Inside Operation ‘Cattitude': A Pet Food Giant's Mission to Understand Cats
So Mars launched a mission to get its dog-loving workers inside cats' heads.
As part of an internal operation called 'Cattitude,' the maker of Whiskas food and Temptations treats organized visits from vets and animal nutritionists. There were power point presentations. Staffers were paired with cat parents. One afternoon, senior bosses walked around the office with cat ears.
The goal: Reorient the entire team—from those who formulate new products to those putting together advertisements—around one of cat parents' chief sources of angst: 'feline insecurity,' a fear of cats' indifference to their owners' affection. (Type 'Does my cat' into Google, and the top search is 'love me.' The second is 'know I love her.')
Cat parents say that for too long, the world has misguidedly treated their pets like dogs with smaller bodies and less need for attention. But as Gen Z spurs a surge in cat households, cat culture is getting a closer look.
Jonathan the cat assesses various Mars products.
'We need to drive cats back up to the spotlight they deserve,' said Helen Hastings, a Mars executive who helped spearhead the Cattitude campaign. Hastings has three dogs but says she loves cats.
Marketing executive Fernando Silva was firmly on team dog when he moved to Mars. Growing up in Mexico, Silva said he was surrounded by cat stereotypes: They were aloof, cold and would trade their parents for a better treat. Every villain, including the bad guy from the Smurfs, had a cat.
When Mars launched Cattitude, Silva immersed himself in feline culture. He visited with a dozen cat families and said he was struck by how deeply people connected to them as companions, or equals.
'It's a more mature relationship,' said Silva, vice president of marketing for Sheba cat food. 'Many people told us: They could walk out the door anytime they want and never come back, but they chose me.'
Such insights have changed the advertising strategy. The team has moved away from previous campaigns featuring regal, sophisticated cats that reinforced their reputation as haughty creatures. Now they run every initiative through a filter: Is this rooted in cat parent truth?
An actual cat owner is now consulted on every campaign, and casting one is mandatory. In a coming campaign called 'Ignore to Adore,' the premise is that you could be the most universally loved human but you still might think the cat doesn't care. 'You could be Taylor Swift, moving masses, making billions, but your cat still might not always come running,' said Silva.
(Swift has shared about her cats shunning her with 'silence, ambivalence, and judgmental brush offs.')
A centerpiece of addressing feline insecurity is ramping up research on what tastes appeal to cats. Selective hunters that have never been fully domesticated, cats are famously nonchalant about food. But researchers who study feline palatability are beginning to discover that what has long been interpreted as aloofness might be an absence of certain taste buds.
Scott McGrane, cat dad to Dexter, Ripley and Newt, leads a sensory science team for Mars' research center in the U.K., that set out to understand what the notoriously fussy eaters like and what turns them off. One early discovery: Cats can't taste sweetness, which explained their apparent indifference to certain treats.
Scott McGrane, who leads a sensory science team for Mars' research center in the U.K. at home with his cats, Ripley (left) and Newt.McGrane's team has had several breakthroughs on cats' taste preferences.
Two years ago McGrane and his team had a breakthrough. With the help of a panel of two dozen cats who show their taste preferences by how much flavored water they consume, the team found felines have receptors to taste umami and kokumi foods. The discovery finally provided a definitive reason why cats gravitate toward tuna.
They are experimenting with other flavors and protein sources to give cats a more satisfying feeding experience.
Mars also introduced lickable spoons to be consumed from a parent's hand to create what the company calls an 'enhanced bonding moment.'
Pekka sizes up a treat from marketing executive Fernando Silva.
Feline insecurity can be self-fulfilling. If you think your cat doesn't care, you might be less likely to shower them with perks. That may be why dogs get way more treats.
Mars launched a campaign in May that spotlights the 'treat gap' by the numbers: Dogs are nearly 32% more likely to get daily treats than cats in dogs-only and cats-only households; in homes with both, 38% of parents said they don't give the same number of treats.
Cat people at Mars now say they feel seen in a workplace that is a canine wonderland where employees' dogs roam the halls. The company hosts regular kitten yoga sessions at its Franklin, Tenn., offices. Colleagues share cat memes on Teams and WhatsApp. One team bought matching jean jackets and attached 'I Love Cats' decals.
Tiffany Bierer, who works in research and development, said Cattitude prompted her to be more openly effusive about her love for her cats, Olaf, Weber and Svea.
Bierer brought some of the giant cat cutouts from the campaign and displayed them around the R&D department. She sometimes still attends meetings wearing cat ears and once did a sales presentation in a cat outfit.
'It's very easy to see the dog people because they bring their dogs in, right?' she said. 'But you didn't know the cat people until Cattitude came about.'
Mars' Helen Hastings and Tiffany Bierer at the company's offices, where it hosts regular kitten yoga sessions.
Write to Natasha Khan at natasha.khan@wsj.com
Inside Operation 'Cattitude': A Pet Food Giant's Mission to Understand Cats
Inside Operation 'Cattitude': A Pet Food Giant's Mission to Understand Cats
Inside Operation 'Cattitude': A Pet Food Giant's Mission to Understand Cats
Inside Operation 'Cattitude': A Pet Food Giant's Mission to Understand Cats
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