s take a look at the boutique bike brand Franco for example. This sleek and elegant roadbike brand based in SoCal is one I hadn’t heard of until recently, and it begs the question, how can a boutique brand imagine competing against the big brands like Specialized and Giant?

Nevertheless, Franco is gaining traction and popularity. Franco’s strategy? A hyper-focus on customer service. Franco pride’s itself on making no compromises when it comes to personal service, tailored builds and top notch performance. When you order a Franco, everything is custom. Each bike is built from the ground up according to each customer’s specific requests regarding all components, from custom colour to drivetrain, saddle, stem and handlebars.

So rather than buy a bike off the shelf and drop an additional wad of cash on upgrades, with Franco you get the bike exactly the way you want it, out of the box. Plus they’ve dialed their consumer-direct business model so you are knocking out the middle man to save you some moola for maintenance and cafe’ stops.

Hyper-specialization creates connection

By narrowing your focus on a niche, you can get you closer to your customers. From this closer vantage point, your brand can become indispensable and a pacesetter for a specific offering.

Hyper-specialization allows for price setting

When your brand can offer a unique product or service to a niche audience, you have the benefit of setting prices to increase profitability. The price reflects the exclusivity of the offering, and there’s no argument because you’re in a position to be sought after for your expertise.

Tips for finding your brands niche

Look for low hanging fruit. What do your customers want that other companies don’t currently offer? Are there common services or products you can put a creative spin on? Some examples could be:

  • Specialized services for a specific industry
  • On-site service
  • Payment methods
  • Theme-ingredient food or cafe’
  • Accounting services for athletes
  • Mobile therapy dogs
  • Mechanic services for women

The Zenful Brand

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Mindfulness is a means to listen more deeply and guide actions through clear intention rather than emotional whims or reactive patterns.

In an era where brands are increasingly pressured into short-term thinking, careless reactions to trends, features frenzy and non-existent visions, it’s worth considering how mindfulness can help brands filter out the noise and create space for what matters.

Mindfulness encourages more intentional and purposeful action in our personal lives, but it goes for business too. From brand development to design and deciding how and when your brand will communicate, mindfulness can be applied to every area of business. Taking a zen approach to branding offers a space to breathe—to evaluate what’s in front of you and make conscious decisions.

Mindful Brand Tips

Elegance and simplicity, two of the hardest attributes to accomplish are key to achieving a Zenful brand.

  1. Identify what’s most important and eliminate everything else.
  2. From design to communication, refrain from adding what’s not absolutely necessary.
  3. Breathe and reflect on your core values and goals before making decisions.
  4. Align your brand with a meaningful purpose
  5. Limit information just enough to pique curiosity and leave something to the imagination.
  6. Remember that doing something isn’t always better than doing nothing.

 

Dude, that brand is SO Rad!

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Sometimes catching the best wave is not what makes you successful, it’s what you do on the wave you’re riding that makes the difference.

You can frantically paddle into whatever comes your way, but it’s a waste of energy and resources. To really get the epic payoff you’ve gotta play to your strengths with strategy, patience and poise.

At our Vancouver branding studio we teach brands how to maintain rhythm and purpose, observe the landscape and immerse themselves in the culture, before deciding to drop in.

Keeping steady is a radical notion

In today’s crowded market, it’s hard to find ways to stand out from the rest. Although temping to follow other brands into their wave, the world doesn’t need more of the same. If you don’t stand out, you’ll end up drowning in the sea of me-too brands.

Branding is about learning to keep your focus in a state of flux. The proverbial waters of consumerism are unpredictable and changing at all times and in order to rise to the top you must stay true to your vision.

The best brands are simple in both idea and look and they cut through the clutter by delivering a simple and consistent message. When the message is simple, it’s easy for people to understand, share and relate. Achieving simplicity is not easy, but brands who learn to harness its power will find their business just, flows.

To get simple you have to go really deep.

Branding deals with the fundamental, not the superficial and it focuses on the root problem, not the symptoms. By understanding and defining the core of your brand, we can bring you closer to your customers and further apart from the competition.

Branding is an effort to reach deep inside your audience and evoke feelings about your company. To do this, you start exploring the center of your company with Why then you move outward through the How and you end up on the outside with What.

To be epic is to be radically different

Great brands understand risk often leads to reward. Brands who are brave enough to take the wave less traveled, choose a tactic no brand has taken before and develop a purpose that is wholly their own, will have a more competitive presence, a stronger organization and seriously radical brand.

 

Brand consistency is the Zest-factor

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Here at our Vancouver branding agency we lead ambitious companies to become brave and captivating brands.

Regardless of what we’re working on for you, our approach has a potent focus on consistent brand experience—That’s how you build an authentic brand that people desire.

The zest-factor

When you’re getting to know a person, you start to feel more and more comfortable. You learn about their positive traits, personality and how they make you feel. Effective branding is exactly the same. Branding is not just about looking good and getting your name out there. It’s about helping customers get to know your brand on a personal level.

Is Arc’teryx hands-down better than every other outdoor apparel brand in the world? Probably not. Regardless, it has countless diehard fans who search far and wide for their perfect Arc’teryx technical shell—even if they see a similar brand with essentially the same features, quality and warranty.

Consistency translates to dependable

We are surrounded by a multitude of these similar brands every day, whether we realize it or not. So why do we choose one brand over the other? Consistency is one critical component. It’s the way the brand makes us feel over and over again. A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company and this gut feeling determines our likes, dislikes, and most importantly, our brand loyalty.

This is where the importance of brand consistency comes into play.

Trust = Reliability + Delight

Ultimately, what you are trying to do with your brand is create trust between you and your customers so they don’t have to think too hard about their choices. They automatically pick yours. Trust is a result of your reliability and the delight you deliver. The more choices people have the more you need to work on the delight portion of the formula. We make our decisions very intuitively even though we try to be rational, the human brain is not powerful enough to make complex decisions rationally. So in the end we rely on trust.

The Trust Formula: T = R + D (Trust = Reliability + Delight)

Great branding makes customers feel like they know your brand and that your brand can be trusted. Arc’teryx does this very well. Their purpose is to create apparel and gear that gives users the confidence to perform at the point of extreme need and their goal is to create equipment that enables a person to be immersed in the moment of doing, regardless of external conditions. They evoke emotions with customers over and over again in their brand communications, marketing, events, graphics and brand touchpoints.

In contrast, Mountain Hardwear has similar quality products, but they simply aren’t as good at telling a story or evoking emotions in customers. Good quality can only carry you so far, and so they become just another brand that pales in comparison to Arc’teryx.

The zest factor is when customers feel like they know you and can trust you and when they identify with your purpose. Only then will they become loyal brand advocates who recommend you to their peers.

How to become a captivating brand

I’ve heard many clients say if they could just get customers to try their product or service they’re sure they would like it. It doesn’t work that way. You must start by putting a consistent brand message in front of consumers.

Interesting in learning more?
Chat with us today about becoming a brand leader

 

Branding vs. Marketing

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You’re not selling features and benefits. These days it’s critical to dive deep into meaning and belonging. Alter the thinking of tangibles to the intangibles people desire.

Often people think of attracting customers by finding a large group of possible targets, make shiny things to attract them followed by sending a bursts of messages. This is a fools errand. You need to start by designing a world they will wish to inhabit. You need to cultivate meaning in order to captivate an audience—Branding.

Branding is a gut feeling

Everything people buy adds to their identity. As such, customers make decisions based on emotion or gut feelings. They see themselves and who they want to be in the brand.

The difference between branding & marketing

Branding is why
Marketing is how
Branding is long-term
Marketing is short-term
Branding is macro
Marketing is micro
Branding is strategic
Marketing is tactical
Branding is a pull tactic
Marketing is a push tactic
Branding drives enduring reputation
Marketing drives periodic sales
Branding is the reason someone buys
Marketing is the reason someone thought to buy
Branding builds loyalty
Marketing generates response
Branding creates value
Marketing extracts value
Branding is the being
Marketing is the doing

Simplify to Amplify

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Before trying to manage communications your brand must be stripped down to its simplest form: one big idea that everything else builds on.

If it can’t be said simply, how can you expect customers to quickly connect with the heart and value of your brand?

Simplify to Amplify

It’s common to want to list every bell and whistle on your brochure or package design, but your customers will be overwhelmed. In a world of increasing complexity, a clever bunch of organizations have found that embracing simplicity can deliver far-reaching results.

At our Vancouver branding studio we teach clients to simplify. Our client HITCASE for example could say all of the reasons why their product is great for surfing; waterproof, durable, comes with flotation attachments, has a super cool variety of lenses to snap on, etc etc. Instead they say one thing “Made for this”. In taking this strategy they achieve everything they want and evoke emotion—with only three simple words!

Brand differentiation

Branding is a way of clearly highlighting what makes you different, and more desirable than the competition. Effective branding elevates a product or organization from being just one commodity amongst many identical commodities, to be something with where there is no substitute.

You don’t need to have an exciting product or service, you just need to have courage and imagination. Even though every brand wants to lead, unfortunately most end up doing things that are very similar to their competitors…blast everyone and anyone with confusing and complex messages.

A better brand experience

A great strategy to start simplifying your brand is customer journey maps. When you understand each and every point of interaction with your brand, you can more easily maintain a seamless experience. The more you know, the better able you’ll be at striking a chord. And the less value you’ll see in a shotgun approach.