Nowadays, "gold-attracting beasts" may not only be children, but also "fur babies" who are loved by thousands of people. The pet economy is also known as the “second maternal and infant industry”.

Chinese brands entered the pet industry late, and overseas brands have always had a greater say in this track. However, one brand in my country has stood out by relying on the "cat litter" sub-category. It sold 12 million pieces a year, ranking first in the domestic cat litter category and exported to more than 20 countries overseas.

It is Pidan. The brand name comes from the name of the founder’s pet cat.

Since its establishment in 2015, Pidan has received investments from many well-known investment companies such as Qifu Capital, Qingliu Capital, and Jinding Capital.

What is so special about a pet products brand that makes consumers and investment companies pay for it?

Why does Pidan create expensive and explosive products?

Similar to the entrepreneurial inspiration of some brands, the founder of Pidan initially just wanted to find a beautiful and practical cat litter box for his cats, but it was always difficult to find a product that met his needs. , so I decided to design one myself.

Pidan’s first product, “Igloo Cat Litter Box”, took a full 9 months to polish from design to launch. The shape of this cat litter box is very much like the igloo of the Arctic Inuit, giving people a sense of tranquility, simplicity, and healing, just like the feeling cats bring to humans most of the time.

In the cat litter box market in 2016, such a high-looking cat litter box with a round "dome" and simple shape, just like an ornament, is naturally among the many basin-shaped and ordinary box-shaped closed ones. It stands out in the cat litter box and hits the hearts of pet owners.

Design is a difficult point, and mass production is another. How does an emerging brand gain channel trust?

The founder of Pidan voted for some international selections with the mentality of giving it a try, but he did not expect to win the 2016 German Red Dot Design Award. With international recognition, cooperation with suppliers and distributors has become much smoother.

More than 6,000 copies of this cat litter box were sold in just half a year after it was put on the shelves, with monthly sales reaching 5 million yuan. In fact, its price is not cheap. Pidan is positioned as an affordable luxury. The price of this cat litter box is as high as 365 yuan, which is even more than some high-end cat litter boxes imported from overseas at that time.

Why are consumers willing to accept such high prices?

On the one hand, the product is really good-looking and easy to use.

As a functional product, the cat litter box is often too strong in design and smell, making it difficult to integrate into the home environment.

Pidan’s tranquil design and color matching can better integrate into home decoration. At the same time, the semi-enclosed structure provides privacy and security for cats, trapping unwanted odors inside the litter box. The round design also provides room for cats to turn around and dig comfortably.

The grille at the entrance of the cat litter box can also prevent garbage from being taken out and left outside the cat litter box.

On the other hand, Pidan has implanted the brand's "high-end" image into the minds of consumers.

If you want to be high-end, you need some performance art. Pidan has launched the "Pidan Travel" campaign, cooperating with photographers around the world to take photos of products in natural landscapes such as beaches and forests, using artistic photos to emphasize that Pidan's "our inspiration comes from nature and love." design concept. There are also consumers who are willing to pay for this sense of design.

In addition, the support of the international awards mentioned above undoubtedly adds confidence to the "high-end" brand.

After becoming stronger, how to expand categories?

The company's business has expanded from domestic to overseas, and its revenue has increased from 30 million in 2017 to 150 million in 2019. However, Pidan, which seems to be smooth sailing, has not encountered crises.

In August 2016, Pidan received seed round financing, completed angel round and Series A financing in 2017, and completed Series B financing in 2018. Pidan was not short of money in the early days of its establishment, and most of this money was used for new product research and development.

So since 2017, Pidan has begun to expand categories. New products such as cat litter, cat bowls, and toys have been launched one after another. Basically, there will be a new product every two to three months. Pidan also launched dog products, and even considered expanding into slightly niche pet markets such as hamsters and rabbits. At one time, there were more than 80 SKUs.

However, there is a crisis hidden behind this. Category expansion does bring benefits to a certain extent, but behind this is high inventory pressure and profit losses. Moreover, as a brand famous for cat products, it is also difficult to open new markets for dog products.

Pidan chose to press the pause button at that time. From the end of 2019 to the end of 2020, Pidan did not launch new products.

Pidan also thought of a new way to solve the inventory problem: divide the products into 15 days, 35 days, and 60 days according to the inventory circulation time. Categories with minimum minimum quantities that cannot be sold within 60 days will be cut off. Lose.

In this way, Pidan's categories will be dynamically updated, and products that meet market demand will always be pushed to the sales end. This decision helped Pidan cut off about two-thirds of its products.

In short, Pidan chose to shift from breadth to depth, streamline the categories, and then deepen its expertise in the field of cat supplies. Among them, cat litter is an important expansion target.

After the popularity of cat litter boxes, Pidan developed the industry's first mixed cat litter in 2018, helping Pidan reach new heights.

Cat litter, as a consumable product, has a higher repurchase rate than cat litter boxes. According to surveys, a cat consumes an average of 7-8 pounds of cat litter per month. The price of cat litter is not high, and it is often used as a store-draining product. Therefore, the quality control of some cat litter products on the market at that time was not strict, and it was not uncommon to have odors and difficulty in cleaning.

Pidan has an insight into this user pain point. The main mixed cat litter is a mixture of tofu cat litter and bentonite cat litter. It has the functions of deodorizing and absorbing water. In the first month of its launch, 10 10,000 bags have become the flagship product, driving Pidan’s revenue to over 100 million.

Overall, after smoothing out the new logic, Pidan's performance and revenue have broken through the bottleneck, with revenue reaching 400 million yuan in 2021 and 500 million yuan in 2022. It was not until 2022 that Pidan returned to the full category. The answer given by founder Ma Wenfei was that this time it was ready.

Pidan’s refined operations when going overseas

In 2018, Pidan officially went overseas. Pidan has also made many attempts on how to gain recognition of the brand from overseas consumers

Through Pidan’s overseas independent website, we can also find that this is a brand that is very good at telling stories in a way that suits the preferences of Western users. The homepage not only highlights the main cat litter product, but also " "Award-winning products" and "Our story" are listed separately. They do not have strong sales attributes and emphasize the brand connotation.

At the same time, regarding environmental issues that European and American consumers are more concerned about, Pidan also stated in "Our Story" that for every product sold, it will donate US$0.022 to its affiliated charities to provide support for abandoned cats. Provide medical care and housing. Since the launch of the pidancares program, pidan has donated more than $87,000 to 114 affiliated rescue agencies.

In 2022, the branded short film "Heart of the Broken Sun", co-produced by Pidan and director Bi Gan, was also successfully shortlisted for the short film competition unit of the Cannes International Film Festival. In addition, according to the Pidan independent website, its products have won 9 international industrial design awards, including Reddot, IF, IDEA, etc.

With this kind of highlight moment, it can not only build publicity internationally, but also improve the brand image domestically.

Multi-channel layout

Nowadays, when going overseas, the channel layout of online + offline, independent station + e-commerce platform has almost become a consensus.

Pidan has not only built an independent overseas website, but has also entered mainstream e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Shopee, and Lazada, and has cooperated with more than 8,000 stores around the world. Its core product, cat litter, has sold more than 20 million pieces. .

Pidan still maintains its affordable luxury positioning overseas. The cat litter box sells for US$149.99 on Amazon and the cat litter sells for US$16.25 per bag (7.9 pounds), both of which are higher than domestically.

In terms of overseas social media, Pidan mainly deploys Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Moreover, Pidan has also created sub-accounts based on different regions on these platforms to conduct more refined and localized operations

Before Pidan, we may not have imagined what could be done with a cat litter degree.

The founder of Pidan once said: "The first step of a brand determines 70% of everything."

From the beginning to the end, Pidan has adhered to the brand line and has not been involved in low prices. Instead, it has constantly adjusted to cater to market demand, focusing on profit margins and turnover rates, and ultimately in niche areas that suit itself. Create a world inside.