As a company, Zuru Edge is all about disrupting and challenging the status quo. Now the company has its sights set on the booming pet treats industry with its new brand, BONKERS.
Blowing up BONKERZ
Pet treats is a booming industry# with the sale of dog treats increasing by 28 percent and cat treats jumping 40 percent between 2015 and 2022. Looking at these statistics, it is no surprise that Zuru’s next target was this market.
Unlike the existing brands under the Zuru umbrella, such as Zuru Toys or Nood, this time it wanted to tap into a new generation of customers – Millennials and Gen Z – a group that represented nearly half of pet owners globally.
BONKERZ is a brand that aims to get these generations’ tails wagging while also being disruptive, distinctive and relevant, focusing on creating better quality, better priced pet treats and “a better-for-your-pets treats brand” that ultimately drove impulse at point of purchase.
Tapping into this demographic was vital for Zuru Edge as the company recognised they were the fastest growing share of spend when it came to the pet industry.
As a new brand in a booming industry, Zuru Edge decided to take on the approach of the launch via humanisation.
BONKERZ is a brand built to foster the bond between pets and people, with feeding as a sign of strengthening that bond, celebrating the individuality of each pet and having a personality.
Having created a brand and its target demographic, the next step for Zuru Edge was translating this into action with the launch of BONKERZ.
Zuru Edge decided to lean on the brand, making it a bold, strong, distinctive personality-drive brand that was designed to deliver customer delight. Zuru Edge wanted to make a brand that looked like it was easy to ‘add-to-basket’.
Along with the low price point and distinctive branding, BONKERZ weaponised its presence to maximise every possibility of impulse purchasing.
With a target demographic of Millennials and Gen Z, BONKERZ needed to be digital, launching the ‘Better when it’s Bonkers’ campaign across social media focusing on embracing the uniqueness of both the pets and their owners.
The entire launch leaned into the brands uniqueness, wackiness and quirks that reflected the individuality of pets and their owners, making it more human.
With a tight budget, BONKERZ wanted to make a “big splash with a small stone” and outshine everyone in the industry.
And in one week, the brand became the most liked pet treats brand on TikTok globally, with over 52 million views on the #betterwhenitsbonkers hashtag.
The public reaction was overwhelmingly positive, with many Millennials and Gen Z being receptive to the new brand, meaning BONKERZ was able to disrupt the industry by successfully tapping into a new generation of pet owners.
Category:
Excellence in New Brand Development
Company:
Zuru Edge
Marketing Initiative:
Better When it’s Bonkerz
Marketing Partners:
Zuru Edge Internal Media and Design Teams, Pablo London
Judges’ Comments:
“The time to market from idea to stock on shelves globally is simply BONKERZ! This is an excellent example of a business backing themselves, to create and launch a new product to deliver excellent commercial results.“
Finalists:
ANZ Bank New Zealand, Dosh, Frank*Energy, Kiwibank
This article was originally published in the September/October 2023 issue of NZ Marketing. Click here to subscribe.
