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Nov 02, 2024

Pet food brand success today requires consumer trust | PetfoodIndustry

Consumers worldwide have low trust in national and global companies, according to a recent survey, and in today’s world, that could apply to pet food, too. Consumers in 31 countries rate companies,

Consumers worldwide have low trust in national and global companies, according to a recent survey, and in today’s world, that could apply to pet food, too.

Consumers in 31 countries rate companies, both ones in their own countries (“national companies”) and global corporations, very low in trust, according to a recent survey from GlobeScan, an insights and strategy consultancy. Is it possible that pet food companies fall into those low-trust groups?

The answer to that question is yes, says a blog post from Emergent, a marketing agency that represents many food and pet food brands. “In the digital era, all things that can be known, will be known instantly,” it reads. “Every brand now exists in a glass house that too often reveals breakdowns in trust. We observe brands, businesses and individuals outed on half-truths, misstatements, bogus claims, failures to admit mistakes, reckless hyperbole, baseless assertions, lies by omission, overt selfishness and outright deceit.”

Wow. Even if your company or brand has not been “outed” on — or committed — any of those misdeeds, consider this emerging trend described in the blog post: “The world around us keeps supplying consumers with reasons to be skeptical, wary and thus more susceptible to perceiving added risk from engaging the vast array of brands and businesses seeking our attention.”

In other words, even if you think you operate in a way that inspires consumer trust, or at least doesn’t engender mistrust, the deck may be stacked against you.

The GlobeScan survey reveals some clues as to why consumers today are so inclined toward mistrust. Conducted annually since 2001, the survey this year included an average of 1,000 consumers in each of the 31 countries. When asked how much they trust various types of institutions, national companies received a net trust of only 22 and global companies, only 21.

(The question was phrased as: “Please indicate how much you trust each of the following institutions to operate in the best interest of our society. Would you say you have a lot of trust, some trust, not much trust or no trust at all in…?” Net trust equals “a lot of trust” plus “some trust” responses minus “not much trust” plus “no trust at all” responses, averaged over the 31 countries.)

The only types of institutions scoring lower than companies were national governments at 8 and press/media at 7. (Ouch, can’t help taking that personally!) At the other end of the spectrum, scientific/academic institutions scored a net trust of 69, followed distantly by NGOs (45), large charitable organizations (37), fellow citizens (32) and United Nations (32).

That only 32% of consumers trust their fellow citizens seems to confirm Emergent’s comments about the current environment causing everyone to be so skeptical and wary.

As a follow-up, GlobeScan provided more insights as to why consumers don’t trust companies, outlining five factors. While this data applies to larger corporations, it’s conceivable that some consumers may attribute any or all of the factors to companies of any size. They are:

The Emergent blog cites a study from Innova Market Insights, “Top 10 Trends of 2023,” in which 66% of consumers globally said they would trust a company that is “upfront and truthful about the challenges they’re facing to operate more sustainably.” That relates to the environmental harm factor highlighted in the GlobeScan survey. And Emergent says the Innova study also showed that honesty and transparency are the values related to food that consumers identify as most important, again aligning with some of the factors identified by GlobeScan.

As goes human food, so goes pet food. Ever since the 2007 melamine-related pet food recalls in the U.S., pet owners have demanded more transparency from pet food companies, partially based on declining trust that the products they’re buying are safe and healthy for their pets. The seemingly never-ending recall announcements — even though many have been driven by the Food and Drug Administration’s zero tolerance for even minute levels of Salmonella anywhere in a pet food facility — hasn’t helped boost the trust level.

Thus, though I haven’t been able to find any current data on pet owners’ trust in pet food specifically, it stands to reason that brands should heed concerns expressed over the past several years, especially in light of some of these recent consumer surveys. That may mean doubling efforts to be more transparent. When it comes to food/pet food, Emergent says, transparency should focus on areas such as how the food is produced, where ingredients are sourced and how value-chain stakeholders are treated.

The agency helped a former client, Champion Petfoods, do that by establishing a transparency council; you can download the case study. In addition, Bob Wheatley, CEO and founder of Emergent, explained how pet food companies can gain and maintain consumer trust in a 2022 episode of my colleague Lindsay Beaton’s podcast, Trending: Pet Food.

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