A family affair: What brands need to know about pet-owners
Streetbees spoke to over 1,900 pet owners about how they feel about their pets — particularly when it comes to meal time
Are you a cat person or dog person?
Most of us think of our pets as a member of our family (79% of us, in fact, according to our latest study): a full half of them sleep in the same rooms as us, and eattheir meals in our kitchens (49%) and living rooms (13%).
In emerging markets like Nigeria, Kenya and India, that even extends even further, sharing the same food as their humans in the form of leftovers and full, home-cooked meals — 56% of people in these regions said they feed their pets homemade food.
And there’s a lot of them. While pet numbers are slightly decreasing as space and costs increase in the developed world, there’s still an estimated 51 million in the UK alone.
We spoke to over 1,900 pet owners around the world, to see what they thought of their animals — and how they feed them.
Making a dog’s dinner of it
Dry pet food is the most popular type of feed amongst both cat-owners and dog-owners globally at 53% and 54%, but it does depend on where you are in the world.
In the West, dry dog food is king. In the UK, a full 6 out of 10 dog-owners say they use dry food, compared to just over a quarter (26%) buying wet food. In the US, that number jumps right up to 83%, with a mere 8% of people preferring wet food.
“We mostly give all our pets dry food,” writes an American bee, female 20. “We save wet food for when they’re sick. Giving them scraps makes them beg, so we don’t do that.”
For Americans, this trend continues to hold true for cat-owners, too — 79% of our US bees bought their cats dry food, compared to 16% wet.
However, in the UK, the scales tip in the other direction when it comes to cats — unlike with their canine counterparts, over half (54%) of UK respondents said they preferred their cats to have wet food, and just 36% dry.
The biggest shifts, though, come when comparing the West and parts of the developing world — here, homemade pet foods (such as leftovers) actually make up the bulk of what gets wolfed down by cats and dogs.
In India, over half of both dog food (51%) and cat food (56%) is made at home instead of being bought specifically from a shop, followed by wet food for dogs (24%) and dry food for cats (24%).
Kenya and Nigeria both follow the same trend, but with even more emphasis on homemade options. In these African nations, almost 7 out of 10 (69%) people made their own dog food and 59% do the same for cats. Wet food follows both of these, at 19% for dogs and 26% for cats respectively. Our Filipino bees also agreed with India — with 51% of dog food and a huge 77% of cat food made in the home.
Bucking the developing world’s trend is the more affluent South Africa — here, patterns are more in line with the West, with more focus on dry pet food for both dogs and cats — 70% overall, and less than 1 in 5 (19%) feeding their dogs their leftovers.
Treat with care
When it comes to the other great sphere of pet food products — the treat — another divide between cultures emerges.
For 6 out of 10 consumers in the US and the UK, the most common time to give their dogs a treat was when it had ‘done something well’ — as a reward mechanism. This is followed by the more chilled-out habits of snacking throughout the day (54%) and while they are playing with them (44%).
On the other hand, treats as a reward for performing well aren’t a high priority for UK and US cats, plummeting from 60% down to 29%. For felines, the most common occasions for treats is as general snacks during the day (48%), when playing with its owner (41%) and when it’s been alone for a long time (31%).
In African nations like Kenya and Nigeria, fewer people (23%) feed their pets snacks throughout the day, preferring to treat them when they play with them (60% overall) and as an apology for when they’ve been left alone for a long time (44% overall). India and the Philippines tend to agree with them, with 58% of consumers also using them when playing with their animals.
“My dog always wants to play when I’m busy,” writes one of our Indian bees, 46. “But I can’t resist — I have to play with him.”
What does this all mean for brands?
When it comes to looking at a market as packed with choices as the pet food sector, all barking for attention, it’s worth noting that by and large the differences between people’s buying habits vary more by location and less so by pet: around the world, dog-owners and cat-owners are largely the same in overall spending habits, for example.
Brands looking to capitalise on opportunities should focus in on the specific regional differences between these consumer markets — what’s being bought, and where is it being bought from? In regions like Kenya, Nigeria, India and the Philippines, the majority of pet food is actually made at home — far more often than bought pre-made.
In markets like these, highlighting the key advantages of buying a specific brand — such as health benefits for consumers’ pets, for example — instead of feeding them leftovers could sway consumers into buying pre-made packs.
Method of delivery should also be a real focus for enterprising brands, especially as the online shopping trend continues. Even in the West, where online shopping for consumer products is already growing but less than 1 in 10 (US and UK) currently shop online for their pet food, that number is sure to rise.
And, when the tide of online shopping grows inevitably extends into the developing world in full, pet food brands that looked to the future early on may well be in for a treat.
Streetbees can help your business understand markets in real time. Get in touch to find out more.
Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
A quick word on our methodology: The figures in the article are taken from global Streetbees community members, carried out in July 2018. All of the data was collected by mobile and web surveys, and is accurate to within 5 percentage points 9 times out of 10.
