Trone Research and Consulting
Category: Pet

A Study in Pet Health

In 2014, Trone Research + Consulting* fielded a proprietary study that examined how pet parents care for their animals.

The goal was to help brands speak the health language of their audience. We explored trends, consumer perceptions and the differences between wellness and prevention to determine the opportunities and challenges facing brands today. We spoke with more than 1,000 dog and cat owners in the United States for the study.

One of the first pieces of information to come out of the study was that all pet parents exist on a continuum of care for their animals. We determined four categories:

Live & Let Live

A hands-off approach to pet parenting. These people feed, love and play with their pets but rarely take them to the vet or monitor their diets.

Fitness & Foodies

These pet parents always make sure their pets eat healthy, well-balanced diets and get regimented exercise.

Checks & Vacs

People in this category are diligent about the medical wellness of their pet but aren’t sticklers for diet and exercise. Pets should be pets.

All About Health

A combination of Fitness & Foodies and Checks & Vacs—the ultimate pet parents that maintain the diet, exercise and veterinary care of their animals.

This continuum isn’t designed to be a value judgment on pet owners, rather recognize that a true scale exists. There is no one way to care for a pet. Realizing that difference among pet owners is the first step for brands in search of a unique voice in the marketplace.

For more pet wellness insights, stay tuned to this blog or contact us directly.

*TR+C was previously the strategy and research division of Trone Brand Energy

Pet Wellness Infographic

Doug Barton, President & CEO

Doug Barton

President & CEO

Doug is a career research, analytics and brand marketing executive with more than 35 years of experience working with Top 50 market research firms, Fortune 500 companies and marketing firms on client and supplier side.

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He is a leader and advisor with a proven track record of solving business challenges for start-ups as well as small to large businesses across the world. Doug’s industry experience spans across hospitality, telecom, CPG, financial services, insurance, textile and apparel, turf and ornamental, animal health and retail.

Kimberly Ness

Kimberly Ness

SVP, Insights & Marketing

With 25+ years of experience across research, branding and marketing, Kimberly has the unique ability to transform complicated data into a simple strategic plan that achieves results.

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She has led marketing efforts for global and national brands and has a specialty in animal health, working with brands like Zoetis, Boeringer Ingelheim and Mars Petcare. She is known as an industry thought leader and has been a featured speaker at Global Pet Expo, AAHA, CBI, Brakke Consulting and Fetch, a dvm360 conference.

Tom Minsel

Tom Minsel

PhD, Head of Research & Data Science

Tom is our PhD Statistician and master data miner with 25+ years in direct marketing, customer targeting, modeling and research design.

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His areas of expertise include statistics, applied and theoretical measurement, psychological research, survey research, summative and formative evaluation, SAS, sampling, trend analysis and generally all things analytics. Tom oversees more than 65 comprehensive studies each year to help clients better understand their customers.