A CBD beauty line in need of a brand to match its success.
PROJECT
Rebrand and Launch
PARTNER
KBD Oil
ASSIGNMENT
Brand Research + Strategy
Brand Messaging
Brand Identity
Logo Design
Package Design
Media Kit
Lifestyle Photography
Product Photography
Social Media Template Design
Shopify Website Design
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KBD Oil began in the way so many great brands do — with a need for a product that just isn’t available in the market. What began as a set of locally-loved homemade CBD products, evolved into a widely sought after product. The quality and drive to grow were there, but the brand wasn’t quite ready to compete in the national market.
When Unlisted got the call from KBD, we jumped at the chance to take the entire brand to the next level. Immediately we saw opportunities to create a cohesive brand identity that would include redesigning a more versatile logo and a social media template package, sourcing higher-end packaging to suit our newly designed labels, shooting a large library of branded photography, and finally developing a user-friendly e-commerce website.
OUR APPROACH
In order to optimize for budget, we formatted a proposal that prioritized maximum impact services — suggesting options like templated social media designs and overall messaging strategy in lieu of a social media strategy with ongoing management. Given the client’s current experience in Canva, we knew redirecting our role to aspects informing a wider range of deliverables would have greater results. We set timelines based upon the owner’s business goals of the following year and began familiarizing ourselves with brands and regulations within the CBD-centric industry.
“Cures pain and anxiety” becomes “helps relieve discomfort and elevates mood”— the story of KBD messaging overhaul.
If you happen to be in the CBD biz, you’re probably aware of all the FDA restrictions surrounding what marketing language you can and can’t use. This gave us the challenge of crafting brand messaging and product descriptions that would not only resonate with customers and communicate efficacy and benefits but would do so without making claims that would be flagged.
A visual identity that says high-quality, handmade and accessible for all.
THE LOGO
In developing the logo, the objectives were clear. Create a mark that quickly and elegantly conveys premium CBD beauty and skincare, is dynamic enough to live on a variety of package shapes and sizes, and can adapt as the product line expands.
THE BRAND
After selecting and refining the new logo, we paired it with a neutral, but unexpected brand color palette to reinforce the calming sensations of the CBD products themselves, as well as a brand typefaces to give the combined sensation of luxury and hand-crafted.
New packaging, who’s this?
The new life of this brand just wouldn’t fit with the current packaging, so we played cupid and hopped in to source new packaging for the full line of four products before presenting label concepts. And when the client ran into a small production hiccup that left them with an opportunity for a packaging variant, we evolved the salve label into a square format overnight, and ordered it in the final hour before launch.
A photograph worth
a thousand likes.
We build photography guidelines into every brand identity we work on. Not only does this help us in sourcing props and planning sets, it ensures that content stays consistent long after it leaves our hands.
For KBD our up-front role included shooting a diverse library of product and lifestyle images that would work for advertising, social media, website and more. To accomplish this we scheduled a full day of photographing six unique scenes. As the client ran into some delivery hangups with the bundle boxes and new addition of a salve stick — we pivoted, adding shoot days to account for the late arrivals.
DIY solutions to servicing social.
We’re huge fans of services like Canva. Instead of looking at them like competition, we embrace them as allies. Why? Because anything that makes it easier for our clients to have thoughtful, budget-friendly, relevant and beautiful content is a friend of ours.
We included our Simple Social Package, which had us creating a sleek set of custom templates for KBD, with all of the Brand Kit uploaded to Canva, so anyone working on the brand collateral could easily pick up where we left off and create beautiful, on-brand content and save their budget for bigger things.
MEDIA KIT
With the complicated nature of regulated CBD marketing, we included resources for KBD to grow efficiently in retail and direct sales.
By creating an easy-to-share media kit containing brand/product/regulatory information useful to social media influencers, KBD could easily get the word out about their products without infringing on the promotional regulations of Facebook, Instagram and Google.
A website to tie it all together.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
WRAPPING THINGS UP
Ultimately, we were able to successfully launch a full rebrand of KBD including logo and brand identity, packaging overhaul for 5 products, social media templates and launch graphics, branded photography content, media kit and e-commerce website design and development in just over 3 months, that will hold its own competing on worldwide market.