What Consumers Expect From CBD Brands

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CBD products have grown in popularity over the past few years and new brands seem to be appearing on the market every week. Many companies therefore see this market as a great opportunity. However, the oversaturation of CBD brands makes it difficult for consumers to know what to buy and where to buy it.

CBD Insider’s 2021 CBD Consumer Report offers some data related to the CBD industry and what consumers expect from CBD brands that can help savvy companies stand out in the market

Based on the data from the study, the breakdown of why U.S. adults say they use CBD products is as follows:

1. Relaxation / stress relief: 60.3%
2. Relieve pain / discomfort: 53.6%
3. Improve sleep quality: 47.6%
4. Relieve sore muscles / accelerate regeneration: 43.8%
5. Help in falling asleep: 43.6%
6. Improve the mood: 41%
7. Improve general health: 26.2%
8. Improve focus / concentration: 21.8%
9. recreation: 17.1%
10. Be more energetic: 16.1%
11. Skin care: 11.7%
12. Gastrointestinal complaints: 11.5%
13. Pets: 5.9%
14. A certain health condition or some other reason: 8.8%

As the data shows, a large percentage of adults in the United States use CBD products for some form of pain relief, as well as sleep and mental health benefits.

When you combine these results with data in The CBD Insider’s Consumer Preferences report, it’s much easier to understand what consumers want from CBD brands based on the 4 Ps of Marketing: Product, Price, Location, and Promotion. Let’s take a closer look at what CBD brands can learn from the data.

product

According to research, the type of CBD product that most current users prefer is oil / drops / tinctures (21.8%), followed by gums (19.6%). The full breakdown of the top 10 CBD product preferences follows:

1. Oil / drops / tinctures: 21.8%
2. Rubbers: 19.6%
3. Vaping: 12.2%
4. Edibles: 9.4%
5. Muscle and Joint Issues: 9.2%
6. Flower (raw hemp): 7.2%
7. Capsules / softgels: 5.5%
8. Topical moisturizers (ointments / lotions): 4.9%
9. Drinks (water, sports drink, etc.): 3.8%
10. oral product (mouthwash, toothpaste): 1.9%

Other types of CBD products were preferred by 1.5% or less of respondents, including prepared food / drink in a cafe / restaurant (1.5%), pet food or treats (0.6%), transdermal patches (0.5%) ), Bath products such as scrubs and bath bombs (0.5%), animal oil or topicals (0.4%), sublingual strips (0.2%), suppositories (0.2%) and eye drops (0.1%).

When choosing a product, the brand is often an important part of the purchasing decision for consumers. This is one of the greatest opportunities for CBD brands to capture market share. No brand is really dominant in the CBD market, and no brand is even close to being a household name.

Cannabis Insider’s survey respondents were asked which CBD brands they’d heard of, and 50.7% of them said they didn’t know any of the 34 brands they were offered. Among the brands that respondents have heard of, none of them have any significant recognition value. The brand that most people recognized was only identified by 13.8% of the respondents, which means that the brand leadership position is wide open!

price

Among CBD consumers, price is the second most important buying factor (63.6%) after ingredients (69.7%), while price per serving ranks fifth (52.3%). The full breakdown of CBD buying factors by importance follows:

1. ingredients: 69.7%
2. total price: 63.6%
3. CBD concentration: 62.6%
4. Brand reputation: 52.0%
5. Price per serving: 52.3%
6. Expert recommendation: 51.5%
7. reviews: 48.7%
8. Recommendation from friends and / or family: 31.8%
9. Extraction method: 30.0%
10. Where the hemp was grown: 25.1%
11. packaging: 16.4%

Obviously, consumers are not just looking for a cheap product. In fact, 31.3% of respondents said they had increased their average monthly spending on CBD products over the past 12 months. Today, most CBD users spend between $ 51 and $ 75 a month on CBD products, and the average price respondents say they are willing to pay for a monthly supply of CBD is $ 70.

city ​​square

The distribution and accessibility of CBD-infused products is changing rapidly, and consumers of all ages are keen to purchase CBD products from multiple online and offline locations.

Currently, respondents to the Cannabis Insider Survey said that they are most likely to buy CBD products from a cannabis dispensary (32.4%), followed by online direct from CBD brands (30.5%). However, you are buying from a wider variety of places than ever, including Amazon. The full breakdown is below:

1. Cannabis pharmacy: 32.4%
2. Online direct from CBD brands: 30.5%
3. Smoker’s shop: 27.3%
4. Online retailers selling a wide variety of products: 19.1%
5. Amazon: 17.2%
6. friends: 13.8%
7. Brick and mortar health / supplement store: 12.2%
8. Alternative healthcare provider (chiropractor, masseur, etc.): 9.9%
9. Supermarket / grocery store: 9.5%
10. family members: 8.8%
11. Gas station / corner market: 8.7%
12. Gym / fitness center: 2.4%
13. Somewhere else: 3%

The bottom line, distribution and accessibility are changing rapidly in the CBD market, and CBD brands that want to grow need to be where the consumers are. In the near future, placement in grocery stores, pharmacies, health food and health food stores, and large box chains will be critical to future growth as they are available on Amazon and other popular retail websites.

financial support

How do consumers make purchasing decisions about CBD products today? The number one source of information is family and friends (34.4%), followed by social media (27.69%), CBD brands (24.5%), and CBD educational websites (21.4%). Only 14.5% of CBD users use information from retailers, while only 11% use information from doctors.

The good news is that consumers are looking for educational information for CBD brands. With this in mind, the future winning CBD brands will be those that publish and share a lot of useful, reliable, and authoritative content that will help consumers.

Research from CBD Insider also found that CBD users find some types of promotions more compelling than others. Buy one and get tier one discount (30.7%), followed by percentage discounts (27.7%), dollar discounts (23.4%), and product bundles (15.2%). The CBD brand should plan their future promotions accordingly for the best results. In other words, give people what they want.

Next steps for CBD brands to gain market share

The next step for CBD brands looking to gain market share is to give consumers what they want. This begins with understanding the marketplace today, the changes in regulations and consumer perceptions likely to come in the future, and developing agile strategies that can evolve with both the industry and the consumer population.

Originally published on 9/17/19. Updated 7/30/31.