Secondary Data Analysis Assignment on
Natural Dog Treat Products
Pet Food Industry
Throughout the country, pet owners are spending billions of dollars every year to provide food and treats for their pets. For the past few years, the demand for pet food has grown alongside the amount of domestic animals in the United States households. The pet food industry in the United States has around 200 major companies with a combined revenue of roughly $47 billion (Research and Markets 2012). This industry is growing every year with the production of many different options including dog food, cat food, and treats. One branch of the pet food industry that is recently growing is the natural and organic pet food: Figure 1: Dog and Cat product sales, Natural
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One of the main threats is that larger companies are able to spend millions of dollars on marketing to maintain their share of the market. This can be a major disadvantage of smaller companies who are on a tighter budget. Another major threat is that the pet food manufacturing market is highly concentrated with the top eight companies having about 85% of the sales (Research and Markets 2012). Even though having a smaller company in this market is hard, there are a few opportunities that a pet food manufacturer has. The smaller companies can gain effective market share by offering specialized products or by serving locally to their customers. This draws in the attention of local residents, especially those who are health conscious. The awareness of the natural pet foods is on the rise significantly. This is the latest trend going on in the United States, and companies like Hills Pet were hurt dramatically by not following it. Their major brand, Science Diet, used the claims of having the best vitamins and minerals as well as having proteins. This gained sales for a while, but as shown in figure 2, once the trend for “organic and natural” pet food came along, they were unable to hold their sales steady by only claiming they had a scientific remedy for pet food (Serena Ng …show more content…
These companies are able to spend millions of dollars a year to promote their products, which can be hard to work around for smaller companies. They are able to sell their products in national grocery stores and pet stores around the country, which is the main reason why focusing the efforts on smaller, local stores to sell the natural pet food is the best route to take. This will provide a more direct link to the target market.
Demographic Profile
According to the MRI data on Dog Biscuits/Treats, the target market concluded is females who are 45 to 54 years old who are college educated. They also have an annual income of $75,000 to $149,999 (MRI/Mediamark Reporter 2012). This data concludes that the target market for the natural pet product is an older female who is in the middle to upper-middle class. There are a few things to consider when determining how to market to this profile (Taylor 2014):
• Be aware of human food trends, these usually can compare to pet food trends
• Nutrition for seniors and weight management are some of the top trends for pet food
• Fiber in pet food has become prominent