get close to the customer -pedigree foods

8/3/2019 Get close to the customer -Pedigree Foods

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[email protected] /source &courtesy FASTCOMPANY

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By Design, a Companys Culture Goes to the Dogs

Incorporating the Canines into the Workplace

Source Courtesy MARS Foods,

For further details contact [email protected]


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The Pedigree turnaround


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Everything a brand doesfrom stores to product

to packaging to how you feel about that brandhas to be designed,says Lee Clow of TBWAChiatDay/LosAngeles. Clows agency has had a hand in helping to design the brand culture

at Apple, adidas, Nissan, and other clients. But one of the agencys most

interesting case studies is Pedigree. When the pet food brand, which is part of

the Masterfoods stable, turned to Clow for a new campaign four years ago, heproposed a transformation that went way beyond ads. In effect, he

suggested that Pedigree redesign the way the

company operates and even the way it thinks

about itself.


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With Pedigree, we had to help them to discovertheir culture and behavior,Clow said in a recent interview withone.design. Over the years, weve kind of formalized how we believe iconic

brands are createdand the first piece involves understanding what a brand

truly believes, as opposed to what it makes or sells. In the case of Pedigree,

we felt the belief system should be,Everything we do is for

the love of dogs.


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It was a credo that rang true in terms of the values and the history of the brand

(Pedigree was among the first to offer packaged pet

food as a healthier alternative to feeding dogs tablescraps, and the brand was also known as a favorite

among dog breeders).But it hadnt been expressed in Pedigreesexternal communications to the world. And even internally, Pedigree needed to

do a better job of instilling the idea among its people thatthey workedfor a company that was focused on the well

being of dogs, as opposed to one that just

made dog food.


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Clow knew that taking this strong emotional direction would be a challenge.

A large packaged-goods company has a

tendency to be more left-brain and logical

about these things; theyre more used to

focusing on the 50-cents off couponand how manyunits that will move off the shelf. When I sat down with top Mars folks to talkabout this brand, I said, I happen to believebecause I have a very personal

relationship with dogs myselfthat you guys are operating in a very emotional

category here. By moving toa much more emotional approach,

Clow told the client, it could provide a springboard into behavior

and a way of acting as a brand that would set you apart andwould inform your product development, your packaging, and your actions

beyond selling dog food.


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One of the first things the agency did was to designinternal

communications that would rally the companybehind this new belief system. Clows creative team on theaccount, headed by Chris Adams and Margaret Keene, created a manifesto in the

form of an elegant company manual titled Dogma. Lushly illustrated with

photographic portraits of dogs, it laid out the new philosophy in poetic language

(some of which ended up appearing in subsequent ads). The Dogma bookfeatured a direct message from Pedigrees top dog, CEO Paul Michaels,

basically telling the companys employees that thecompany now

intended to live by a new set of dog-centric

principles, as spelled out in the book.


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The Dogma book was just one of the ways the company used design to

change its corporate culture. Clow had advised Pedigree that if it intended to

be a company for dog-lovers, it should walk the walk by

implementing dog-friendly policies in its

own workplace. The company began to encourage associates tobring their dogs to workand as part of that effort, the agency helpedredesign ID badges and business cards so that they featured images of

employees dogs. Pedigree also began toextend healthcare benefits

to associates dogsopening the door for the company to become anadvocate for other companies in other industries to consider doing likewise.


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Life at Pedigree changed overnight, as all the offices went to the dogs. Dogs were

now part of the workday environment, and portraits of dogs adorned the walls. The

company also stepped up its involvement in dog-related issues and causes, most

notably its support of shelter dogs. Pedigree developed an annual initiative to

encourage people to adopt homeless dogs, and it was an immediate success. In

2008, the third year of the adoption drive program, the agency designed a pop-up

dog store in Times Square that featured a dog adoption center and sold Dogs

Rule merchandise; in one weekend, the Pedigree adoption store brought in

12,000 visitors and resulted in 15 adoptions. Margaret Keene says that she and

partner Adams wereinspired by the Apple storewewanted to create the same feeling of

immersion in the brand, she said. Visitors walked into thebuilding and were surrounded by the manifesto, the giant dog-portrait shots, and

most importantly, live dogsfrolicking, having their photos taken, and auditioningfor new owners.


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The adoption drives have drawn extensive and highly-favorable press coverage for Pedigree. And

according to Clow,What Pedigree has discovered afterthree years of doing the adoption drives is they

actually sell more dog food during that period

than any other time of the yeareven though

the ads during the drive arent talking aboutselling dog food.


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Design also was used to communicate the new Pedigree credo by way of the dog

food packaging. We decided packaging should

become a medium and should not only speakto whats in the bag, but what the company

believes, Clow said. The same emotional dog portraiture that started in the

Dogma manifesto and then appeared in ads, also made its way to the dog foodbags. Meanwhile, the website was designed to tie all of this together, and invited

people to upload photos of their dogs and share their dog stories. In the latest

twist on the campaign, the agency convinced Pedigree that it shouldcreate an

international holiday for dogs, which made its debut this past

October 11. The holiday was promoted primarily on the web, with plans for abigger multimedia push next year.


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Pedigree has increased market share during the

course of the campaign, and the overall effort has helped the brandto stave off a growing challenge from upscale gourmet brands at the top of themarket and private-label offerings at the bottom. But perhaps the biggest payoff is

the one Clow observed in the people who work for the company. They

used to come to work every day thinking they

worked for a dog food company, he said,and now they come in thinking they work for

a company that loves dogs.

Source- Fast Company

get close to the customer -pedigree foods

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