From a one-sided breeding relationship to a two-way relationship between pet owners and furry pets, the emotional model of "I support them materially, and they support me spiritually" has prompted the pet industry to extend from simple food and accommodation to more subdivisions needs. In the field of pet health, the demand for standing drugs and light medical treatment is also increasing as pet owners become more aware of pet health. Data from the "2023-2024 China Pet Industry White Paper (Consumption Report)" shows that among consumer institutions, pet drugs will account for 9.8% in 2023, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from 2022. At the same time, relevant survey data also shows that more than 85% of pet owners have problems that need to be solved for their pets’ daily drug needs.

Based on such trend changes, it has gradually become a consensus within Pointe to create safe, scientific and reliable "pet home medicine" for pet owners. However, unlike other subdivisions, the pet drug sector has extremely strict access and marketing standards, and has higher requirements for production and research levels. At the same time, the large number of giants and the continuous entry of new players have made the entire industry become more and more "volume". However, in the face of these many uncertainties, Pointe still delivered a brilliant result in 2023. Single: Annual revenue exceeded 600 million, nearly double the year-on-year growth in 2022.

Today, we also interviewed Song Hua, the brand director of Pointe, to explain Pointe’s development path across the two major categories of pet medicines and nutritional health products in the past 16 years from his perspective.

The following is the transcript of this interview, some content has been deleted:

Focusing on "pet home medicine", how does Pointe make good products recognized by pet owners?

Paidu Team: In recent years, domestic emerging companies and international giants have been deploying pet medical products and professional services market. Compared with other companies on the market, what are the unique core points of Pointe? What about the advantages?

Pointe’s innovation in the field of pet health medicine is mainly based on “pet home medicine” as its starting point. The concept of "household medicine" among us Chinese has actually gone through a very long process. It was actually in the late 1970s when this concept became popular. At that time, there were very few private pharmacies, and the general public had a very superficial concept of stockpiling medicines at home. This is very different from the "preparation and storage" conditions between traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. Big relationship. For example, when we had a cold and fever when we were children, the elderly would not immediately think of letting you take cold medicine. Instead, they would choose to take you to see a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. However, the production of traditional Chinese medicine is also relatively lagging behind, which has led to the lack of awareness and concepts of Chinese family medicine. Established early.

Now, as the concept of "household medicine" matures and the relationship between humans and pets becomes more intimate, the demand for household medicines for pets is also increasing, especially for deworming, respiratory tract, digestive system, and urinary medicine. For mild diseases and health problems, it is often the first choice to purchase medicines and stock up on your own for treatment. Therefore, in 2018, Pointe subdivided the concept of "pet home medication" on the pharmaceutical track. Based on the needs of consumers and pets for household medicines, we conducted big data and consumer survey analysis and found that a refined development model is more suitable for the needs of household medicine reserve. The original research and development ideas of all Pointe's products, including therapeutic drugs and functional nutritional products, are based on this stance. Therefore, we have certain market competitiveness in the pet home medication segment.

At the same time, as our entire positioning is differentiated from other brands, each of our subsequent nodes will form a misaligned competitive advantage with other brands. For example, on the marketing side, some overseas pharmaceutical companies will focus more on hospital and theater channels in their early stages of development. Annual advertising and sales expenses, including product education expenses, will be concentrated offline, and their communication points will be more focused on Some professional training APP platforms for veterinarians and nursing staff and college courses are embedded. In terms of demand points such as communication, marketing and manufacturing, they are more focused on professional channels.

However, Pointe is positioning itself as a home medicine, which actually targets the development path of Chinese pharmaceutical brands. Therefore, in today's overall consumer awareness strategy, Pointe is more inclined to C-side communication. In addition to Pointe's product promotion content, it is also further popularizing consumers on how to correctly purchase and use household medicines.

Paidu Team: We have seen that Pointe has formed a rich and diversified product line around its own "pet home medicine". So, how does Pointe select and develop new products, and how does it lay out related R&D configurations?

Because the development of the home medication market is closely related to the growth rate of new pet owners, while the overall volume is increasing, we also find that many people are beginning to substitute the concept of home medication for pets. Is this necessary? In fact, as early as a few years ago, we have noticed the growth of a large number of novice pet owners born in the 1995s and 2000s. Most of them adopt the form of adopting stray animals. This will involve the nature of these small animals themselves. There are many persistent "minor illnesses and pains", and this feature has actually been confirmed by data from the pet industry white paper and other data channels this year. Minor ailments that originally had to be solved in hospitals have gradually shifted to home medication scenarios. In this link, we will also do a lot of consumer research, which is mainly targeted at novice pet owners. We found that there is a clear difference between these pet owners and those who have kept pets for more than five or six years.

In fact, we found that pet owners who have kept pets for a longer time have formed their own cognitive system for solving pet health problems, but new pet owners have In the early years, due to the impact of the epidemic and other issues, it was impossible to go to pet medical institutions for timely treatment, so there was a need for home drug treatment. We will conduct verification based on this high growth of the market, and then dismantle it to see if this concept really exists and what is the underlying logic behind it, and launch products that meet the pain point needs or provide a set of "from drugs to health" Supplementary” solution. Based on these needs, Pointe's drug research and development first meets the needs of "prevention and mild disease" home treatment, and is developed based on common health conditions at different nodes and seasons in the entire life cycle of cats and dogs. In addition to the development of related categories of household medicines, you will also find that there are many products in the health and nutritional supplement category. In addition to medicines, we also take into account the "post-healing recovery" and "daily health maintenance" needs of small animals. While conducting technology research and development against advanced domestic and foreign drug types and processes, we will also consider the prevention of disease and health problems, nutritional supplements during disease cure, and post-treatment recovery, and design nutritional supplement products corresponding to different links. .

Paidu Team: In response to consumers’ sensitivity to pet drug prices, how does Pointe balance product quality and price competition?

Pointe has always prioritized quality, optimizing costs through scale and achieving a balance between price and quality. For example, the ingredients used for fish oil are a very interesting thing. When Pointe produced fish oil, we had three options, namely TG type (triglyceride type) and EE type (ethyl ester type). ) and rTG (reesterified type), TG type fish oil is glyceride, which is the original form of fish oil existing in nature, including most of the fish oil eaten by people now also belongs to TG type, and its DHA and EPA content (overall omega-3) is on the lower end of the spectrum.

The second type is the mid-term development stage called EE type, which can be understood as the ethyl ester conversion type. The capacity of omega-3 is much higher, but it requires additional metabolic conversion before it can be absorbed and utilized by body cells, so The absorption and utilization rate is not high, and it will cause a burden to the pet's body.

Now we are using the rTG version, which can be understood as a recombinant fish oil through re-esterification technology. It will not increase the burden on the body and can also contain a higher concentration in the same mass unit. It contains omega-3 and has the highest absorption rate among the three forms. However, the problem is that the raw material cost of this fish oil is also the highest among the three types. This has also led to the high price of this product after it was launched. We have been trying We use higher quality ingredients to produce our products, and at the same time control costs and profits through large-scale production, so that high-quality products can be kept within a range acceptable to consumers at a more down-to-earth price.

Pointe did not do distribution in the past, nor did it develop large-scale distribution channels. A large number of sales were concentrated in its own online self-operated channels, so that it can well control costs and profits. . Compared with brands that gain sales through the distribution system, we have more profits to invest in the research and development and quality improvement of the next round of products.

In August 2023, we established our own factory and completed the GMP audit. In 2024, we will have planned open distribution cooperation, and the establishment of our own factories can also appropriately hedge against uncontrollable factors in distribution, because when our production end is fully controlled independently, there will be an additional level of cost control on the production end. No matter how we expand our channels, we will strictly control quality and R&D. High-quality products are the prerequisite for long-term and stable cooperation with our partners.

From "use" to "remember", how does Pointe do a good job in brand building?

Paidu Team: What is the biggest challenge Pointe has encountered in brand building?

Pointe’s brand building will only begin to be taken seriously at the end of 2022. When brand building first started, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with consumers. We discovered a very interesting phenomenon: nearly 70% of the consumers we found have used or are even using our products, and the penetration rate is quite astonishing. But when asked about their brand memory of "Pointe", they said they had no impression. In other words, most of the consumers surveyed do not know the brand from purchase to use or even repurchase, but only the product itself. At this point, we realized a problem. Our penetration rate is actually very high, but our brand awareness is insufficient. This is also the challenge we are facing now in terms of brand "visibility".

In response to this issue, we have also done a lot of preliminary research and tentative actions this year. We want to have a clearer understanding of Pointe’s brand positioning and brand image in the minds of consumers, and by the way understand consumers. preferences. Therefore, we teamed up with a third-party professional organization to conduct a large-scale brand health research. This research will provide a guide for our next market direction, including subsequent product development and positioning, or the reach efficiency of our media communication. , scientific communication, consumer education, etc. These preliminary studies are setting a good tone for the work in 2024. We also hope that these measures can help our brand be familiar and recognized by more consumers.

Paidu Team: Faced with the problem of low brand awareness, what specific measures has Pointe taken in brand building? What was the result?

In fact, our biggest achievement this year is that consumers’ brand awareness of Pointe has improved in the past six months. In the past, Pointe’s consumer profile was a relatively sinking group, and from e-commerce From the dealer’s data system, we see that this part of the brand population does not have very high requirements for the sophistication of pet life. After the overall brand diagnosis was completed, we decided to expand the brand's audience so that more different types of pet owners can see and understand Pointe.

Take the marketing campaign for the launch of our new insect repellent product "Dipai" in 2023 as an example. We reached consumers from both online and offline dimensions. In online cooperation, our content cultivation will not be limited to the output of the benefits of the product itself. Instead, we will use more ink to educate consumers about some correct usage methods in the process of home medication, how to correctly administer medication, and how to judge the differences between pets. symptoms, etc. Because our users are a group of cuties who cannot communicate through words, popularizing their health knowledge is actually a kind of communication with consumers. In addition, we will also carry out theme dissemination for different scenarios. For example, in the listing campaign of Dipai Internal and External Drives, we created "Internal and External Drives·Worry-Free Wild" through "Autumn Camping and Pet Traveling Hotspots" Thematic activities, cooperation with Xiaohongshu, PetRun of Paidu and other very good projects that are close to consumers, to enter the minds of consumers or go to them as a family doctor or family health consultant.

After a series of product promotion and marketing actions, we conducted crowd portrait research and found that the demographic characteristics of new products headed by Dipai changed from the previous consumer portraits to younger, younger and younger consumers. People who are more sophisticated in raising pets have taken a big step forward. This shows that we have taken the right path in marketing strategy and have achieved visual results.

Paidu Team: What is Pointe’s view on the issues of human-pet harmony and animal welfare that are attracting more and more attention nowadays?

We are actually very concerned about pet-related public welfare content. We have two principles in this part. The first is "low-key public welfare", and the second is that we only do "frontline public welfare".

In fact, many people don’t know that we cooperated with Alpai during the disaster in Hebei, and the amount of donated materials at that time was at least 300,000 yuan. Including the recent 1215 Hangzhou Cat Car Incident, the person who made the donation with us was Dad Criticism. They were in Hangzhou at the time. After learning about this incident, they approached us on December 16 and asked for assistance and cooperation. On the 17th, we airlifted 900 units of Dipai’s internal and external anthelmintics, 1,000 boxes of cat plague test paper, hypochlorous acid disinfectant and other products that they urgently needed most at that time to Hangzhou. Dad The review team receives and transships locally.

From the time the rescue request was initiated to the time we arrived at the rescue site in Hangzhou, it only took 8 hours. Generally speaking, we prefer public welfare rescue at the first time and directly undertaken by the first on-site person or organization. , to ensure that every material can arrive smoothly with the most efficient transfer efficiency and be used for the rescue of furry children. As for whether it can make the brand go out of the circle, we don’t care. In the future, Pointe will continue to pay attention to public welfare events. If there is a need, we will provide assistance and feedback as soon as possible.

Facing market challenges, how does Pointe achieve “win in the future”?

Paidu Team: What market challenges has Pointe faced in the past year? How did you cope?

In the past year, Pointe actually experienced different market challenges from both external and internal sources.

Everyone from the outside knows very well that many cross-border brands have begun to enter the pet track, and market traffic has been diluted, which poses greater and more difficult challenges to marketing actions. At the same time, under the large market environment, we are also facing a downgrade in market consumption and changes in consumer drug demand after the epidemic. From product development to brand communication, Pointe will actually make timely adjustments based on these external factors of different dimensions.

In fact, the internal challenges have also been mentioned before. There is a recognition barrier of "high penetration, low awareness" in the overall brand awareness. We will constantly adjust and enhance the awareness of the brand itself based on market observations, crowd insights and other perspectives.

In the past few years, we have also experienced another relatively big challenge in brand building. That is the confusion among consumers about the use of household medicines, especially anthelmintics. For example, our latest launch of Dipai is strictly speaking a topical drug. However, most consumers understand that drugs for animals and pets should be non-toxic, but this is impossible. Since it can be used for external deworming, it is equivalent to Just like the external medicines used by people in daily life, it has a good killing effect when used externally, but it cannot be eaten into the stomach.

Combined with the current rapid growth of pet ownership, there are still relatively few people with clear medication knowledge and concepts for home use of pets. Therefore, Pointe will insist on doing C-side scientific communication for a long time in the future, and use social media and professional KOL to convey the correct knowledge about purchasing and using medicines. This does not only refer to deworming products, but also other pet medicines. This is a problem we will tackle now and in the future, and we will continue to communicate with consumers about the popular science of home medication.

Paidu Team: What do you think of the future development trend of the pet pharmaceutical industry? How will Pointe respond to these trends?

The pet industry has always been an industry that continues to rise in everyone's eyes. In the future, the emotional bond between pets and us will become deeper and deeper, and their status in people's hearts and families will also become higher and higher. Under this big industry trend, pet health issues will be paid attention to by more and more pet owners.

In pet health, our core track is still the household pharmaceuticals category. In addition, the general health care category will also join our new product research and development, but we will not enter the staple food category. Tao, because Pointe will always focus on the general health field with pet medicine as the core, and more cost-effective home medicine is still the direction of our future expansion.

Paidu Team: In the next development, what new R&D plans and market expansion plans does Pointe have in the pet field?

At present, Pointe has spread throughout Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States, and has achieved a very good reputation. In the future, we will continue to explore overseas markets and continue to delve into the field of pet health. Through R&D innovation and brand upgrades, we will meet the market needs of different countries. Our products and business will gradually cover North America, Latin America, Europe and Southeast Asia. In order to adapt to the needs and standards of markets in various regions around the world, we have established our own overseas factory in the United States, and we believe it will be put into production soon.

U.S. factory

On the research and development end, Pointe has established R&D institutions such as the "Pointe·Huanong Pet Drug Innovation R&D Center" in conjunction with universities including South China Agricultural University. Promote the development of domestically produced pet medicines for home use.

Strategic Cooperation Press Conference

In addition, Pointe actually has many advantages at present. In terms of the update progress of drug varieties, Pointe is among the best in the industry. It is relatively advanced, and we will study several main directions next:

The first direction is the use of traditional Chinese medicine for pets

This is an area we are currently working on, Western medicine Although it treats the symptoms, we want to treat the root cause of this matter. It is hoped that traditional Chinese medicine technology or ingredients can be gradually applied to the pet industry. However, the standardization of traditional Chinese medicine is difficult, especially when it comes to the acceptance of pet owners. These two points need to be considered.

The second direction is microbial pharmaceuticals

In response to various health needs of pets, microorganisms or their metabolites are used to produce drugs. This part will focus on the direction of pet immune drugs, which is also One of the topics we hope to tackle in future research and development.