“New Pet Generation”

Ferplast has undergone a process that has led to a repositioning of the company within its reference market through the development of its identity and its corporate and product communications. In June 2004, the company decided to boost its business by distinguishing itself completely from its competitors, revolutionising its corporate identity and making a drastic change in terms of communications. The most critical step – and maybe the first immediately visible change – was to transform the Ferplast trademark into a brand. Today every guideline must be linked to the brand’s own identity, as it is the company’s first real product. For this reason, Ferplast placed its trust in one of the leading branding consultancies specialising in the development of solutions for identity and brand communication. The research and analyses carried out showed that the best way to address the consumer strategically was by communicating a key characteristic: putting the brand – rather than the product – into the foreground, thus making it become an entity with a strong and captivating personality. Another important element that the new brand identity will take into account is the essence of the relationship that exists between man (the person) and animal (his little friend). In fact, specific focus groups were held in relation to this aspect and from them an unexpected and strongly felt need of the customers emerged: that of placing every kind of animal on the same level, thus according equal dignity to their owners. Basically, the owner of a rabbit or bird doesn’t want to feel second-class compared to owners of dogs or cats. The company is thus drastically changing the concept of its mission, mainly shifting attention towards the needs of the end customer by directly communicating the values which the new Ferplast brand identity conveys. Ferplast distributes its products in more than 80 countries. The most critical step – and maybe the first immediately visible change – is the development of a new trademark, which can represent both the company and the Ferplast brand at the same time. Ferplast looked for a symbol that could identify a brand that supplies products for different types of animals, without favouring any one in particular. For this reason an icon has been created that doesn’t identify any one animal in particular, but depicts a new one: a breed from a new generation that can represent them all. Ferplast’s strategy is therefore no longer product-oriented but…