New Petfood Product Trends and Development
In a market dominated by natural products, take the necessary steps to make sure your product launch is successful.
Although the phenomenal growth in sales of natural and organic pet foods dropped somewhat during the recession, interest in “natural” products remains high in the pet food manufacturing realm according to Pet Food in the U.S., 9th edition, produced by Packaged Facts. The report noted that Product Launch Analytics cited the term “natural” as the number one package tag/marketing claim in 2010, and the term “organic” appeared on 30 new pet food products in 2010.
Appeals to pet health continue to be a strong force in the market. Health claims topping the report’s rankings included high vitamins (No. 2), high protein (No. 4) and high minerals (No. 5). Absence of certain elements (“no's”) included no fillers, no antibiotics and no animal products. “Lows” also had a notable showing in the rankings, such as low fat and low calories.
In general, trends like natural/organic products, sustainability and eco-friendly labeling will most likely continue to drive pet product growth in the US and Europe. However, with developing countries potentially quintupling their 1950 populations by the year 2050, bringing products to these markets may be key to growing an already successful brand.
Product development
When it comes to new product development of pet products, the action needed can be mapped out in the following steps:
- Concept idea generation
- Definition of concept/principle
- Development, prototype and testing
- Implementation marketing and launch
In the initial stage of developing a product concept, a large number of ideas are considered against near and future strategic market needs to decide which are worth exploring. The most fruitful ideas are often sourced from interacting with customers and encouraging involvement from employees, research has found. Idea generation requires an open listening culture, with good feedback – an example of why social networking has become crucial, allowing in-house research to be replaced by a public forum.
Projects selected to go into development are decided on the basis of business need, potential market acceptability, risk/reward criteria and the availability of the required resources (people, facilities and money). Progress to market depends on satisfactory feedback on the prototype, an assessment of the competitive response and deliverable strategies on sourcing, marketing and pricing/margins.
“The aim of the innovation/new product development process is to start with a collection of many ad-hoc ideas and finish with a selection of a few defined ideas to present to the marketplace,” explained John Adams of Adams Development, speaking at a 2009 Petfood Forum presentation on new product development. “In times of low or no business growth, opportunity comes by seeking new things that will work, based on new needs.”
