By: Connor Agniel, Hayley Alexander, Jake Bryant, Nikolas Presat, Lexi Tocco
Nestle Purina Petcare is a St. Louis-based subsidiary of Nestle. In order to well-define Purina’s strategy and communication goals, we have to first understand Purina’s core target. According to several researches on the web, this audience is composed of men and women between 25 and 54 years old. Most men and women of those ages are using social media. Purina is present on social networks and try to meet their customers’ expectations. Purina is present on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Here are some indications about its online presence:
| Google+ | ||||||
| Subscribers | 460K + | 40K + | 1.2K | 8K | 22K + | 80K |
| Type of content | Pictures Videos |
Pictures Videos |
Pictures Videos |
Pictures | Pictures | Company information Pictures |
| Frequency | Daily | Daily | 2-3 / week | N/A | 2-3 / week | Daily |
| Engagement rate* | 1.12% | 0.02% | 0.27% | 0.42% | 2.27% | 0.07% |
* based on the 5 last posts
Purina shares pictures of dogs or cats with advice and tips for consumers. Users can identify themselves with these pictures and are able to share their experience with the community. It’s an excellent example of inbound marketing. Thanks to this content, Purina is attracting people to its website in order to increase the visibility of its products. We can also notice that when Purina is sharing something on Facebook, you can find the same information on the other social networks. They are all interconnected. We also notice that Purina is extending its strategy by creating specialized pages. For example, on Facebook you can find a lot of different pages for many of Purina’s products, and the same on Twitter, rather than just a single, centralized page for the company. These specialized pages are aimed to specific consumers with particular needs. There are excellent tools to increase engagement and advocacy from consumers. Thanks to these pages, Purina is getting closer to its consumers and better answer their needs.
In 2013, Purina developed the “Feed” with Deep Focus, a New York-based digital marketing agency. The Feed’s employees — which number about a half dozen — reply to Twitter posts people make about their pets. Huddled in a room with more than a dozen computer monitors, a Feed staffer responds to a person’s tweet about their dog or cat with a personalized message using the Twitter handle @Purina, which has more than 18,000 followers. Since The Feed launched, @Purina has sent more than 20,000 messages on Twitter to pet owners, and many of those messages are then shared again on other sites, including Facebook, Tumblr and YouTube.
Each month, Twitter estimates there are about 1.7 million tweets related to pets. Through its software that identifies relevant tweets, The Feed’s team members read 5,000 tweets a day and respond to about 1,000 a week. Most companies have a response rate on social media of less than 10 percent for their brands, but Purina’s response rate using The Feed is more than 80 percent.
Thanks to these actions, Purina is getting closer to its community. Purina has well identified customer’s needs and expectations as well as adapted its strategy in order to offer quality and relevant content on social networks. They create a discussion with consumers and try to involve them in order to increase their engagement. Moreover, Purina chooses to personalize its messages. Thanks to the different pages, interaction on social networks, as well as special advices and tips users are feeling connected with the brand. It’s an excellent strategy for Purina in order to increase advocacy, generate quality leads, and traffic to its website.
Sources and Learn More:
Wikipedia, Updated April 19, 2015, Nestle Purina Petcare
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestlé_Purina_PetCare
Jessica Taylor, May 16, 2010, Get in-depth with the Top 10 global petfood players http://www.petfoodindustry.com/articles/673-get-in-depth-with-the-top-10-global-petfood-players
Nestle Purina Petcare, December 2012, Our company
https://www.nestlepurinacareers.com/why-purina/our-company/
KDSdesign, November 17, 2011, Nestle Purina Campaign, Slideshare
http://fr.slideshare.net/KDSdesign?utm_campaign=profiletracking&utm_medium=sssite&utm_source=ssslideview
Lisa Brown, May 8, 2011, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Purina Finalists vie at cat callbacks
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/purina-finalists-vie-at-cat-callbacks/article_f4d9eff8-95d1-51dd-a5f7-e1112a00fa96.html
Lisa Brown, December 15, 2013, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Purina leads pack with personalized social media
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/purina-leads-pack-with-personalized-social-media/article_1da448e3-72d5-5052-bd13-cf3fca42b42d.html
