Direct-to-consumer brand Smalls makes food for cats with a focus on human-grade ingredients and customization, offering formulas that are supportive of different ages and breeds. Cat owners can visit Smalls' site to take a quiz to help determine the formulas or recipes that would be ideal for their pets. The quiz is used to collect information on a cat's weight, conventional foods they've been previously fed and other data, all of which comes together to make a sound recommendation.
As Smalls offers products like flash-frozen freeze-dried raw and kibble cat food, as well as fresh minced and pâté formats, a mix of these options may be suggested to provide well-rounded nutrition and novelty. As Smalls' community manager Britt Smith says, "Cats are neophiles—they crave newness and change, and most cat parents would be surprised to learn that includes what goes in a cat’s bowl."
Image Credit: Smalls
What's Driving This Trend
- Human-grade Pet Food
- Opportunity to disrupt the pet food industry by offering high-quality, human-grade ingredients for pets.
- Customized Pet Nutrition
- Disruptive innovation opportunity to provide personalized pet food formulas based on individual cat's needs and characteristics.
- Novelty Cat Food Options
- Opportunity to introduce new and unique cat food formats to cater to cats' desire for newness and variety.
Who This Affects Most
- Pet Food Manufacturing
- Disruptive innovation opportunity for pet food manufacturers to shift towards producing human-grade pet food products.
- Direct-to-consumer (D2C) Pet Brands
- Opportunity for D2C pet brands to capitalize on the demand for customized and personalized pet nutrition.
- Pet Health and Wellness
- Innovation opportunity for the pet health and wellness industry to develop customized nutrition plans and products for cats.
