Shannon Landry, pet brand manager at Packaged Facts, an agency that provides consumer marketing research on food and beverages, pet products and services, demographics, and financial services, recently participated in a panel discussion on pet food sustainability at the Petfood Forum, a premier conference for professionals in the pet food and treat industry.
Packaged Facts, based in Rockville, Maryland, is a brand of The Freedonia Group, a division of MarketResearch.com, a premier international business research company, providing clients with product analyses, market forecasts, industry trends, and market share information.
Landry spoke to Sarah Schmidt, managing editor at MarketResearch.com, about the conference and key takeaways for stakeholders in the pet food industry. Excerpts:
Tell us about your experience at the Petfood Forum. What were the main themes and topics?
Petfood Forum 2024 featured a huge exhibitor space with representatives from a wide range of pet food industry participants, including pet food ingredient suppliers, manufacturers, packaging specialists, and marketers.
One of Petfood Forum’s main themes this year was sustainability in the pet food industry. Not only did the event feature several informational sessions on sustainable practices (including the panel I served on), Petfood Forum introduced a new initiative designed to minimize the environmental impact of the event itself, including using recycled materials for event lanyards, providing high-impact recycling for food containers and event signage, and donating the unused pet food samples from the exhibits.
In the panel discussion on pet food sustainability, what were the key issues or challenges discussed?
The panel discussion focused on ways pet food industry participants could work sustainable practices into their business model, with other panel participants from Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Wilbur-Ellis Nutrition, Morris Packaging, and Earth Animal, as well as the panel moderator Jim Lamancusa from the Pet Sustainability Coalition.
Topics included how companies can start on their sustainability journey, the challenges and benefits of including sustainability goals in new product development, how consumer demand for sustainable products has changed in recent years, the need for consumer education in what sustainability means, and how sustainability is linked to the health and wellness of both pets and planet.
Was there any discussion around consumer attitudes towards sustainable food products?
Yes, I mentioned how, for younger pet owners in particular, sustainability is a factor when deciding what products to buy and where to purchase them. Pet food industry participants have realized they need to be able to communicate their sustainable practices to consumers, since pet owners have become more and more interested in educating themselves about things like ingredient sourcing, packaging materials, and the carbon footprint of pet food marketers and manufacturers.
What actionable insights would you draw from the discussion for stakeholders in the pet food industry?
Pet owners want transparency from the pet food manufacturers and marketers that they trust with the health and wellness of their pets. From a marketing perspective, pet food manufacturers that are taking steps to implement more sustainable practices have got to get the word out to pet owners. Pet owners aren’t willing to sacrifice quality, however, so finding ways to tie sustainability in to quality nutrition and pet health and wellness is a great way to convince pet owners that they are making the best choice for their pets.
Source: PR Newswire
