We, like many of you, have grown insanely fast. We launched Cannabis Business Times several years ago, followed quickly by the launch of our major, international Cannabis Conference. Last November, we launched Cannabis Dispensary magazine to answer the market’s need for a dispensary-focused business magazine. Now, we are bringing together cultivators and dispensaries at the Cannabis Conference. As we unify our brands strategically to best serve plant-touching cannabis businesses, we also have aligned them visually.
We’ve covered branding in this magazine many times, specifically the importance of creating a “look” that is easily recognized and that has a meaning that resonates in the marketplace—whether you have two products or 50. In applying the lessons we’ve shared right here in Cannabis Business Times, we have redesigned the Cannabis Business Times and the Cannabis Conference logos to share elements of our Cannabis Dispensary logo and make all three brands part of one easily recognizable family—using the same font families, styles and “look.”
As a rapidly growing cannabis business, we have practiced what we have preached. We recognize the value of our brand—rooted in the success and trusted reputation of Cannabis Business Times—and have brought the family together, visually as well as strategically.
In the second issue of Cannabis Business Times (January/February 2016), our cover story, “MiNDFUL’s Meg Sanders: The Power of Positive Branding” (see “Where Are They Now,” p. 150, in this issue), Meg Sanders, who served as CEO of the then-$18 million company, commented that beyond the recognizable logo, “MiNDFUL’s competitive advantage is our intentional way of doing things. MiNDFUL is a way of life, enhanced by cannabis. Everything we do—from how we treat our plants to how we treat our team members, customers and patients … we do to create a thoughtful experience that can be unique in this space.”
Sanders’ comments resonated with me then, as they do now. Cannabis Business Times, which I co-launched in 2014, has served as the foundation for our way of life, centered on cannabis. We focus on helping plant-touching cannabis businesses with a serious, accurate, service-oriented and supportive voice. We have carried that M.O. through to our team, as we have grown from one editor to six; we have hired the very best editors, who are talented, professional and focus on accuracy and service to you, our readers. And we are ever-mindful of keeping our sense of humor even as we bring you a 156-page issue—our biggest issue yet! We carry that professional and service-driven approach through to our Cannabis Conference, where we bring together an advisory board of passionate, smart and successful cultivators and dispensary professionals who truly care about the industry and the businesses we serve to help us craft our carefully thought-out, service-based content. We work to ensure that every conference attendee benefits from that content, as well as from the community we continue to build.
As I wrote in the cover story on Meg Sanders and MiNDFUL, “It’s been weeks since my visit to MiNDFUL, but I can still picture that logo.” I hope that you not only like our new logo, which was designed with the same careful thought we put into everything we do, but that it resonates with you, stays with you and symbolizes the brands we have worked so hard to build to help you navigate this amazing and equally challenging industry.
