This is an independent, speculative portfolio exercise. It was not commissioned, developed, or approved by Fire Dept. Cannabis and is not affiliated with the brand.

 CAN I HELP? 004: FIRE DEPT. CANNABIS

We really admire the Fire Dept. Cannabis organization. We particularly like the ‘value added’ feature of a lighter in the packaging. There is just one problem we see: if a pack comes with a lighter, a repeat customer is rewarded with a frankly frightening number of them.

When we mentioned the growing lighter population at our neighborhood dispensary, we learned we weren't the only ones to notice it, and that Fire Dept. was rumored to be working on a packaging change.

As a product designer, that sounded less like a complaint and more like an interesting product-development problem. If there is already a large inventory commitment to the lighters, how might that inventory become useful instead of waste?

That led to three simple ideas: make the next lighter smaller if this is an option (commitments may have been made - bulked out so to speak, with factory minimums in mind), create a return-and-reward program for existing lighters, and turn a few of them into “Golden Lighters” that reward customers who find one.

Sometimes helping starts with realizing you maybe have too many lighters?

We put the ideas into a short proposal and made a visual aid showing what they might look like. It is not meant to be taken as anything but a visual expression of the ideas and we have zero affiliation with this brand.

The letter is as follows:

Hi Fire Dept team,

I’m a product designer with experience in product development, textiles, and manufacturing, and I really enjoy your product. I recently picked up another 10-pack and found myself thinking about the lighter that comes with it.

I’ve heard from the dispensary that the growing pile of extra lighters is I am not alone in experiencing, and that you’re already looking at moving away from the practice. From a product-development perspective, this looks like it may be partly a factory-minimum/inventory problem, so I wondered if there might be a few ways to make the transition more useful and fun for customers.

A few simple ideas:

• Smaller lighter: If the lighter needs to remain part of the pack while existing inventory is used, consider moving to a half-size lighter for future production. It still delivers the feature while reducing the amount of excess material customers accumulate.

• Lighter return reward: Create a simple loyalty program where customers can return 10 Fire Dept lighters to a participating dispensary in exchange for a small reward. This could help collect existing lighters while giving customers a reason to bring them back.

• The Golden Lighter: Put a small number of special lighters into packs. Finding one could win a brand experience, merchandise, a facility visit if appropriate, or another memorable prize. It turns the "another lighter" problem into something people might actually hope to find.

One other thing I’d strongly consider during any upcoming repackaging work: make sure the logo/identity on the lighter is exactly consistent with what customers see on the outer package. If the lighter is going to travel around in people's homes long after the package is gone, it becomes a little standalone piece of brand advertising. It should reinforce Fire Dept immediately rather than feel like a separate promotional item.

I thought I’d pass these along because the lighter issue is actually an interesting product-design problem, and it seems like there may be an opportunity to turn an existing constraint into something that benefits both the brand and the customer. Thank you so much for your kind attention.

I remain,
Abi

www.abipost.com