WHISKAS - A Powerful Brand Identity

Whiskas is a famous cat food brand all over the world. They have been delicated to make healthy ingredient for dry, wet, milk and care&treats food and making people feel safe in taking care their kittens.

I am also a cat-lover and keep three cats in my place. When I choose cat food, I did a lot of researches among famous cat food brands, and we can see Whiskas in superstores in China as well such as SAM, RT-MART, Carrefour etc,. eventually I want to write this article to share Whiskas.

Name & Brand Story

Whiskas is a well-know mass-market manufacturer of cat food. This is a strong brand with 80 years history. When it was first created, the brand was known as KalKan and it was one of the first makers of pet foods. When Forrest Mars and the Mars Candy Company bought KalKan in 1968, their dog food products were rebranded under the name Pedigree and their cat food products as Whiskas.

Whiskas, which means "cat whiskers" in English, help cats show emotion. In China, the advertising slogan of Whiskas has changed from " Caring for cats" to " Whiskas knows your cat better than you do", which link Whiskas with cat-caring and establish the brand association in the bottom heart of customers.

Trade Mark & The Purple

Whiskas for some time used a particular shade of purple in packaging and marketing materials. Thus the color was called ‘ Whiskas Purple’ and Mars sought to register the color as Whiskas’ trade mark.

The color was carefully developed and chosen to create a strong brand identity.

LOGO

• Physique: The cat iconic purple logo and meat-based cat food

• Relationship: Taking care of your cats at different age

• Reflection: Palatable tastes that cats love，Easy to buy in the market and old-fashioned, affordable foods

• Personality: Wholesome, trustable and nutritional

• Culture: Responsibility; The leading authority in cats

• Self-Image: If you give cat the best possible care, choose Whiskas!

In-Store Experience

Whiskas does not have a store in China, but it is very common in large supermarkets. I found Whiskas in the pet food section at RT-Mart and YONGHUI in Suzhou.

I found the same characteristics in two supermarkets. In the pet food section, different types of Whiskas products have separate shelf classifications. Pet snacks have a kitten area and an adult cat area. The pet snacks are arranged from the top of the shelf to the bottom of the shelf. For wet food, the last layer of the shelf is dry food.

In Sam's Club, the pet food section only has large bags of Whiskas food on the shelves.

(The pictures are real shots.)

By GUI Ming