Expanding an Established Brand
The roots of the ZuPreem brand go all the way back to 1928 when Mark L. Morris, DVM, founded the second small animal hospital in the United States. Dr. Morris discovered that sick dogs and cats could be treated by changing their diets. The idea of treating pets through nutrition was passed down to Dr. Mark Morris Jr. who developed the Science Diet® brand of nutrition for canines and felines, becoming the standard in quality nutritional pet products worldwide.
The Morris family’s commitment to improving the lives of animals through nutrition passed on to the third generation, David R. Morris, son of Mark Morris Jr., the leader of ZuPreem. ZuPreem was founded in 1967 in response to the need for better nutritional foods and diets for zoo animals and zoos worldwide. Building on this heritage, ZuPreem expanded the brand to include nutrition for non-traditional pets, including companion birds and small mammals.
ZuPreem partnered with K2 Brand to develop the most effective brand architecture strategy to support the brand expansion into the small mammal category. A comprehensive review of brand architecture options, including a look at competitive brand architecture strategies, helped define the relationship between the ZuPreem brand and the expanded segments and products.
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“ZuPreem connected with Karen to help us simplify and further develop our brand architecture, specifically for our consumer packaging division. Karen’s leadership, expertise and strategic abilities helped define a brand strategy that has given us the architecture we needed to move our products to the next level. Her recommendations have paid off and have shown a positive impact on our sales efforts at the shelf.”
Gail Shepard, Director of Marketing
To complete the assignment, K2 Brand provided naming recommendations for both product lines and individual products. This final step enabled ZuPreem to move to the planning, design and execution stage of a sales and marketing plan to support the ZuPreem entry into the small mammal category.
