Whenever there’s a brand-new product on the market or exciting new research, it’s common for the media to hype things up and take things out of context or even exaggerate things to an incredible degree. These situations are rarely fun for the consumer because it usually means they’re excited over nothing. However, there are a few rare situations where this excitement actually leads to something new and interesting.

One of the most popular health products of the last few years is CBD, also known as cannabidiol, a compound that is found in cannabis or hemp. While cannabis has been outed for many years as a potential treatment option for many different conditions, it always had a stigma due to the psychoactive effects that were associated with it. It wasn’t until CBD was isolated and sold that more people started paying attention to the potential benefits of the cannabis plant.
But if you’ve been following this for a while then you’re probably wondering; whatever happened to CBD? Did it just disappear off the face of the earth? Most of the media coverage has slowed down and CBD is on a slow decline on Google Trends. So what happened? Did the media overhype the effects of CBD, or are we overlooking one of the greatest health product discoveries of the past few decades?

CBD promised a lot, but did it deliver?

There are two ways to look at the expectations of CBD. One; CBD didn’t deliver on the promises that all of the research and studies showed. Or two; media companies and influencers created too much hype around CBD, causing extremely unrealistic consumer expectations.

In our case, we’re going to believe the second option.

There are many different uses for CBD and there is a lot of science behind it. You can use CBD for E.D. or you can use it to soothe symptoms of anxiety and stress. Some people use it to relax after a long day at work, while others feel that it helps with their chronic pain. There are plenty of papers that show the effectiveness of CBD and there are many reports from regular users that can confirm those findings. Yet, we can’t help but feel like CBD has been extremely overhyped by the media and influencers.

This ultimately led to extremely unrealistic consumer expectations that either disappointed them or made them cry out that all of the advertising and marketing was false. This isn’t exactly an uncommon thing either. Many companies that develop supplements do the same thing by putting outrageous claims on their packaging, leading many consumers to believe that taking a small pill every day can fix all of their health problems. As much as we’d all want this to be true, the reality isn’t quite like that.

The idea of maintaining good health is daunting to some, especially when they realize just how much time it takes to improve your health. So the idea that taking a few pills and eating some food with CBD can fix health issues is obviously going to be popular. Sadly, that’s rarely the case and will likely never be the case until our knowledge of medicine progresses another few decades.

So in short; CBD promised a lot due to the ridiculous claims that many websites and influencers made. In reality, a lot of this was false marketing (something that is unfortunately common in the supplements industry) and people were sold promises that would never come true. But having said that, we shouldn’t discount the actual benefits of CBD. While they are a lot tamer in nature than the outlandish promises we’ve been sold, they can still make a positive impact on your life when taken in moderation.

The CBD industry will continue to evolve

The CBD industry had some incredible predictions in the past and a lot of investors were eager to put their money on the table as well. While these expectations were perhaps a little too optimistic, there’s still a future for the CBD industry–it’ll just require companies to pivot what they’re offering. A great example of this would be the sudden decrease in CBD product prices during 2020. Reports found that around 70% of braids lowered their prices, dropping CBD to around 13 cents per mg from the 15 cents before. This doesn’t sound like much at first, but when you consider how much CBD is used in a variety of products and the volumes that you can purchase CBD in, the difference is certainly noticeable.

But for some businesses in the industry, the key to remaining relevant is in pivoting your business. For instance, many businesses have started to offer CBD-infused drinks and edibles, and CBD is even being used in makeup products and bathroom soaps. There are so many different ways to use CBD that we consider the industry to be in an infant stage still. While there are definitely some regulatory considerations to keep in mind here, we believe that the future of CBD isn’t just in selling common products like oils and capsules, but infusing them in edibles and health products so they’re a lot easier to use and add to your daily routine.

One of the problems the CBD industry faced was that many innovators tried to create unique business ideas such as CBD-focused restaurants. While these establishments were certainly novel, they weren’t able to become staples in one’s daily routine and lifestyle. After all, it’s far more convenient and cheaper for someone to get their daily dose of CBD at home rather than going to a restaurant for it. As such, it’s become important to adapt CBD-related products for more common home use instead of creating extravagant businesses around them.

CBD certainly isn’t forgotten but people are starting to readjust their expectations. As more companies innovate their products and more solid research is performed, we’re likely to see a return of CBD, but hopefully without the overhyped media and influencer coverage this time around.