Prima has made its mark as one of the top brands in the CBD space, becoming the only company to win first-place awards in two categories in Marijuana Venture’s first-ever CBD Awards. The company’s balms and lotions captured judges’ eyes for their “understated luxury and “refined” package design.
Marijuana Venture spoke with co-founders Jessica Assaf, the company’s chief education officer, and Laurel Angelica Myers, the chief operating officer, about the company’s approach to product development and how the brand has differentiated itself in the increasingly crowded CBD market.
Marijuana Venture: Who is your target consumer?
Jessica Assaf: Our target consumer is a woman between the ages of 25 and 44. She’s educated, health and fashion conscious, and she leads an active lifestyle to support her physical, mental and social wellbeing. She is open to exploring new trends and makes conscious buying decisions for herself and her family when it comes to beauty, food and wellness.
While we primarily focus on this target consumer, it is also very important for us to reach an older demographic that could benefit from the vast therapeutic potential of these active plant compounds. We are proud to report that a significant number of our current consumers are 45 and older, and they are successfully using our products to feel better in their bodies.
MV: What retail sector are you going after?
JA: Our primary retail sector is our direct-to-consumer channel at prima.co, where we combine educational content and commerce to help people better understand hemp and CBD, their own body systems as they relate to stress, health and wellness, and how our products support holistic health. We recently launched our skin care and therapeutic body care on sephora.com and in May we are launching two SKUs, Night Magic and The Afterglow, in 280-plus stores across the country, as a part of their CBD at Sephora Program.
Our partnership with Sephora represents a powerful shift for the industry at large, as it recontextualizes hemp cannabinoids as the next big thing in mainstream beauty and wellness. We worked hand-in-hand with the Sephora leadership team to define and implement their CBD standards, which are imperative in ensuring that all of the products in their CBD assortment are safe, pure and effective.
Because of the diversity and richness of our product portfolio, we are fortunate to partner with a range of retailers in natural pharmacy and grocery, clean and prestige beauty, spa and fitness, as well as specialized wellness and CBD-focused boutiques. As this industry evolves, we look forward to introducing both hemp cannabinoids and innovative, powerful botanical ingredients to a broader and more inclusive audience outside of CBD.
MV: How is the company managing to rise above the rest of the new CBD companies?
Laurel Angelica Myers: Prima is a science-driven, conscious brand designed to lead with industry-defining safety, purity and efficacy standards. Quality truly matters, and the integrity of what you are putting on and in your body, especially powerfully therapeutic cannabinoids and botanical adaptogens, is tremendously important. We have unyielding standards, years of industry pedigree and the know-how of what it takes to create elevated, efficacy-driven consumer experiences.
We’re the first hemp CBD brand to be a Public Benefit Corp (PBC), Made Safe Certified and soon we will be a certified B Corp, which highlights our value for transparency, accountability and social impact. We took our decades of learnings from the clean, natural products industries to create scientifically backed, well-formulated products to drive meaningful functional benefits to the body and skin. We obsess about the consumer experience at every step in the process and believe Prima is our best creation yet. In what we have experienced (and thoroughly tested!), there haven’t been brands upholding a commitment to safety, purity, quality and aesthetics. Prima offers uncompromisingly clean formulas with luxurious experiences.
At our core, we aren’t a CBD company, but rather, an anti-stress company, combating today’s epidemic of stress through education, scientific integrity and the highest quality products. We believe that hemp and CBD are catalysts for a global uprising — one that redefines wellbeing by elevating plant-based healing and empowering people to feel better in their bodies.
MV: What is your pricing strategy?
LAM: As a purpose-led brand, we believe strongly that clean, safe, quality products are a human right. We all should have access to the knowledge, support and products that promote health and wellbeing. Health care is more than our medical system — it is how we take care of our bodies, the quality of the food we eat, the safety of the products we use, the positivity of our thoughts and the efforts we take to uplift collective wellbeing for others.
Cannabinoids and hemp are powerful tools for cultivating wellbeing, and we’re proud to deeply invest in the highest quality ingredients we can source. Our ingredients meet a strict set of health, safety, and environmental standards, and our aim is to deliver both exceptional results as well as luxurious experiences with the products we make. That investment comes at a price, but one that we feel confident reflects the quality of our products.
MV: What is the best- selling Prima product?
LAM: Our bestseller is The Daily, our vegan softgel that provides essential support for wellbeing. The Daily features a blend of hemp-based CBD as well as terpenes designed to support the endocannabinoid system, the body’s master regulatory system that helps to regulate mood, stress, sleep, immunity and more. We created The Daily as an innovative (and improved) alternative to oil-based tinctures, which are not an effective delivery system for hemp cannabinoids.
Unlike traditional oil-based tinctures, our vegan softgel is designed to be effectively absorbed by the body through a microencapsulation system that makes the cannabinoids more bioavailable. It is in a familiar format that positions hemp cannabinoids as essential daily nutrients and offers a range of health benefits.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.