Sunday, November 22, 2020

Challenges in marketing CBD products

CBD oil is all the craze these days. It became legal to use in products in 2014 but only in the past few years have big corporations decided to take the plunge and leverage the ingredient in products. The reason behind this lies in the legal challenges of what brands are allowed to communicate to consumers. While CBD oil has been heavily researched and proven to provide many health benefits such as easing chronic pain, relieving anxiety and stress, and even help people sleep better, none of these benefits can be directly stated in marketing and product claims. 

When marketing a CBD oil based product, a brand is now allowed to make any health claims or functional claims. Health claims are considered misleading by the FDA and FTC. However, cosmetic claims are allowed as they do not imply any fundamental changes in the structure and function of the body. For instance, instead of "reducing wrinkles", a brand can say "improves the appearance of wrinkles". In addition, emotional and intentionally vague language tends to be the loophole for brands. Words like "soothing and calming" and "eases stress" tends to be prevalent in the language around CBD products. 

As a result, there is a lot of consumer confusion over the effectiveness of CBD and the validity of the claims that the brands are allowed to make and communicate. 

No comments: