Pedigree: Good, Honest Food (at £7m) But Will YOU Feed it Now?

Published on June 16, 2009 by Ryan O'Meara   ·   1 Comment

Mars is relaunching its Pedigree dog food brand in a staggering £7m marketing blitz. The firm claimed the relaunch is designed at increasing “consumer trust” in the brand.

The campaign tags the product as “Good Honest Food” and the firm is claiming it to be the biggest brand development in the history of the brand.

Pedigree will carry the strapline that it is the “first” dog food producer to contain meat that is “traceable back to the farm.”

Money will be spent on “improved packaging” as well as changes to the food itself.

The new packaging is designed to be “uncluttered and modern” which the company hopes will increase point of sale opinion of the product.

A TV and press campaign will roll out later this month alongside online and direct marketing efforts.

The ad campaign will show images of “real dogs” and their owners.

This “relaunch” comes hot on the heels of Pedigree’s decision to withdraw from Crufts dog show and on the back of their “dog adoption drive” – efforts which display more attention to trying to appeal to “real dog owners”.

But will it work?

Speak to “real dog owners” who also happen to have “real knowledge” of pet food and the opinion of Pedigree’s product tends to be low.

Dog owners in 2009 are more product aware and nutritionally savvy than they have ever been.

No longer is it the case that a fancy marketing campaign and sudden urge to want to connect with “real” dog owners against a backdrop of decades of “top breeders recommend” marketing messages will it overcome the pass-along opinions of the savvy dog owner in this product market-place.

People don’t forget, overnight, years of association with a now disgraced dog event. And people absolutely don’t forget if they have used the product and found it to be inferior to other, genuinely modern, fresh pet food brands.

Pet food brands need to understand that today’s dog owners are faced with an entire shopping aisle of choice. But more pertinently, they need to realise that flash, gimmicky marketing is only going to get you so far. If the product doesn’t stack up (and for some time now, Pedigree hasn’t) then not only will they reject it, thanks to modern communication tools such as the Web, they will pass their experience on (in droves).

Mars, Pedigree’s owner, previously had complaints upheld against another marketing effort for their ‘Pedigree Joint Care’ product. They ran a TV ad which breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising) and were told not to run it again in the complained about format.

As we enter a new era in marketing and the manufacturer of commercial pet food, firms such as Mars will have to compete harder than ever to not just gain the attention of their target consumer, but to actually make them want to use their product.

In an era when there were only 4 or 5 competing pet food products, a high-spending, national marketing blitz would most likely be just the recipe required to arrest “falling confidence” in a brand. But today, today things are different. Today the little guy has a chance. The little guy has a BIG chance if his product happens to be well received. Shiny bags, “adoption drives” and repositioning brands as “good” and “honest” will only have a positive impact if dog owners agree with the claims.

Engaging in an “adoption drive” having been associated for decades with the very essence of pedigree dogdom, is – rightly – likely to draw cynicism from some owners who have long seen the brand proudly flying its flags at that very definition of canine exclusivity, Crufts dog show.

It’s a cynicism unlikely to die down when reading things such as this

Pedigree was facing a huge problem, since the dog food market was being polarized between own label and premium brands. Pedigree was somewhere in the middle and did not have clear differentiating brand attributes.

The opportunity was to tell consumers, that Pedigree cares more about every single dog than any other manufacturer. In order to prove this, it created the Pedigree Adoption Drive and raised Awareness for dogs living in animal shelters.

A piece which culminates with:

The campaign achieved a short term sales growth of 8,6%. Also the penetration of the brand increased about 4,8% for the first time in three years and remained on a higher level also after the campaign period.

Hmmm.

Don’t get me wrong. Nobody here is naive enough to suggest that commercial pet food companies are all altruistic by nature. But there’s “good” “honest” “ethical” marketing campaigns – and then there’s “brand re-positioning”. They’re not one and the same thing.

So will YOU be feeding Pedigree now?

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Tags:  pedigree dog food