Preparing two pet food brands for a retailer review

The question

The company sold two brands through its key specialty retailer: a premium brand built on nutrition, and a more accessible one.

Ahead of its innovation review with that retailer, it wanted new directions for both. In a competitive channel, the ideas had to stand apart, and build on what the company already knew while adding something new.

Our approach

We started from everything the company already knew: its shopper segmentation, its futures and opportunity work, and what it had shown retailers before.

Store visits took us to pet specialty stores and to natural food stores for people, to see how health and indulgence are sold to both.

From a broad set of starter ideas, the most promising areas became full concepts for each brand: a target owner and their need, a positioning, a path from a first product to a wider range, and for most a rendered pack.

Each concept was written for the retailer as well as the brand, starting with how it could add value to a shopping trip, and drew on the company’s existing consumer evidence.

What the team came away with

We worked with the company’s innovation lead from the first ideas to a set of finished concepts for both brands, made for the retailer’s table.

Each came with its role in the brand and what it would need to succeed, so the team could make the case for every idea in terms that matter to the retailer.