02
Using data and insight to create a new market segment
THE PROBLEM
Digging into 2005 DATA findings from a national Cat care Feeding Diary report, I discovered that a large proportion ( @40%) of meals served to cats in Italy where below 80g which was at the time the smallest serving available on the Market. This was a curious and a very sizeable opportunity (200mio€ Italy) and I found a similar data in larger petfood markets such as France, UK and Germany, which added up to >1bn€ market opportunity. We followed up this finding with in-home interviews with cat owners and discovered that many of them, in an attempt to satisfy their discerning cat, where portioning food, often changing flavors at every meal, and trying to keep the food as fresh as possible by sealing and storing existing packaging. The result was many opened and resealed packs in the fridge
THE SOLUTION
We dug deeper into the insight, which was simple as stated by numerous owners, “My cat prefers to eat small meals and I always like to serve it fresh food that has only just been opened” and developed the first 50g packaging on the market, sold in a multipack ( x6) with multiple variant offerings.
THE RESULT
Launched in 2009 in Italy, called Whiskas Pranzetti (small lunches) wit contributes to >20% of the total Whiskas Brand turnover, It has been awarded the Global Make the Difference Prize in Washington DC by the Mars Family, and as today, 18 years later after its launch it is present in many European Markets (called Whiskas Mini menu) and the 50g offering has become a market segment.