The Challenge: Royal Reserve needed to package and display multiple products across multiple categories that come in multiple sizes, yet have a consistent look and feel that identifies their quality and high-end brand at a glance.
The Solution: High end paper tubes that are made to fit, using custom sizes with unique identifying colors and labels. In essence, packages that stand out on the shelf.
California’s cannabis market has come a long way since the “stoner days” of Cheech & Chong, a comedy duo that played off that image in the 1970s and 1980s. And, while that perception of the industry may linger with a part of the population inside and outside of California, Matthew Martinez, Founder/CEO, of Royal Reserve, is working to, and arguably is, changing that.
As an operator in the medical marijuana industry since 2010, Matthew recognized the need not only to provide quality product, but to differentiate it as well through an organized and targeted branding effort.
With the consumption of cannabis products now legal in California, as of January 1, 2018, Royal Reserve’s products are probably most comparable to the market for fine wine. “Our products are tailored for a sophisticated consumer who demands more from the products they purchase,” said Matthew. “Our customers are educated professionals, ‘chardonnay moms,’ adventurers, connoisseurs, ‘creatives,’ and trendsetters, for example. They tend to research a product and are more focused on quality, consistency and cleanliness.”
To that end, Royal Reserve understood that not only would they need to build the brand in terms of quality product, but to build it across their product line, developing a consistent look and feel yet differentiating the offerings according to their purpose (i.e., Indica’s relaxing, calming effect, Sativa’s uplifting feeling or the balanced effect provided by a Hybrid).
While there are cannabis products available across the market spectrum, Royal Reserves customers do their research. “They tend to research and understand the differences between the effects of Indica, Sativa and Hybrids before they make a purchase. To use a more mainstream comparison, what they choose and why is not unlike how one might choose a fine Chardonnay or a Cabernet Sauvignon,” said Matt. “We incorporate origin, season, and anticipated effect in our branding to simplify the selection process for the consumer.”
As with any medical or mood altering product, there are regulations regarding packaging, child-resistant being one of the most important, along with descriptive labeling. As early as 2016, Royal Reserve began planning its move into the cannabis consumer market. “We began researching packaging options and we quickly realized we could repurpose jars and containers traditionally used for other consumer products such as cosmetics to meet or exceed regulatory standards. While our markets are clearly different, the purpose and function of the containers is the same. The challenge then became, how do we package our products in a way that maintains the same look and feel as our branding?” Matthew continued, “We needed a consistent look and shape, and paper tubes were the answer.”
Royal Reserve began searching oversees for a supplier but ran into problems with language barriers, shipping delays and product quality. So, Matt continued his search online and started researching packaging companies. He knew what he wanted, a business that can manufacture and supply three-piece telescoping, quality paper tubes, and ideally could take care of the color, labeling and printing requirements for each product package. On top of that, Royal Reserve’s products are available in a variety of shapes and sizes, which would require custom tube sizes.
It was at this time that Matthew discovered the Paper Tube Co. “I found this company online and the more I looked at their website, the more I could see how well they fit with our needs,” said Matt. “What I thought might be a deal breaker on our part was that we did not have our primary packaging ready so I could only provide, close but basically general size dimensions. Turns out, they could build us sample, custom size batches based on our information and darn, if they weren’t really close to perfect. When we ordered a second sample set they were dead on!”
Matthew chose to build the Royal Reserve brand, specifically with their high-end, target customer in mind. Instead of simply labeling their product jars, pre-roll raps and vape pens with the Royal Reserve logo and required labeling text, Matthew knew sophisticated customers would recognize their brand — and the quality of their products therein — if they could package all of them with a consistent look and feel.
“Right now, we have over 20 different SKUs across five categories that are segmented into eight specific feelings or effects, and thanks to the Paper Tube Co., we are able to display our high quality products with our logo, our text and just as importantly, our unique color scheme per product,” said Matthew. “Our colors identify and associate each cannabis type with its affect, white for Sativa’s uplifting qualities, black for Indica’s mood mellowing character and green to reflect the nature and balance of our Hybrid products. No matter which product or type you are looking for, our packaging presentation, color and style are consistent across all of our offerings.”
“Working with Matthew has been great. He is a branding expert and actually made our job a little easier. He had the beginnings of the project with die cuts and renderings for the printing on the custom tubes pretty much ready to go. Often times we provide that as a service for our customers. Now, for Royal Reserve, we have the dimensions, the artwork and the printing plates ready to go anytime they need another run for any size paper tube they need.”
As of February 2018, Royal Reserve products are available in Southern California in Van Nuys, Reseda and Woodland Hills. Addresses and a contact form are available on their website: http://royalthc.com/contact/. The company is expanding into Northern California later this year and is looking to provide additional outlets in Nevada.
