💊 Hemp Heros' Strategy to Become "The Kerrygold of CBD"

It’s well known in the business world that if you want to make everyone in your company pull in the same direction, you must create a big, bold, and audacious vision that inspires the entire organization to act with intensity.

That’s the exact playbook Hemp Heros is running.

It’s something few CBD brands dare to do: state a bold goal publicly and go after it with intensity.

They are a niche CBD brand with an ambitious founder, David Hartigan, who has outlined one goal for the company: turning it into “The Kerrygold of CBD.”

This is an audacious goal because Kerrygold is Ireland’s most successful food export.

It sells over €1 billion of butter and cheese in 60+ countries.

For context, Hemp Heros’ 2024 sales were around €500,000.

The company is using three tactics to turn this audacious goal into reality.

Tactic #1: Use Clever Messaging to Build an Entire Market Category For Your Product

Kerrygold is using Ireland’s reputation for high-quality dairy products as credibility for the quality of its own products.

Hemp Heros is doing a similar thing.

They label their products as “Irish-grown,” so they can turn that messaging into a mark of quality for their CBD products.

Hemp Heros even runs its own Health Service Executive (HSE) approved plant in County Wicklow, Ireland.

The result: Hemp Heros is creating an entire category of “Irish-grown” products, which helps it build strong brand affinity.

How you can apply it to your business: There are narratives around certain countries about the products they create. For example, Italy is known for its fashion.

But it wasn’t always that way. That narrative has been developed for generations, and now everyone connects Italy with fashion, so there’s a premium on a piece of clothing created in Italy.

If you want to build a similar narrative around your product, so you can charge a premium, you need to market your product based on its ingredients or the company’s country of origin.

Use this scene from Mad Men as inspiration on how you can create your own strategic narrative.

Tactic #2: Control Every Aspect of The Supply Chain to Ensure Higher Quality

Hemp Heros doesn’t control its entire supply chain for its own sake.

They use that fact for their brand.

Hemp Heros markets itself as an “award-winning seed-to-shelf,” which means it controls everything from growing the plants to making the final products.

They've even developed a patent-pending cold-press method to create what they call "gold-standard" oils.

The result: Hemp Heros has a unique selling point, which would be hard for competitors to copy.

How you can apply it to your business: You don’t need to control your entire supply chain to have a unique value proposition.

But if there are certain aspects of the supply chain that you control and they lead to creating a higher quality product, you need to use this fact in your marketing. This ties well to tactic #1 - you can build your narrative not only on “What” your product does but on “How” it is created.

Tactic #3: Don’t Wait to Expand. Go Internationally Early

Hemp Heros might be small in size, but it’s already pushing to expand into the US market.

They've set up a manufacturing plant in New York State in 2024.

That’s smart because the US market is a lot bigger compared to the EU market, especially for CBD products.

This early global push mirrors how Kerrygold expanded beyond Ireland to become an international powerhouse.

The result: Hemp Heros isn’t trapped by its geography, which helps it tap into a broad international audience.

How you can apply it to your business: Some countries are more open to products from taboo industries than others, so if you have an opportunity to tap into a market that’s more receptive to your products, you should absolutely do it. It will give you more information on how you can improve your product and market it internationally.

What’s interesting about Hemp Heros and its founder, David, is that they aren’t afraid to set a big, audacious goal and state it publically.

Many CBD brands would have been comfortable just existing, but Hemp Heros’ boldness makes them stand out.

They follow Kerrygold’s playbook to a T. In 1962, Kerrygold’s founder, Sir Anthony O’Reilly, envisioned building the company into a premium brand befitting the rich quality of Irish milk.

It’s nice to see Hemp Heros following in its footsteps.

How We Can Help:

P.S.

If you’re working on something big — or messy — in a frontier industry, we’d love to hear about it.

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