Pet Owners Have More Choices Than Before
Shopping for pet food can be a confusing experience. In addition to the hundreds of competing food products, shoppers face a growing array of supplements--glucosamine for pets with deteriorating joints, St. John’s Wort for animals suffering from depression, chicory to promote better digestion and herb blends to deal with bad breath.
Some products promise to attack basic problems--tonics to reduce hairballs in cats and concoctions that promise to reduce odors caused by bowel movements. And research is generating new insights into complex pet issues, including canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome--also known as doggy Alzheimer’s.
The Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition in London, a respected research center, is developing a “unique antioxidant blend or ‘super food,’ which works to support an animal’s natural defenses by ‘mopping up’ ... dangerous free radicals.”
The wealth of products available for pampered pets is in stark contrast to the first commercially produced dog food introduced in about 1860 in England. Canned dog food made its debut in the U.S. after World War I, and modern dry pet food first was marketed in the 1950s.
The ongoing manufacturing consolidation also is reshaping how pet food is sold. Supermarkets and mass marketers, which generate 70% of food sales, hope to increase sales by experimenting with better-stocked pet food aisles and specialty products with fatter margins.
Albertson’s, for example, has added pet centers in some of its newer, large-format stores in Southern California. Pet food aisles at traditional stores typically are about 48 feet long; stores with pet centers feature aisles that are 72 feet long.
Pet superstores are adding less-pricey premium store brands and are emphasizing such services as grooming salons and pet-training classes. They also offer consumers a standing invitation to bring Fido or Kitty along during shopping trips.
But a hefty percentage of pet owners never set foot inside pet specialty stores, so “if we can capture just 10% of that population it would have a huge impact on our business,” said Bruce Jesse, PetCo’s vice president of marketing.
The marketing might of Procter & Gamble Co., Mars Inc. and Nestle bodes well for the pet food category, said Philip Francis, chairman, president and chief executive of the PetSmart chain.
“They have the marketing muscle to help slowly upgrade people from commodity products to [premium] products keyed around nutritional values,” Francis said. “Consumers are hungry for these nutritional products. I’m taking glucosamine today, for example, and when my dog gets older, I won’t have to be convinced to give it to him.”
Francis said the big marketers are using their research and development arms to create new lines of products that appeal to pet lovers. “With P&G;, we’re seeing a mini-explosion of dental products,” Francis said. “That has to be based upon research being shared by the Crest crowd and the pet crowd.”
