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Walmart Brand Leans in to ‘Humanization’ of Pets

A redesign and line extension for Walmart’s own-brand super-premium pet food, Pure Balance, uses ingredients and packaging design cues that follow the trend of humanizing products for pets.

pure balance dog food packaging design
In 2020, Equator redesigned packaging for Pure Balance to evolve its look and feel to reflect the products’ high quality and to align it with premium-tier cues.

“Pets are people, too.” At least that’s what recent research, including a report from PMMI Business Intelligence, seems to suggest. According to the report, many of the same trends driving human food packaging, such as sustainability and e-commerce, are also driving pet food packaging developments. This “humanization” of pet food means consumers are looking for the same nutrition and freshness for their pets that they get from their own items in the shopping cart.


Read article   Read this story on NaturPak Pet, the first co-packer to use retort cartons.


Capitalizing on this trend, Walmart’s super-premium, private-label dog and cat food brand, Pure Balance, is made from natural ingredients and, depending on variety, is free from fillers, artificial preservatives, flavors, or colors, does not include soy, corn, wheat, or grain, and includes vitamins, minerals, and other trace elements.

In 2020, global packaging design company Equator redesigned packaging for the brand to evolve its look and feel to reflect the products’ high quality and to align it with premium-tier cues. Says Equator’s Creative Director, Aaron Funke, the team introduced a host of sharp, characterful photography, such as prominent pet photos to make the packaging more pet-centric and images of ingredients to signal food type, flavor, and ingredients, putting the products’ freshness and health benefits front and center.

pure balance packaging designPackaging for the Pure Balance line features a host of sharp, characterful photography, such as prominent pet photos and images of ingredients to signal food type, flavor, and ingredients, putting the products’ freshness and health benefits front and center.“With a modern look and unified design architecture, the packaging features black [dog] and grey [cat] color palettes, accented with pops of bright color to enable versioning and ease of navigation,” says Funke. “Outlining key product benefits and product attributes is a clear claims and benefits system that helps consumers quickly select the right product for their pet.”

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