Natural Pet Nutrition Eyes 2,000 Stores in '05

Westminster, Colo. -- Natural Pet Nutrition says natural foods stores lack an effective pet products aisle, so it built its own. To promote Pet Promise, a line of natural pet food, the company (a subsidiary of Nestle Purina PetCare) created a category-management system that positions competitive product next to its own. It includes gravity-feed racks, brochures, information and graphics panels, a floor display, a self-standing aisle violator and two floor decals. The company hopes to outfit 500 various retail stores per quarter throughout 2005. Of natural-food shoppers, 71% have pets, but only about 5% buy any products for them in natural foods stores, says Anthony Zolezzi, president. "Pets are the number-three category in grocery stores and account for about 2% of sales, but in natural foods stores, the category is virtually nonexistent." To develop its category, the brand marketer worked with individual health chains to determine their specific needs. One of the first chains was Wild Oats Markets Inc., Boulder, Colo. "It was a complicated process," says Curt Gibson, head of distributor relations and pet specialties development at Natural Pet Nutrition. "We went to them with an idea, and they expressed interest. We showed them some concepts, they asked for more, and we kept going back and forth until we could produce a prototype. They reviewed it, and we built a final design after receiving comments." The entire process took about eight months and initially rolled out to about 76 stores in September 2004.Following the initial Wild Oats rollout, Natural Pet Nutrition hoped to have as many as 200 other retailer locations by the end of 2004, Zolezzi says. It plans to add between 250 and 500 stores per quarter this year.At the display's center is a sheet-metal brochure holder. Above it are sets of gravity-feed wire racks: One set features angled racks for powder supplements, and adjacent racks hold wet-food cans. A channel strip in the set touts the company's slogan, "A Promise of Purity," and provides pricing information and a frame for hanging flipbooks. The display is topped by a header that is customized for each retailer and which fits into custom brackets that work with any retailer's fixtures and adjusts to align with the shelf. Wild Oats' header, for example, runs the length of the department. Zolezzi says Natural Pet Nutrition's goal is to generate enough attention to encourage aisle-skippers to venture into the aisle to see what's there. Once they arrive, the barrage of information takes over. "We used selling space to present the brochures, which almost never is done, but that was a critical element for us," he says. "That provides a bull's-eye for the display, with product details for information-starved consumers." The system can be placed in various retail chains with only modest changes. "We worked very hard to create as basic of a plan as possible, with the planogram being pretty consistent," Zolezzi says, "then we adapt it as needed for each chain." The planogram includes product from other companies, but the Pet Promise products are at its center.In addition to the on-shelf system, Natural Pet Nutrition offers retailers a traditional 4-foot endcap display with five product shelves; a freestanding aisle violator, which contains two brochure holders and can be used at the edge of the smaller 4-foot endcap; and two floor decals -- one 4 feet wide, and the other 8 feet wide. The marketer selected Display Boys, Irvine, Calif., to create the display elements because it had no past experience in the channel. "We wanted totally new thinking on how to present a new category," Zolezzi says. Adds Gibson, "It's very difficult to reach people with advertising. There are 200 channels, and radio is becoming less effective. Instead, we want to engage the customer at the shelf."Initial sales results have been strong, notes Gibson. "We're very pleased, and so is the retailer, but we need to see how the first six months of sales go before we determine the full impact," he says. "The customers vote with their dollars, and there has been a nice sales lift so far."