Elevating a killer brand poised for future growth.
This opportunity was among the most fun and rewarding yet. Lowell was a first-generation, “OG” recreational cannabis brand that has soared to the highest of heights after recreational legalization passed in California.
The brand was ubiquitous in the early days and buoyed by non-stop hype. The iconic bull’s head and pack showed up in the hands of, on the backs of, and in the feeds of “it” celebs daily. The brand owners ran afoul of regulations and the brand was ultimately sold to private equity where it remained on life support for the better part of two years. George Allen, a friend and the former President at Acreage Holdings, where I was CMO, acquired Indus—a major cultivator and distributor in California—and bought Lowell’s Brand IP, combining the companies to create Lowell Farms.
I was engaged to help revive, refine, and guide the brand strategy and reposition the brand for a new era. The aim was to meld the new assets the brand had in its enormous state-of-art greenhouse and renowned master growers pumping out top-quality weed, with the best of the Lowell legacy that was so beloved by consumers.
Less than a year later, Lowell is once again enshrined as one of the brand leaders in California cannabis, recently selling more flower than any other cultivator in the state for the very first time. The Lowell Farms brand is already a leading brand in Massachusetts, Illinois, and Michigan (with more states coming soon) through a licensing agreement with multi-state operator, AWH.
Creative Direction
National Brand Strategy
Brand Positioning
National Marketing
National Retail & Experiential Strategy
Product Innovation
Consumer Insights
Creative & Brand Development
Creating a brand framework.
We took the brand through an intensive and compressed brand audit and evaluation process using industry and consumer data, brand health studies, consumer surveys, and insight work. We did intensive stakeholder interviews with the new management and key personnel from the combined company. We then crafted a refined and holistic brand identity and strategy, intended to trade off the brand’s short but rich history and the management team’s stated mission of scaling the brand and business.
The updated Lowell brand focuses more on the ethos and upscale lifestyle of the brand. While also placing quality and craftsmanship at its core and trading on Lowell's unrivaled experience and packaging. Prior, the brand was known to have sub-par Cannabis in a beautiful and convenient pack. It was a killer product.
Now we have it all: top notch quality, an exceptional team and the sexiest pack in the game. All that was left was to let people know that Lowell was back and better than ever – a killer brand poised for future growth.
Getting the Word Out
The new brand strategy dictated a more lifestyle-oriented positioning, like spirits, elevating the brand above its amazing products and positioning Lowell as the manufacturer of sublime experiences powered by the iconic Lowell Smoke. First, we had to capture all new imagery and assets to reflect the new brand strategy and positioning.
From there, we focused on creating vibey Califiornia-inspired lifestyle imagery with marquis OOH placements in major metros in California and close to retail. We unveiled a pair of taglines that have since been released: Nothing Smokes Like a Lowell and Let Lowell Take You There. New brand elements have been rolled out across California and several new states.
Packaging Refinement & New Products
Launching new products is a critical component of market leadership in Cannabis, showing a commitment to quality and innovation while providing a halo for the rest of the company’s products. Marketing was at the forefront of some of the most successful product introductions. From the Farmer’s Eighth (adding an extra half-gram gift in every eighth as a way of providing value without discounting), to Quicks and .35s (small format prerolls), to Infused pre-rolls and The legendary Hash Wrap—we helped position and launch them.
