Innovating for the Future

The Challenge

Identifying demand spaces and differentiation in natural pet food for a British pet food brand.

Our client, a natural pet food brand, came to us with many questions surrounding the natural pet food category, their place within it, and what their future looked like. Is there enough demand to support an additional natural brand in Southern Europe? Is there enough differentiation between the new and existing natural brands within their portfolio to prevent cannibalization? Is the new brand’s positioning relevant and resonant? So, we got to work.

The Approach

We delved deep into the natural pet food space understanding people’s attitudes, behaviours and preferences in choosing their pets’ natural food. From exploring what ‘natural’ means, why it matters, and expectations of natural pet food brands, we uncovered conscious and subconscious wants and needs that sit at the heart of trial, adoption and advocacy. Armed with an understanding of both the natural category as a whole, and the client’s natural brands, we embarked on an introduction of a new brand (and its brand universe). The goal: to explore and understand if and how such a quintessentially British brand could be introduced into the Southern European market, to drive both brand and category growth.

The Impact

We used those insights to inform the new market entry strategy of a ‘quintessentially British’ dog and cat food brand by exploring attitudes and perceptions of natural pet food and demand for new propositions that challenge the category.