Text: Julie Zhu **foodaily daily food (ID: foodaily) Last month, McDonald's launched 500,000 copies of cat litter peripherals, and three "bag cat nests" will be logged into more than 5,000 McDonald's restaurants across the country that provide McNugget delivery services, which has attracted the attention of the whole network. In recent years, domestic brands have tested the pet economy, grasped the "pet psychology" of young people, and various categories of ingenious pet products and marketing activities have emerged in an endless stream, all of which have received good responses. From the early cat café where cats can drink coffee and coffee, to the theme restaurants where you can interact deeply with pets, and then to the pet IP appearing in product packaging or marketing activities, pet consumption has shown an obvious upgrade trend. According to the "2023 China Pet Content Value Study***" released by iResearch, the pet consumer market will continue to grow in the future, and the market size is expected to be about 392.4 billion yuan in 2023. The growing pet economy not only promotes the rapid development of the pet food industry, but also allows many brands to see the consumer demand contained in the huge pet population. Behind the "it" economy, is it the "emotional sustenance" or the "lonely carnival" of contemporary young people?Relying on the "it" economy, can brand marketing be able to win and easily get out of the circle?How can we develop the consumer market in a more innovative and in-depth way by entering the young people with "pets"?Statistics show that in 2022, the number of pet owners of cats and dogs in cities and towns across the country will exceed 70.43 million, a year-on-year increase of 29%。Among them, the number of young pet owners continues to increase, and the "post-95" generation has become significantly dominant, accounting for 368%。With the increase of pet lovers, the popularity of "cloud cats" and "cloud dogs" remains high, and various brands have also emerged to launch different products and services for the all-round development of pets. In addition to the most common pet food and toys, pet fostering, pet grooming, pet medical care, pet training and other industries are rapidly expanding, forming a new "blue ocean". In recent years, cross-border marketing cases for pet brands have also emerged in an endless stream. Hermes joined hands with Zeal to become the first pet brand in China to cooperate with luxury brand designers. Later, ZiwixDQ launched a co-branded gift box Meow Cream Fun Bucket, which comes with a cat dress up and DIY Meow Cream tool gift pack, which can easily dress up cats as DQ clerks. 
*: Sohu and Google In the field of food and beverage, cute pet marketing is piled up, but it is in fast food brands. And the pet PK of fast food starts with the "roll" cat kennel. As early as 2021, inspired by its classic hamburger box, McDonald's launched a hamburger box cat nest, and McDonald's also made the interaction between the cat and the owner**, widely advertising: "McNuggets sent out the cat nest". This wave of marketing has earned McDonald's enough popularity, not only becoming a hot topic of the year, but also further enriching the use scenarios of McDonald's products. And as the old rival of "Maimen", KFC is not to be outdone. In July 2022, KFC joined hands with the domestic cutting-edge pet brand Weika to launch the limited KFC Unstuck Cat Scratch Bucket. The product retains the design of the KFC family bucket in appearance, and adds the classic cactus element of the card. The whole cat scratch bucket is made of environmentally friendly material corrugated paper, with an open nest on the top and a drill hole below, which is suitable for cats of various sizes. In November of that year, KFC was launched in conjunction with Zeze"Bouncing chicken electric pet toy"with"Dundun chicken pet cuddle nest", soft touch, clever and cute shape, plus swaying singing and dancing are good, electric"Bouncing chicken"Receive immediate love from pet lovers. In January this year, KFC and PURROOM jointly released catnip-flavored chicken rice products, and you can get chicken flower cat toys when you buy designated ** in designated stores, and each chicken flower has a different New Year's wish cloth tag hidden on it. Pet marketing coupled with geographical restrictions can't help but attract a lot of netizens to rush crazy. People say, "KFC might as well sell toys directly"!
*: Sohu and Xiaohongshu In the second half of this year, pet marketing intensified. On October 23, Pizza Hut launched the purchase of 159 yuan** free zeze co-branded pizza pet tunnel bed, 99 yuan** free hilarious bug co-branded pet carousel toy;On November 10th, KFC took advantage of the new burger to launch a pet supplies toy in the co-branded Puff Lab, and you can buy a duck and duck conspicuous bag or "help me up" electric pet toys for 39-49 yuan....On November 15, McDonald's launched a new upgrade of the bag cat nest after the "Hamburger Cat Nest" in 2021. Through professional delivery services, fresh hot food can be delivered together with the cat bed, bringing consumers and cute pets a warm and interesting home delivery experience. While continuously enriching consumers' home life, it also brings deeper emotional value and social value. 
*: Is the popularity of the cosmic snack company and McDonald's pet elements just the growing pet population?What kind of new consumer trends are reflected behind the upgrade of brand marketing strategy from "children" to "hairy children"?In the post-epidemic era, people need more spiritual satisfaction and companionship. Young people, in particular, are increasingly placing an emphasis on spiritual satisfaction. Pets provide emotional healing value for young people, and "young age, both cats and dogs" has become the ideal life of this generation of young people. From the perspective of the whole society, the rise of the pet economy is closely related to the aging of the population and the increasing pursuit of emotional value in consumption. 1. From the consumer side: keep the cute pet partner and laugh at lifeFoodaily believes that demographic changes characterized by "aging" and "urbanization" have promoted the rapid heating up of the pet economy. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2022, the population aged 65 and above was 209.78 million, accounting for 149%。A considerable number of older people face a strong sense of loneliness, and driven by the need for companionship, the tendency to raise pets has increased. In 2023, the domestic fertility rate will break through a new low, and the low fertility rate will be echoed by the lower and lower marriage rate. People will use pets to solve their companionship needs. According to the data released by iiMedia Consulting this year: 2070% of Chinese pet owners treat their pets as children, 1278% of people consider pets to be their loved ones, 2159% of people consider pets to be their friends, and more and more people value pets. Going to pet schools, holding birthday parties, and handling pet funerals have become the spiritual sustenance and indispensable part of thousands of family life. From a scientific point of view, raising pets is not only a good way to reduce loneliness, but also a shortcut to building positive emotions. The results of psychological research show that when people and pets interact, the brain will release dopamine, serotonin and other happy hormones, which makes people feel happy and interacts with each other, which also helps to distract people, reduce the focus on negative emotions, and make people forget their worries for a while. Based on these cognitions, European and American countries will equip patients with mental illness with emotional support dogs. Specially trained dogs can soothe people's emotions through physical contact, help people get through some difficult times, and play a role in companionship and spiritual comfort. 
*：be chewy2. From the perspective of the industry: the blessing of capital boosts the unlimited scenery of the trackThe pet track is becoming more and more popular, and it has also attracted the attention of the capital community. In recent years, pet-related financing has emerged in an endless stream, and the amount of financing is getting higher and higher. According to iResearch's research data, there will be a total of 35 financing events in China's pet industry in 2022. Among them, there were 5 domestic financings of more than 100 million yuan. The main business direction of the financed brands covers various fields such as pet medical care, pet food, pet cleaning and grooming, and pet supplies, and every subdivision of the pet economy has become a "golden land for entrepreneurship". 
*: istockphoto, self, and Xiaohongshu have entered 2023, and the pet track financing has not stopped, in addition to the successful IPO of McFudy's parent company, many pet brands that have not been established for a long time have also been favored by capital. For example, the small pet brand "Bukaxing", which was founded in 2019, completed tens of millions of yuan in Pre-A+ round financing at the beginning of this yearFounded in 2018, the pet food brand "Okeepet" announced at the end of March that it had received a strategic investment of 10 million yuan;Pawka, a pet food brand that was just established last year, also successfully got tens of millions of yuan in angel round financing ...... in May"The pet economy is a track with long slopes and thick snow. Specifically, pet food accounts for the largest proportion of the subdivision track, and it also has the most investment opportunities, and then specifically the staple food field. Wu Zhiwei, the founder of Plank Road Capital, said in an interview at the end of last year that the industry with a long life cycle and high-frequency rigid demand, the pet industry has a high-frequency rigid demand, especially pet staple food, a long value cycle for a single customer, and the demand for pets will be greatly increased by the young people, the middle class and the aging era. With the two-way force of the demand side and the supply side, the pet economy has become one of the most popular marketing methods. For brands that intend to take advantage of the opportunity to harvest users and sales, how should they combine with the pet economy to create greater momentum and attract more flows?Looking back on the pet economic operation cases in recent years, foodaily found that the opening of friendly stores, the sale of limited products, the clever presentation of cute pet IP, and public welfare actions such as rescue and adoption are all accurate grasp of the various subtle psychology of pet owners (and pre-pet owners). 1. Pet-friendly, shared by people and petsAt the beginning of this summer, Chabaidao quietly launched 20 pet-friendly stores. The store takes pet drinking water as the core service, and by the way, customers are encouraged to check in and take photos and receive limited peripherals (pet folding bowls and pet backpacks), so as to accumulate more popularity for the store and brand. In fact, as early as 2018, Starbucks took the lead in launching "pet-friendly stores", and the number of stores nationwide has now exceeded 100. Since then, chain coffee brands such as Manner and Seesaw have also responded positively. In October 2020, Heytea opened the first pet-friendly store in the tea industry in Shenzhen. In April 2021, a pet-friendly store co-branded by Lele Tea and Ziwi Peak opened in Shanghai. 
*: Among the many pet-friendly stores in Sohu, pet-exclusive food and beverages have become a must-have. For example, Starbucks has designed an exclusive drink for pets, "Paw Butchino";Seesaw Coffee's "Little Baby for All" limited special;Rakucha's cream cup "Wangwang cheese" and so on. The design elements of the store are also more pet-style, which is very attributed to punching in. 
*: Sohu's "pet-friendly stores" are aimed at the demand for beverage consumption among pet groups. Nowadays, the concept of "sharing people and pets" has become popular, extending from meeting the dietary needs of pets to providing immediate needs for pet owners and pet treasures. The success of the pet-friendly store model quickly expanded the format from a chain of drinks to a chain of fast food. At the beginning of 2021, KFC opened the first "pet-friendly restaurant" in Chinese mainland at Jing'an Darongcheng Restaurant in Shanghai. In addition to pet toys, the store also holds a fresh yoga doga (dog+yoga), where furry children and owners practice yoga together, leading a new trend of healthy life for pet owners. 2. Limited the periphery, harvest and shovel officialsOpening a store is expensive and not suitable for all brands. There are some brands that take a different approach, using the "sense of scarcity" to carry out limited (hunger) marketing that makes pet owners want to stop. On August 8, the International Cat Love Day, Bawang Chaji took the brand's classic "Ancient Tea Horse Road" elements as the design inspiration, and produced and launched the "Cat Nest", and you can get limited cat nest products by purchasing designated ** in Guangdong and Shandong regional stores. It can be seen from the photos of netizens that this cat nest of Overlord Chaji follows its usual classic pattern, and the whole shape is tall and elegant, harvesting the girlish heart of the shovel officer. 
Brand perspective is limited to a few regions, and limited time to rob, this cat nest once caused consumers to find a lot of money, major social media** even appeared on behalf of the drink service, drink people in the designated area to buy** after getting the cat nest sent to the user's designated location, that is, to complete the transaction. In an instant, the topics surrounding "Bawang Tea Ji Drink on Behalf of Others" and "Bawang Tea Ji Cat's Nest" sparked heated discussions among netizens, with a total of **5 million related topics, and the topic of the Xiaohongshu platform Bawang Tea Ji Cat's Nest has more than 1.76 million views. Some stores in Shandong and Guangdong have exploded. This wave of marketing of limited cat litters has really whetted people's appetites. Starting from the "cute pet" just needed supplies, by actively creating a shortage of supply, so as to enhance the added value of products or peripherals, stimulate people's crowd buying psychology, and finally obtain high traffic and brand communication. Although the cat nest is endearing and attention-grabbing, there are still many cute pet just needs, which can actually become the material for hunger marketing. 3. Cute pet IP, shaping the personality of cocoa** brandThe soft and cute pet image is also suitable for creating cute pet IP. Brands use the image of cute pets to break into the pet group, resonate with consumers, and bring more emotional links to products;At the same time, it also creates a friendly image of the brand with warm and friendly cute pet IP. In 2022, on the Double 11 node, Ah Fei and Badi and hellokitty will jointly release a limited cooperation gift box, in order to do a good job of the first co-branding, Ah Fei and Badi choose three classic products to cooperate to achieve the purpose of 1+1 2 co-branding. According to data from Social Touch Insight Engine, at the end of 2022, Ah Fei and Badi brand social influence index jumped 29 places, becoming the fastest growing pet diet brand. 
*: In November 2023, COCO can launch the "Cat Infested" theme activity, which is based on the pig cat and creates the image of Zhu Mi. Bead is a small black cat with a round head and eyes like Coco pearls, and is characterized by wearing a Coco saliva towel. The topic of the event set off a craze on Xiaohongshu, and cat owners responded one after another, with more than 30,000+ related notes. 
*: 1 Diandian brands based on user needs and emotions of innovative marketing, brand concept and cute pet IP combination complement each other. It is not only in line with the current young pet group"Love pets and cherish pets"It also provides a window for pet groups to share, and its emotional interactive marketing effect successfully attracts fans, enhancing the favorability and surprise of young people towards the brand. 4. Pet public welfare, truly solve the plight of animalsPhilanthropy is known as the most valuable form of marketing. In the past two years, more and more brands have focused on pet public welfare, and they are determined to let the concept of public welfare radiate to more users and scenarios. Recently, Nova Coffee also co-branded the Cat Virtue College, inviting everyone to pay attention to the problem of drinking water for stray cats, concretizing the problems faced by stray cats, and sending 50,000 pet accompanying bowls in the joint **, so that the solution can also be implemented. Cat Ethics College is a private stray cat rescue organization, and the essence of brand cooperation is to contribute to the rescue of stray cats.
*: Nova Coffee's public welfare has gradually changed from a very small activity to a daily layout of the brand. Since 2012, it started its first public welfare action at 1 o'clock, and has carried out public welfare activities every year since then, and even opened the milk tea charity week, silently insisting on public welfare for 11 years. In 1 dim sum, public welfare is no longer a marketing tool, but a thing that brands must do.
*: Behind what consumers can't see, Xiaohongshu's partners at 1 o'clock walked into the stray animal base to clean the kennel, make cat kennels for stray cats, donate cat food** and donate "stray animal protection**" and carry out adoption day activities, practicing the concept of "adoption instead of trading". Recently, 1 Diandian also released a public welfare content on Xiaohongshu "If you don't love, please don't hurt", it is rare to speak out for stray animals, calling on everyone to "adopt instead of buying", "anti-cruelty to animals", and give stray animals a warm home. As soon as this event came out, it received a wide range of responses from consumers.
*:1 Diandian 1 Diandian through the release of public welfare activities, demonstrated its sense of social responsibility, conveyed care and warmth to consumers, and influenced more people's cognitionIn addition, in public welfare activities, the brand uses its influence and resources to actively participate in the handling of stray cats and dogs. These actions can not only improve the brand image, but also help solve the problem of stray cats and dogs, and achieve a win-win effect for the brand and society. And this year, there seems to be some new trend of cause-related marketing, and brands have begun to co-brand with Internet celebrity animals, bringing more consumers and social influence. On October 16, Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo and Heytea launched a joint activity with the theme of "Du Du calls you to drink milk tea", and the joint objects are the zoo's "Internet celebrities" white-faced monk-faced monkey "Du Du" and capybara "Almond". Chen Yuanyuan, publicity director of the publicity and education department of Hongshan Forest Zoo, said that the joint name adheres to the concept of "environmental protection" and "happiness", and hopes to pass on the natural and first-class power of animals to more people, and also drive more people to participate in the public welfare practice of animal protection.
*: Sohu's co-branding not only conforms to the brand's own focus on young people, but also continues the previous brand action of caring for animals. At the same time, with the help of the influence of Internet celebrity animals or bloggers, the loving supporters of the Cat Virtue Academy and the Hongshan Zoo have also enhanced their goodwill towards the brand. The domestic pet market is rising day by day, and the huge population base and people's pursuit of quality of life will continue to promote the increase in pet penetration and market concentration. In the highly competitive pet economy of the Red Sea, brands need to be flexible and move away from one-size-fits-all marketing methods to create products and activities that match their own characteristics, so as to accurately convey the brand's unique temperature, which is the key to success.