While pet parents continue humanising their pets, innovation has driven forward the industry with enticing products, designed more to please humans, according to Euromonitor.

“Breaking out products by breed, by age and by lifestyle has been key to maintaining consumers’ interest and driving growth,” says Euromonitor’s Paula Flores.

“Also, better quality products with functional ingredients, added functionality and novel proteins has been a key selling point, particularly as consumers trade up from mid-price offerings.”

Here’s what else Paula Flores has to say:

Breed and lifestyle

Segmentation by breed has been quite relevant in recent years as consumers look to better adapt their pets’ functional needs to meet their nutrition needs. Moreover, the fact that nutrition plays a key role in pets’ overall healthy development has further boosted the idea of how key nutrition is. Recent developments in the industry have also combined particular breeds with their different life stages and lifestyles in order to create even more fine-tuned and targeted nutrition.  While this may not be radically new in the most developed markets, it is still important to analyse its development and differences in specific markets as these strategies can be pursued by different manufacturers at different times.

Small dogs at the heart of segmentation

With the industry becoming increasingly competitive and growth becoming harder to find in many of the traditional markets, segmentation has played a key role in driving growth and attracting interest to the category as well as differentiating from competitors. Key underlying trends such as the rise of small dogs have been at the core of such developments as food is catering to their specific needs. Small dogs and toy breeds have become increasingly popular across a number of markets. Experiencing 25% growth between 2013 and 2018, the popularity of small dogs has become a global phenomenon and has driven much of the recent development in pet food, providing further segmentation and higher margins for the industry.

Senior pets provide fertile ground for innovation

Overall, with better pet nutrition as well as the level of care and scientific advances, similar to humans, pets are also living longer. This creates new needs in terms of fighting signs of older age in pets as well as ailments that are more common with such pets. Brain health is one of the areas where there are plenty of developments and ingredient manufacturers have invested in considerable research into the most effective ingredients that support specific conditions.

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