Developing the brand identity and positioning for Ganjika House—one of Ontario’s first cannabis stores.
/brief
Working with one of Ontario’s original ‘winners’ of the retail license lottery, myself and a small team were tasked with creating the brand identity and positioning of the store. The owner’s focus was to stay true to the roots of cannabis culture, while establishing Ganjika House as part of his beloved community.
/approach
The first task was to conduct a completive landscape scan to identify the early signals coming out of other provinces to understand how cannabis consumption was evolving. Alongside this task, I conducted a scan of retailers and cannabis consumers to see what Ganjika House’s target consumers looked for from the brands they loved and how this could be blended with their cannabis habits. With this information, I led the owner through a workshop to understand his vision, passion, and history in order to build the brand around him—this plan was hatched after unearthing the insight that cannabis was a polarizing force in Brampton and we needed a likeable person to act as its symbol, before the brand could takeover.
With all the ground work done, I analyzed the information and data, which helped me unearth four key insights: customer, category, culture, and company. From these I was able to create a brand position that would speak to the Ganjika House’s intended community and I worked closely with a designer to bring the vision of “In Service to Kindness” to life.
/outcome
Ganjika' House’s brand is not only beautiful, it serves as a guiding post for all of its decisions. Since the store’s opening, the brand has been welcomed in by the Brampton community and brought a mix of experienced and inexperienced cannabis consumers through its doors.
