Avoid the Blanding Trap: Here’s How to Build an Aspirational Pet Brand

Have you noticed the sea change in how pet brands are going to market? Beware the trap of operating solely as a quality ingredient provider, packaged up and served within an outreach story that mirrors the consumer’s bond and relationship with their pet. While celebration of the emotional fabric between pet parent and pet is absolutely the right grist for building in emotional gravitas, there’s a missing chapter here that’s necessary to construct a unique, differentiated and sustainable pet brand proposition.

What’s going on right now:

Current culture trends are drawing brands into a hamster wheel of pursuing “relatability” (aided and abetted by the commoditizing forces of AI), an all-too common platform that wrings out the sharper edges of deeper brand meaning. By relentlessly showing consumers a reflection of themselves, original brand distinctiveness is sanded down, traded out for the plain vanilla middle of continuously reflecting consumer sentiments.

Stronger pet brand value propositions fly in the opposite direction.

• What do you stand for?
• What do you believe in?
• What is your higher purpose and mission?
• How does your brand behave differently?
• What alternative vision do you own for the pet food category?

Here it is in a nutshell: if the only thing you stand for is the nutrition problem you solve for pet parents – without intentionally building brand equity through a belief system, deeper meaning, vision and purpose that invites the consumer to join you on an intentional journey – you are leaving the door open to deepening commoditization of a business category already challenged by sameness and similarity.

Be wary of the slippery slope to ‘blanding’

Let’s cast this in more human terms.

• “This is what you are” is a mirror.
• “This is what you can be” is an aspiration.

An aspirational brand stands for something important beyond the table stakes of a high-quality product line. A pet ‘Bland’ merely reflects the core consumers’ immediate near universal desire for better nutrition. In a business where hundreds of brands coexist online and at retail with similar narratives, similar ingredients, similar packaging and similar benefit claims, it is hard to rise above the mimetic temptation that draws everyone to follow the same drummer. This is what separates the good from the great.

Marginal distinctions need not apply

Claiming to be better is a dead end. Even if it were true, there’s no gigantic leap ahead of sustainable product superiority that leaves all other brands behind in a cloud of improved protein recipe dust. Your competitive advantage isn’t found in trying harder. It is discovered by having an alternative vision of the category you are competing in.

Does the consumer know what you stand for, what you believe in, the mission your business is leading? Is it distinctive and ownable?

Contrarianism

The path to hammering out an aspirational brand proposition starts with looking for what other brands are NOT doing and pushing the edges of what you can be and accomplish that is not in the middle of the same category river everyone is currently floating in. The pet food business operates with a widely followed rulebook that governs the mix of product categories, formulations, ingredient strategies, sourcing commitments and language. These forces invisibly contribute to blanding.

Stepping outside your comfort zone to operate differently – a contrarian mindset — is hard. It requires courage, a willingness to accept risk and a belief code that informs everything you do and what your business stands for. Where could you lead consumers?

Brand magnetism is amplified by the businesses that think and operate differently, that offer added meaning beyond the products they sell.

• Apple doesn’t sell machines, it enables creative expression and a pathway to a better future.
• Nike doesn’t sell shoes, it inspires personal commitment and athletic achievement.
• Dove doesn’t sell HBA products, it celebrates self-esteem and empowering all women.
• Patagonia doesn’t sell outdoor gear, it paves the way to a more sustainable future for humankind.

Each of these aspirational brands attracts a huge following of believers and ambassadors. The alchemy of their success begins with rethinking what the value proposition consists of. These brands don’t merely reflect consumer sentiments. They lead with their vision and invite consumers to join them. The opposite of trying to be all things to all people.

A strong brand belief system and mission informs decisions, business behaviors and most importantly, what the business won’t do.

People want to be a part of something greater than themselves. Can you give it to them? I believe we are rapidly approaching a shakeout from relatability fatigue. The AI engineered content tsunami, the constant mirroring of consumer wishes, the uncomfortable fracturing of societal norms – there is a window opening for aspirational brands to leap ahead of the pack with a unique point of view.

This isn’t difference for difference sake. It is embracing a purpose that yanks the brand out of circular competition focused on similar product stories.

Your business doesn’t exist to solve problems. It exists to create value. When that value represents an ideal, a different world view, you are casting your brand as the guide that pulls the consumer along with you. When people see this and join your brand as believers and not merely buyers, you can move past the tyranny of similarity to a place that banishes blanding — in favor of the powerful benefits of being an advocate for something much more meaningful.

Can’t wait to see what you do next.

Robert Wheatley is CEO of Chicago-based Emergent, a brand communications firm focused on state-of-the-art PR, retail marketing, Agentic Engine Optimization (AEO), content creation, social media and business strategy. Emergent is steeped in leading edge pet brand business building experience with a deep track record in advancing business results in premium pet brand categories. Robert is a voice for pet care industry innovation, trends and marketing best practices.