An Experiment From Two Universities.

What characters of dog food will impact consumer on their purchase decision? They might be a complex question frequently asked by stakeholders among pet food chains. Recently, two universities, Kansas State University and Warsaw University published the result of their studies - 120 dog owners evaluated around 30 dog food and dog treats samples. Below positives & negatives impact.

Positive terms for dry dog food and dog treats

“Has natural ingredients/raw materials”

“Good for dog’s health”

“My dog will like it”

“Has variety of ingredients/raw materials”

“Has all the nutrients that my dog(s) needs”

Negative terms for dry dog food and dog treats

“Looks like fake food”

“Color is too pale”

“Consumption may cause choking hazard”

“My dog will not eat it”

“I don’t like the shape of this sample”

“Has artificial color(s)”

“Has too much variety of shapes”

“Has too much variety of colors”

The last two point brought our attention. It might sound wired, but the true fact is now the consumer behavior has shifted towards simplicity, more choice now is acutally making us less happy and satisfied. Consumer can find themselves stressed out when realized that they will have to do some real work before they can actually dig out what is best for my dog.

Multiple academic journals on this topics was pointed out and there is a Ted talk from Psychologist Barry Schwartz which has more than 2.5 million viewers(though it might be outdated, but the comments on this idea are generally positive, specially recent years).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6XEQIsCoM&t=510s

In Sweet pet a large variety of products is offered indeed, but the purpose of it is that to providing more choices for different markets. We constantly study the newest trend of the industry so that we can give the best suggestion and recommendation for our customers.