I’ve been buying weed since the early nineties, when you’d get it direct from the friend of the grower, (or the grower himself if you’re discreet, and lucky.) Back then it came in a sandwich baggie if you were buying just an eighth or a quarter. Ziplocks were even considered overkill. An ounce might be carefully packaged to mask the smell, but the intent was not to woo you with branding, like today’s situation.

Nowadays, there are package designers and production shops that are making a mint on the high-end branding going on in the adult use dispensary + distribution chain. Thankfully, I have noticed the efforts to put the name and date of the strain, the CBD/THC percentages, and sometimes even more info about the farm and their purpose, or their “why.” Of course, the CA Prop 65 State Cancer warning, a small triangle with the ganja leaf and an ! inside. These seem critical, and from my observations, seem to be standardizing across brands a bit, at least.

What I find hilarious, however, is the extent to which some brands are putting in signature quotes, or “surprise and delight touchpoints” (in brand-speak) that align with their values. For example, Pure Beauty has these random movie quotes from The Big Lebowski and other offbeat, humorous movies, The Lowell Brand uses quotes from Abbie Hoffman, Erica Jong, Thomas Pynchon and other intellectual and counter-culture pop figures. Then there’s the likes of Mickey Hart, who quotes himself in his big brand. Is this really impactful? I wonder who gets to source this stuff, and how much time they spend designing, and deciding upon, the packaging.

I’ve long advocated for a close relationship between the product and the brand, of which packaging is a huge part of perception. (see totally different blog post on this very topic!) Ultimately your brand values hopefully align with the substance of your product and it’s efficacy. Does it do what you promised it would? (Stays Cleaner Longer! a Clorox toilet cleaning messaging claim – a digital campaign I worked on long long ago…) Humor aside, I must admit it has been amusing to discover these small, “brand personality traits,” of the big money, highly capitalized players in the green rush. I bet that the Glad fold-top sandwich baggies we used to use have experienced a drop in market share over the years that they didn’t expect, nor can explain.