As President Kennedy once put it, ‘consumers include us all’. But here at C&D, part of our strategic approach to supporting our customers is to leave our own consumer bias at the door. Yes, like our customers’ customers, we have pets, we shop in supermarkets, and we have personal triggers that prompt us to select one product over another. But we are not every consumer. It’s not our opinions or preferences that count; it’s the data and insightful analysis that we can bring to our customers’ commercial decision making that matter.
Across Europe, our category managers play an important role in informing and guiding commercial decision making for brands and retailers as they seek to develop their ranges aligned to what their customers (and their cats and dogs) are looking for. Our customers trust us to be a strategic partner with an ear to the ground when it comes to pet-owner consumer trends, and to have eyes on the data coming out of Europe’s leading research houses.
As a leading pet food manufacturer, C&D Foods invests in understanding the market and pet parents across all European markets. Our experience in analysing what the data can tell us about emerging trends enables us to add value when it comes to supporting our customers’ decision making about new ranges, range extensions and range optimisation. Data alone can be fragmented and even contradictory, but by bringing different data sets together and tracking what the data is telling us over time, we can remove subjectivity from decision making and focus on helping customers make the right choices for the markets, category segments and demographics they want to target, along with their commercial goals.
In addition to digesting and tracking market data, we also have feet on the ground in every market. This means that our team can pop in to stores for insights on what’s on shelf, how it looks, what’s selling, and where the customer’s product range is tracking against the competition. We combine these insights with our own research and shopper research, to provide customers with a complete 360, which considers their objectives in the context of their local market and up-to-date information.
Our advice is always based on what’s best for our customer, and puts shoppers and their pets at the heart of a collaborative approach to product development. We nurture close and candid relationships with our customers, offering credible, impartial advice. In this way, we have built trust and collaboration that has enabled us to nurture successful customer relationships lasting decades.
We live and breathe cat and dog food at C&D Foods. It’s not just what we do…it’s ALL that we do. Our goal is to manufacture products that give shoppers what they want and help them keep their animal companions happy and healthy. We do that by working with our customers and supporting them in making the choices pet parents want to see on shelf.