Company Overview: Nestle Purina is the world’s largest pet food company with 26 manufacturing facilities spread over South America, Europe and Asia. It operates 13 units in the US, which is its home and biggest market. It came into being when an enterprising fresher from the Washington University William H. Danforth sensed a business opportunity in the increasing need for horse and mule feed necessitated by a dramatic increase in their numbers, it was a time of large scale westward growth and horses and mules were the main forms of transport and freight movement. Danforth joined hands with church mates George Robinson and William Andrews to start a business in horse and mule feed, they made a joint investment of $ 12,000 and the William Danforth commission company was formed. The company has a colorful history since its inception in 1894, it became the Ralston Purina company after inducting Dr Ralston into its board, after many ups and downs, acquisitions and divestitures it merged with Nestle in 2001 to become Nestle Purina the world’s no-1 pet food company in the world.

Before Interactive: Purina was in the business of dog and cat feed which had become very competitive in recent times thanks to the entry of many new brands. Awareness levels on pet health and nutrition was very high among the new generation of pet owners and this made them very choosy on what they fed their pets. The challenge before Purina was to drive home the superiority of its products among its target audience, the distinctive advantage that long years of in-depth research in animal health care had given to its products, it also wanted to effectively communicate the message that it was a caring company dedicated to better animal health and well-being in the true spirit of its by line “your pet our passion”.

The Interactive Deployment: Interactive analyzed the need of the client and recommended the deployment of Direct Marketing (DM). Purina wanted Interactive to act as its BPO and execute the actual campaign. It was a campaign with a difference for Interactive, Purina sells cat and dog food under multiple brands and each of these brands is handled by any one of its 10 agencies. These agencies operate independently and also have their independent database. Interactive divided these brands into various categories, customized its campaign to suit individual brands and succeeded in sending some highly targeted campaigns on behalf of these agencies.

After Interactive: These customized campaigns had a strong impact on the target audience; it was able to convince them that Purina was the better option among available brands, it helped in creating awareness on Purina’s state of the art research facilities on animal health and nutrition which helped it to constantly evolve its products and deliver the best dog/cat feed in every category. These campaigns also reinforced the image of Purina as a caring, value-based company dedicated to animal health and welfare, which helped in winning new customers and also retaining its no-1 position in the pet food industry.