Article sponsored by WATT Global Media
Cleveland Research's Claire Overtin will delve into how consumer research insights and industry forecasts can improve relationships between companies and retailers in an educational session at this spring's Pet Food Forum.
Author: Lisa Cleaver, Senior Reporter pet food industrypetfoodindustry.com, Petfood Forum (Photo by Andrea Gantz)
Today's pet food and veterinary drug retail space is crowded and growing rapidly. How can businesses stand out in this crowded and ever-changing field? Claire Obertin, Market Research Associate at Cleveland Research, stays on top of trends through consumer research insights and industry forecasts. This is the key to building best business practices and relationships with retailers and rising to the top.
“At Cleveland Research, we work directly with the top brands in the pet and animal health space to identify what trends they are seeing within their brands and aggregate these themes into our industry-leading insights. ,” Obertyn said. “We are also working with a consumer panel of approximately 1,200 pet parents to identify key changes in shopping behavior within the category.”
In a presentation at the Pet Food Forum in Kansas City on April 30, Mr. Obertine will discuss where his company stands within the current state of the pet retail industry, backed by consumer research insights and industry forecasts. We plan to point out that understanding how this applies will help implement and improve the identified best practices. Relationships with retailers.
“Our team works with hundreds of brands in the pet industry across retail channels,” she said. “This will enable us to gather best practices, key inflection points and insights in the pet food space in real time.”
Two trends: e-commerce and budget
At the moment, Obertin believes that mass retailers, especially Walmart and e-commerce sites like Amazon and Chewy, have an advantage as pet consumers look to value-oriented retailers when purchasing pet food. He said he felt it.
Cleveland Research expects this trend to continue through 2024 and 2025 as mass merchandisers and e-commerce retailers make meaningful investments in pet food offerings.
“This is why pet food brands need an omnichannel strategy,” Obertin said. “We need to engage with pet parents both in-store and online to clarify our value proposition and address key consumer concerns such as food quality, health, nutrition and value.”
Another trend she noted is that consumers are budgeting for their pet food purchases. They are considering reducing pack sizes, and while brand loyalty is still very high, appetite for spending on bags overall has declined, she said.
“Interestingly, growth in fresh, frozen and raw food is relatively inelastic, with strong growth forecast for these premium consumers in 2024,” she explained.
Understanding consumer behavior and industry-wide forecasts allows brands to better allocate resources, adjust strategies, and partner with key retailers to drive growth.
3 best practices for brand success
Cleveland Research partners use relationships and subsequent data as a pulse check to ensure they are allocating resources correctly, engaging in effective promotional strategies, and making forecasts in line with their industry. Obertyn said.
“We are continually doing channel work within the industry and constantly adjusting our forecasts and outlook based on what we hear,” she said.
Below are Obertin's three best practices for brands to succeed in today's fast-paced pet food space.
- Invest with winners. Prepare internal leadership to meet continued investment demands even when sales growth is likely to slow. The largest accounts are looking to capitalize on increased funding momentum in 2024.
- promotion. The promotional environment is expected to become even more intense in 2024. Be able to support why returning to investing in high and low promotional frequency or everyday low pricing (EDLP) is best for your brand.
- Clarify your values. Regardless of channel, pet owners are looking for value when shopping for their pets. Whether it's hard goods, consumables, prescriptions, etc., consumers need to understand your brand's values.
“Sharing information with pet food industry experts through presentations, publications, webinars, podcasts, and more like this is what I do every day,” says Obertin. “We look forward to engaging with the Pet Food Forum audience and expanding the reach of the Pet Food Forum as we share our insights and key takeaways for 2024.”
Claire Obertyn, market researcher at Cleveland Research, will speak at the Pet Food Forum in Kansas City on Tuesday, April 30th. In her session, Track pet consumer and retail trendswill help attendees better understand how consumer research insights and industry forecasts can help them implement specific best practices into their companies and their relationships with retailers. For more information, visit petfoodforumevents.com.
