Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Happy Treat Day!

We were lucky enough to receive some fancy new treats from the good folks at Beneful, recently. I was concerned because my dogs are pretty fussy about their treats. Especially that Chester!

Also, Olive has to have soft treats because of her lack of teeth (regualr readers will remember that Olive comes from a puppy mill and after we adopted her, we had her teeth cleaned but... she came home with 17 less teeth than she went in with - they were so rotten they had to be pulled!)

Here's what happened with the Beneful Baked Delights when they were left unguarded on a kitchen counter. (unfortunately, Chester missed out... you'll see how and why on Worldess Wednesday!)

Dream Big for the Dogs

Beneful, one of Nestle Purina's dog food brands, is holding a national video contest that invites dog folks to create their own dog park. They're giving asking us what we'd do if we had $500,000 dollars to create the "dream dog park."

"The Beneful WagWorld Dream Dog Park Contest, which launched May 3, invites dog owners to submit a short video (less than 2 minutes) at Beneful Dream Dog Park that answers the question: If you had $500,000 to create the ultimate dream park for you and your dog, what would you do? Entrants must also describe in 100 words or less how a makeover of their neighborhood dog park would enhance their daily adventures with their dogs.

Beneful® Prepared Meals™: A Bellyful of Good Food for Your Dog: Part II

In my last post about how Beneful® Prepared Meals™ for your dog was actually created (through consumer focus group participation), I promised to tell you the inside story on how the packaging came about. (sorry it's taken longer than expected -- not Beneful's fault, mine - I've been a bit distracted around the office...we hosted NY State auditors recently! Yikes! I'm happy to report that all is well, however.)

Let’s get perfectly clear about packaging – the design and touch and feel and everything about packaging is vital to every product you see on your grocery store shelves. Food or non-food, all products sold everywhere, rely a good part on the design of the package to catch the consumer’s eye. I learned how important this was when I worked for a short time at a local design packaging company.

It was fascinating to watch the designers do their thing, and then to trot down the hall to production and watch the package come to life. I developed a great respect for package design in those days. Of course, I live in RIT country (Rochester Institute of Technology), where there is a very well-known and respected school for package design.

So, on to the design of Beneful Prepared Meals packaging.

Nina Leigh shared this story with me during our talk, back a few weeks ago, now. She told me that this product was launched in ’06 as a regional offering, then nationally in January of ’08. That’s a common thing – to do a smaller, regional launch, then go national after you see how well the product (any product) tests in the initial region.

Family-Style Food Fit for Fido

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with Nina Leigh Krueger, Director of Marketing for Beneful® Dog Food, at Purina. I had been bugging the folks at Purina to let me talk to some brand managers... to get the inside scoop on things.

I'm going to share the conversation in today's post, and continue it next week on Thursday the 22nd. If there is new news, so to speak, down the road, I'll share that, too. I find it enlightening that Purina is willing to give us a peak inside their product development. I wish I had recorded the conversation cause Nina and I did a lot of laughing while we talked about creating this dog food. That's girls for ya.

To quote from a press release Beneful sent out when they introduced Beneful® Prepared Meals, "Succulent real meat and poultry, wild rice, barely, pasta, spinach, green beans, and carrots. Sounds like the perfect ingredients for a delicious nutritious family-style meal...fit for a dog."

Doesn't that bring images of the Beneful TV commercials to mind? All those wholesome ingredients showering down? That caught my eye, the first time I ever saw it. "Veggies for dogs?" I thought.

Indeed.