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learn more about how GTI is approaching marketing, branding and packaging design, visit: oemgo.to/cannabisgti Keren Sookne: So Cristin, how do you approach a packaging design project? Cristin Rudolph: I wish I could tell you it’s simple, but it’s obviously a pretty complex initiative. If we break it down, we are really thinking about three critical things as we kick off any packaging design project. First and foremost, what does the brand stand for and how can we visually communicate that through the lens of packaging? The second thing is what does the consumer actually want? And that can range from purely functional to aesthetic, but really putting that consumer mindset at the forefront. Then the last part, which is arguably the most important part, what does the business actually need? And so, combining all of those things helps to set the north star for what we are looking for because there are obviously lots of trade-offs
that can occur—and need to occur—as we are trying to find the right balance. Generally speaking, that’s how we tend to think about things, which then obviously lends itself to lots of decisions, briefs, and ultimately, the packaging that you would see in market. Jim Chrzan: Medinah, from your perspective, how is packaging automation approached and justified with any new product launch there at GTI? Madinah Allen: Once we understand [the business need] and what the consumer needs and wants, we then take a look at volume. A lot of that business need that Cristin and her team helps to define basically helps us establish a footprint and scale. So when we are going after automation solutions, we typically look from the lens of justifiability, financially, and volume. Now, we may go after specific automation or innovation to help us introduce a product that aligns with the strategic vision that Cristin and her team has come up with and has proven that it’s going to be a business-imperative. So it’s not just, ‘Hey the numbers all have to line up,’ but it does also have to fit the strategic portfolio. Keren Sookne: So Greg, speaking of volume, when it comes to a rapidly scaling company, such as GTI, what are some of the key operational challenges that you face in deploying automation? Greg Flickinger: As Madinah said, first you have to have critical mass of volume and that begins to open the door for automation. As in most companies, when we start out with a product it can be fairly small. So, I would say one of the bigger challenges is that we go from manual to semi-automated, and then there’s this white space in between before you go to full automation. One of the biggest challenges we find are some of the mainstream companies have large scale systems, and for us, they’re far too big. So we have to scale them down. And some of the companies that are in that semi-automated version, they really can’t scale up. So we kind of live in this white space of trying to figure out how to bridge from semi-manual to automation. And to me, the big challenge is finding OEMs that can provide equipment that has
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