In 2015, after "Cat Economics" first set off a trend in Japan, it has also quietly emerged in China. It is believed that no matter how difficult the consumer environment is, business activities related to "cats" will attract attention and benefit from it. .

Cute and independent pet cats seem to be more suitable than pet dogs for busy young people to raise and provide emotional companionship. Three years after the epidemic, this has been confirmed. The number of pet cats has grown more than five times that of pet dogs. In the future, the cat economy is expected to become the dominant factor in the pet market.

pidan, which was born in 2015, has seized the opportunity of the domestic cat economy and developed to In 2021, the sales volume of the flagship store has become the top 10 in all categories of Tmall's pet industry, and has a high reputation among young urban white-collar workers. After research, it was found that pidan is different from traditional pet brands in that it is not limited to "cat", but builds the brand through "philosophical thinking - deriving aesthetics - guiding design".

The founder, Ma Wenfei, realized from Nietzsche’s philosophical thought that “only tragedy can create empathy.” The first hot-selling product at the beginning of the business - the cat litter box "Snow House", brings snow-like tranquility and healing into urban life, just like cats' emotional therapy for people and people's compassion and empathy for cats. The overall product vision of pidan is pure, concise, soft and stable, and uses "emotional value" to give brand differentiation beyond product functions.

Pictures

Since 2020, pidan has continued to bring products to Florence, Hokkaido, Iceland, the Mojave Desert... and cooperated with photographers from all over the world to shoot, Trying to capture people’s emotional needs for travel during the epidemic era.

pidan’s two brand visual upgrades correspond to changes in brand strategy and design concepts. In 2018, pidan's product line expanded from cats to dogs, small pets, aquariums, reptiles, etc., and the first visual upgrade came into being. After re-designing the font, the "cat" imprint of the original logo was removed, and exclusive design languages ​​were set for each of the eight animal categories: graphic and color combination specifications, which are closer to the design for people, so that pets can get along with people on an equal footing.

In 2021, pidan gave up the expansion of all categories and returned to "cat first", focusing on creating products for cats. "Designing for cats" made this visual upgrade more calm. And more subversive.

Because it is impossible to have a direct dialogue with the actual user - the cat, pidan believes that the creation of atmosphere has lost its meaning and should be completely abandoned. Separating consumers and users in design will undoubtedly be a test for public acceptance. In order to highlight the information recognition and follow "naturalism", the packaging is reduced to "packaging". Pidan uses black and white as the main tone, four-corner information boxes and large-area text tiles, subverting the lively and childlike image of pet brands in the traditional sense.

Different from most brands that use co-branding as a gimmick, pidan always outputs its thoughts on the social relationship between people and pets in artistic collaborations and projects, maintaining its own aesthetic taste and expression. In addition to products, it constantly explores how to convey the brand through aesthetics. value.

pidan and director Bi Gan launched the first brand short film "Heart of the Broken Sun", which presents the bond between humans and cats through poetic and dreamlike artistic images.

Together with the abc book fair to build a reading space, pidan's observation and exploration of natural elements and applications are presented through 40 art publications.

The "Pet Urn" design project is an exploration of pidan's non-development products, conveying brand values ​​to the public and triggering emotional resonance.

From the above observations, it is certain that pidan breaks away from the aesthetic and design framework of traditional pet brands, tries to build a brand through emotional power and design power, and continuously explores to promote aesthetic consensus, and also achieves it in the process. The irreplaceability of brand language.

However, in the second visual upgrade of pidan, it seems that it pursues aesthetics one-sidedly and ignores that the main consumer in the cat economy is still "human", so controversy is inevitable. It is expected that pidan will focus more on the design power of the product itself in the future to continue the brand aesthetics and win back reputation.