Brand Review: Pet Food—Do Brands Capture the Emotional Bond Between Pet Owners and Their Pets?

Previously published on MarketingTribune on October 1, 2026.

October 4 is Animal Day. Pet owners choose pet food based on health and taste, and put price and convenience aside. Share of Content™ shows that brands don’t always align with this: in cat food, there are purchasing moments that pet owners consider important, while in dog food, convenience and cost savings take up a relatively large share of advertising space.

Pet food is an emotional category

Treats, a new toy, their favorite fish, or a bone. More than three-quarters of Dutch pet owners are buying or doing something extra for their pet this year on Animal Day. The Dutch are increasingly viewing their dogs and cats as full-fledged family members. One respondent from Validators’ StoryFlow™ survey puts it this way: “She comes along on day trips and vacations; she sits with us when we play games or watch TV.”

Pet food is therefore an emotional category. The question for every brand is whether its messaging resonates with that bond. To answer that question, we compared two perspectives: what pet owners value and what brands communicate.

Health Wins, Your Wallet Loses

We measure what pet owners value using Category Entry Points (CEPs): the specific moments of purchase when a brand does or does not come to mind. Among both dog and cat owners, three key factors stand out: health, food that the pet truly enjoys, and food that is a good fit for the pet.

Health is by far the most important factor. 77 percent of both dog and cat owners cite it as the deciding factor when choosing a brand. “Nutrition plays an important role. I make sure Rik eats a good, varied diet so he stays healthy and energetic,” says one dog owner.

Taste is the next most important factor, at 57 percent for dogs and 60 percent for cats. Many pets are picky, and their owners take that seriously. “He’s picky, just like his owner, and he really won’t eat just anything,” said one dog owner. A cat owner added, “She’s pretty picky, so I always make sure she likes it.” Food that’s a good fit for the animal scores 42 percent for dogs and 39 percent for cats.

Convenience and saving money rank at the bottom. Only 13 percent of dog owners and 11 percent of cat owners cite saving money as an important reason. Convenience scores 15 and 16 percent, respectively. “Dog food can cost a bit if it’s good for her,” says one respondent. Pet owners prioritize their pets’ well-being over their own comfort and budget.

Who owns which purchase moment?

In addition to relevance, we asked which brands pet owners associate with those purchasing moments. In the cat food category, the picture is still unclear. Whiskas and Felix dominate in terms of brand awareness and usage, but consumers do not strongly associate these brands with a specific purchasing moment. Everyone knows them. When it comes to health, taste, or a good match with their own cat, they don’t stand out.

The situation is different when it comes to dog food. Royal Canin has established a clear brand position: dog owners strongly associate the brand with health and with food that’s right for their dog. These are precisely the purchasing considerations that matter most to them.

What message do pet food brands convey?

What pet owners consider important—and which brands they associate with those priorities—doesn’t necessarily mean that brands are actually addressing those needs. To determine that, we used Share of Content™. Pet food brand advertisements are coded based on message, content, and style. This allows us to see which CEPs brands target with their content and whether the tone is functional or emotional.

Cat food marketing relies primarily on emotion and experience. Food that cats enjoy is by far the most frequently cited theme in the category, with Felix as the most prominent brand. Health and pampering follow at a distance. In this way, cat food brands are partly aligning with what consumers consider important. One purchasing factor remains strikingly underrepresented: food that’s a good fit for my cat. For 39 percent of cat owners, this is relevant.

Dog food marketing takes a functional approach. Health receives a lot of media attention, which makes sense given its relevance to consumers. What’s more striking is that convenience and cost savings are also highlighted to a relatively large extent. Yet these are the factors that dog owners prioritize the least: 15 and 13 percent, respectively.

Budget Buys Visibility

Investments in dog food also vary widely. According to Nielsen data, Butternut Box is by far the largest investor in the dog food industry, with approximately 10 million euros in gross media spending between January 2025 and August 2026. That is five times as much as market leader Royal Canin (2 million euros). Yet it is Royal Canin that dog owners associate with health.

Budget buys visibility. Capturing a moment of purchase requires more than that.

Do brands create an emotional connection?

For cats, it’s partly emotional; for dogs, it’s mainly functional. Cat brands tend to adopt an emotional communication style, focused on the animal’s enjoyment. Dog brands, on the other hand, tend to communicate from a functional perspective: health and practical benefits for the owner.

Three Options for Your Brand

1. Cat food: Choose a purchasing occasion that hasn’t been addressed yet. “A good fit for my cat” is relevant to 39 percent of cat owners but is relatively rarely highlighted in marketing communications. Whiskas and Felix enjoy brand awareness. Which brand will be the first to take a clear stance based on that awareness?

2. Dog food: See where your content and budget are going. Health is a deciding factor for 77 percent of dog owners. Convenience and saving money are cited relatively often, even though they are relevant to only 15 and 13 percent of owners, respectively.

3. All categories: Compare what you’re sending out with what sticks. Share of Content™ shows what brands are sending out. Mental market share shows what sticks. Where those two diverge is where the opportunities lie.

Would you like to know which buying moments in your category are still available, and which ones your brand has already claimed? Please contact us.

Structure Brand Review

Using Validators’ Share of Content™, advertisements from pet food brands from January 2025 through August 2026 have been coded for message, content, and style using scientifically trained AI. This reveals exactly what brands are communicating and the strategy behind it. Is the emphasis on sales or on branding? Is the tone functional or emotional?

In addition, the mental market position of brands was measured through a survey of respondents. A total of 300 pet owners aged 18 and older participated (nationally representative): 150 cat owners and 150 dog owners, each with their own questionnaire. The measurement is based on Category Entry Points: recognizable purchasing situations such as “I choose a cat food brand to spoil my cat” or “I choose a dog food brand to save money.” For each CEP, the mental market share was determined: which brand comes to mind most often at that specific moment of purchase? Using StoryFlow™, consumers described in their own words their relationship with their pet and the role that food plays in it. Media spending is based on gross Nielsen data for the same period.

In short: Share of Content™ shows what brands are communicating. Mental market share shows what sticks. StoryFlow™ shows why.