Dia Simms, Former President For Diddy, Launches CBD Branding Company BRN Group

Dia Simms Worked With Sean “Diddy” Combs For 15 years.

Her work at the company involved branding and development for luxury alcohol brands.

Working with Sean “Diddy” Combs for the last 15 years has given Dia Simms a unique perspective on luxury branding. Now, according to news media website Cheddar, Simm's is taking on her own venture in this sector, launching a company called BRN Group to help cannabis companies with their marketing.

Speaking with Cheddar on Friday, Simms stated,

“Luxury doesn’t mean what it meant in the ‘80s in terms of like, it just costs more. What is missing is a consistent way, is actually vetted brands that have the safety and rigor that you can count on to have an actual brand story that services a modern and new customer.”

At BRN Group, Simm's aims to work on the cultivation of brands, as well as the in-store and online distribution of the brands. While the company will serve brands that already exist in the industry, it will also be developing brands in-house. For the United States, the BRN Group will be working with hemp and CBD topical brands at the beginning, but she said that there are a few companies on track that she’s seen incorporating the right techniques with branding and distribution. Some of those companies include Green Thumb Industries, Lowell Herb Co., and Seventh sense. Hopefully, with the distribution network that this company establishes, Simms will be able to reach major retailers and dispensaries.

While working at Combs Enterprises, Simms had shared a lot of time with brands like Cîroc Vodka and DeLeon Tequila, helping her to learn lessons that will help her now deal with the cannabis industry. Considering the lack of regulations in both the sectors, Simms said that data has been difficult to collect and that the pitfalls of the industry become harder to get around, like the recent crisis involving the vaping of illegal THC products.

Simms remarked,

“I’m never normally going out looking for federal oversight, if you will, be what we do need, I think, is real clarity across the board, because it will be a benefit to use in the future when we can collect data at a national and global level and then actually study ‘what does a great brand mean’ based on the history of the brand.”

During the conversation with Cheddar, the idea of Combs coming into the cannabis industry arose. Previously, while speaking with Yahoo Finance Canada, Combs took a rather mysterious stance on this possibility, commenting,

“I am extremely proud of the work that Dia has done for Combs Enterprises and wish her the best as she launches BRN Group and changes the cannabis game. I am confident our paths will be crossing again very soon.”