Why consumer attitudes matter in pet food formulation

Consumers’ views of the foods they eat carry over into what they expect their pets to eat, participants in Pets Family Feud found out at Petfood Innovation Workshop.

Attendees at Petfood Innovation Workshop took part in a game of Pets Family Feud to learn more about what pet food purchasers desire. | Alyssa Conway
Attendees at Petfood Innovation Workshop took part in a game of Pets Family Feud to learn more about what pet food purchasers desire. | Alyssa Conway

When formulating dog and cat food, it is not only important to consider the nutritional science, but it is also important to factor in consumers’ attitudes toward the pet food and its ingredients that they’re purchasing. Based on research from Packaged Facts’ U.S. pet owner survey, attendees at Petfood Innovation Workshop played a Pets Family Feud game to learn more about what pet owners are looking for in their dog and cat’s diets.

Research shows that nearly two-thirds of dog or cat owners “strongly agree” that pets are part of the family, and another one-quarter “somewhat agree,” David Sprinkle of Packaged Facts told attendees. In playing Pets Family Feud, contestants learned that this strong pet humanization sentiment translates directly into the expectations consumers have for the pet food they buy.

Sprinkle provided some facts about pet owner behaviors and expectations:

  • 57 percent of cat-owning pet parents keep their pet’s food in the kitchen or pantry, influencing the level of freshness they expect from a pet food.
  • 34 percent of millennials strongly agree that high-quality pet foods are effective for preventative healthcare, influencing the types of products they expect to find available for their pet’s health.
  • 21 percent of urban pet owners along with those who consider pets as part of the family are strongly concerned about their pets having food allergies, which is a driving force behind grain-free and other pet specialty formulations.

“This shows how sort of your community, your human context, is also modifying and framing the kind of attitude you have toward pet food and pet nutrition products,” Sprinkle said.

Playing in teams, Pet Family Feud participants were educated more about pet food product characteristics and ingredients that consumers find desirable and those that they avoid when purchasing. For example, the top five pet health concerns for which consumers cite they buy targeted pet foods, treats or supplements are dental/oral health (29 percent), skin/coat (22 percent), joint health (19 percent), digestive health (16 percent) and weight loss/control (15 percent), according to the research presented in the game. Other than health conditions and concerns, 43 percent of consumers say protein quality/content is the most important consideration in their purchase, followed by 33 percent who say their pet liking the taste of the food is most important, 31 percent who want a pet food whose price represents a good value, 28 percent of consumers that value purchasing a natural (other than organic) product, and 26 percent that value product freshness.

Contestants learned that the main types of ingredients cat food purchasers say they avoid are fillers/byproducts (25 percent), artificial ingredients/colors/preservatives (24 percent), GMOs (24 percent), grains/gluten (24 percent) and corn (22 percent). As far as ingredients that dog food owners say they avoid, corn (24 percent), wheat (19 percent) and soy (18 percent) topped the list of grains or carbs avoided; for proteins, 19 percent say they avoid purchasing a dog food with salmon or shrimp, while 18 percent say they avoid whitefish or chicken.

Top 5 reasons to purchase natural/organic

Many participants were surprised to learn that the top reasons for dog and cat owners to purchase natural/organic pet foods are:

1. for better nutrition (72 percent),

2. product safety (60 percent),

3. pet preference (35 percent),

4. vet recommendation (29 percent) and

5. environmental concerns (11 percent).

Product characteristics most important to purchasers of natural/organic pet foods were ingredients (79 percent), price (54 percent), brand reputation (45 percent), country in which the food is made (36 percent) and natural/eco-friendly packaging (17 percent).

“Consumers want everything to look and feel the same. So when we’re looking at these trends and looking at what people say they want … the point is that people have a mindset of what they say they want, but it has to line up with their lifestyle,” Ben Arnold, Ingredion Inc., told participants.

Petfood Forum 2018

Petfood Innovation Workshop was held Monday, April 3 at the Kansas State-Olathe campus in Olathe, Kansas, USA. Petfood Innovation Workshop is part of Petfood Forum 2017. Petfood Forum 2018 will take place at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Missouri, USA on April 23 -25, 2018.

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