Due to its late start, the pet track has long been trapped in the dilemma of "foreign capital is entrenched and domestic products are difficult to operate". Nowadays, the "cute pet economy" is prevalent, and the epidemic has driven the growth of the "loneliness economy". The pet track has become a new consumer trend, and domestic brands have become the current logical investment mainline.

Furbulous, Weika, CATLINK and other star brands have heated up the pet market. From the brand going overseas to supporting the domestic market, they have mobilized capital from all parties to spend huge sums of money in this track.

Amidst the unprecedented industry feast, Brand Ark noticed a pet brand "Pidan" with a slightly different style.

Since its establishment in 2016, Pidan has gone through six rounds of financing, with a total amount of over 100 million, but most of it was concentrated at the beginning of its establishment. Although it has not been very active in the capital market in recent years, Pidan’s presence in the pet segment has not diminished.

As the pioneer of mixed cat litter, Pidan has long been ranked TOP1 in the domestic cat litter category with sales of 12 million pieces a year, with a sales volume difference of 2 times from the second place, and is sold far away. In more than 20 overseas countries, it has become the Chinese pet products brand with the highest revenue after 2015.

The following Brand Ark will deeply dismantle Pidan’s hit product creation formula, category expansion logic and differentiated overseas strategy.

01

From a super single product to a hot product in all categories

The most expensive cat litter box on the Internet

< p>Pidan was founded in 2016. It is a design-first brand. Since its establishment, Pidan has been exploring the "human-pet relationship". Different from the diverse outdoor activity scenes of dogs, cats are more inclined to be domestic animals. People and cats share the same home space. Pidan designs products based on the basic concept of "people and pets living together".

In 2016, Pidan quickly opened up the pet products segment with its first hit product "Igloo Cat Litter Box". The design of this product is inspired by the igloos of the Inuit people in the Arctic, bringing the snow-like tranquility into urban life, just as cats heal people's emotions.

Different from the common basin-shaped or square closed cat litter boxes on the market, the "Igloo Cat Litter Box" has a unique semi-open arc structure and curved corridor, which combines the cat's experience with human senses. Find a balance between.

The "Igloo Cat Litter Box" also won the German Red Dot Design Award, known as the "Oscar of the Industrial Design Industry" that year. With the high-looking design and the blessing of awards, the social attributes of Pidan products have been rapidly amplified. Many pet bloggers have posted photos on social platforms, and celebrities such as Han Han and Fan Bingbing have also been attracted to buy them.

Igloo has sold more than 6,000 copies in only half a year since its release. Over 90% of its user fans are young women who pursue fashion. At that time, Pidan’s monthly revenue had reached 5 million yuan.

The only thing that has been criticized is its price. Pidan is positioned as an affordable luxury. The price of an "Igloo Cat Litter Box" is as high as 365 yuan, which is even higher than the high-end cat litter box imported from abroad at the time (less than 300 yuan). Yuan) is even more expensive, beating domestic cat litter boxes that generally cost less than 100 Yuan.

When founder Ma Wenfei talked about how "Pidan, as a new brand, can break the perception among consumer groups that imported products are better" in the early days, he said: "Consumers have to pay attention to the level of recognition of a brand. At the same time, the price is the most direct and clear. With truly good products and good design, consumers will naturally recognize Pidan as not only a narrow and positive beauty, but also arouse your imagination of a better life. ” p>

In order to spread its aesthetic concept and brand image, Pidan launched "Pidan Travel". This project cooperates with photographers from all over the world to select places such as Qinghai, Furano, Florence, etc., and places its products on glaciers, Among natural landscapes such as beaches and forests, the calm and powerful visual presentation strengthens Pidan's uniqueness and cognitive understanding in consumers' minds, paving the way for and endorsing the brand's high-end positioning.

In Ma Wenfei’s view, “creating emotional value and forming an emotional connection with users” is Pidan’s confidence in selling the most expensive cat litter box on the Internet. If you can only win with price, the price war will never end. ”

02

Pidan’s category expansion logic

After establishing a certain brand awareness with the “Igloo Cat Litter Box”, Pidan quickly developed the brand with “Cat Litter Box”. "Sand" is an expanded category that continues to write the myth of hot hits.

Compared with cat litter boxes, cat litter has a high repurchase rate and is a high-frequency consumable for cat owners. A cat consumes about 5-6kg of cat litter per month on average. Even if the price is not high, it can stimulate users to keep repurchasing and revitalize the brand with minimal cash flow.

Most of the brands on the market at that time used cat litter as a drainage product. The quality varied, and there were common consumer pain points such as easy clumping and odor. Based on this insight, Pidan took the lead in launching "mixed cat litter" in China, which has the dual functions of deodorizing and absorbing water.

Soon after this cat litter went online, it replaced the igloo cat litter box and became Pidan’s flagship product. In the first year, Pidan’s revenue exceeded 100 million, and it ranked No. 1 in cat litter category sales on domestic e-commerce platforms.

Pidan’s successive popularity quickly attracted the attention of star venture capital firms such as Clearstream Capital, Kunzhong Capital, and Discovery Venture Capital, raising nearly 100 million yuan in financing within two years.

With sufficient capital flow support, Pidan tried to expand its target users horizontally, launched dog products, and expanded SKUs from 80 to 300 within one year. However, due to the different consumption attributes of the user groups accumulated by the brand, Pidan's dog products series achieved little success, and even caused high inventory pressure.

In 2019, Pidan's revenue reached 150 million yuan and then stagnated. The return of cash flow was very slow and even suffered losses.

After realizing that horizontal expansion and breadth cannot promote the brand, Ma Wenfei resolutely cut off two-thirds of the categories. He divided the existing products into three levels according to the inventory circulation time: 15 days, 35 days, and 60 days. If a category with a minimum order quantity cannot be sold within 60 days, it will be cut off. At the same time, it has deeply cultivated "cat products" vertically and upgraded to a "lifestyle brand of all categories of cats".

Facts have proved that Ma Wenfei’s decision at that time was very correct. In 2021, Pidan broke through the revenue growth bottleneck, with annual revenue jumping to 400 million yuan, and climbing again to 500 million in 2022. The company's comprehensive gross profit reached 50%, and its products on sale cover cat staple food, snacks, cat litter, toys, home furnishings, and travel. , washing and cleaning and many other categories.

The most impressive ones are the feeding bags and paper scratching nests that Pidan specially launched for "stray cats". Pidan hopes to improve the happiness of pet cats and also appeal to people to help those who wander around. A colony of stray cats in a corner of society.

In addition, Pidan released the concept design of a "pet urn" last year as an exploration of the field of pet funerals, and at the same time triggered users to think more deeply about the "human-pet relationship".

Pidan has always been generous in conveying its poetic brand philosophy. Founder Ma Wenfei’s inspiration for product development came from the healing power brought to him by his pet “preserved egg”. Therefore, Pidan often uses the "cat" as the main perspective to make various imaginative announcements on its official website, official social media accounts, product pages and other exposure scenes to achieve the transmission of brand information value.

03

Pidan's road to overseas

In April 2022, Pidan cooperated with director Bi Gan to release its first brand The short film "Heart of the Broken Sun" was successfully shortlisted for the Cannes International Film Festival Short Film Competition. Not only that, Pidan, who is involved in the pet circle, is also well-known in overseas design circles and has won 9 international industrial design awards so far.

The endorsement of international awards has made Pidan's journey to sea a lot smoother. Pdan has won many international awards with its design concept of pets bringing "calm beauty" to humans, breaking national boundaries and cultural circles, reaching far and wide. Sold to 21 countries overseas.

Pidan’s brand tone determines that it is a brand that is very suitable for going overseas. It tells stories, pays attention to social issues, and pays attention to public welfare undertakings. European and American consumers, on the other hand, value ritual and are willing to pay higher prices for a good story.

The overall layout of Pidan’s independent station is also very similar to that of an overseas local DTC brand. Whether it is the product purchase page or the introduction page of “our story”, the overall site style is similar to the product design style, and the overall emphasis is on “brand” "feeling" helps to strengthen the brand memory point. Off-site traffic is important, but good website details can often avoid high bounce rates.

Pidan has also put a lot of effort into opening up local channels. In addition to entering the mainstream e-commerce platform Amazon, Pidan also cooperates with well-known pet supplies retailers in North America, Australia and Southeast Asia, such as PawPawDear, Petso, JJ Pet Club, etc.

As of now, Pidan has settled on 19 domestic and overseas e-commerce platforms, and has launched products in 8,000 offline stores around the world. Its core product, cat litter, has sold more than 20 million pieces worldwide.

It is worth noting that the overseas prices of Pidan are higher than those in China. Taking Pidan's classic cat litter as an example, the domestic price on Tmall is 40 yuan/pack, while the price on Amazon is as high as 19 US dollars/pack, or about 135 yuan. It can be seen that Pidan still continues its affordable luxury positioning overseas.

Pidan’s differentiated approach is also reflected in its social media layout. Pidan has created different sub-accounts based on different regions on ins for refined operations. The output content is mainly based on the daily life of pet owners and the consumption scenarios of products. The overall style is fresh and healing, which is in line with the brand tone.

In addition, Pidan’s ins official account profile also includes links to independent websites, other social media accounts and direct e-commerce platforms, achieving the effect of attracting traffic to each other.