Pet Insight 2023 Category Catalysts: Puppy Chews, NPIC

Whether it’s to address teething or for distraction purposes, puppy chews are a much sought after item in the pet industry as pet parents are constantly looking for ways to keep their new puppies from chewing on furniture and shoes. NPIC is a leader within the puppy chews category for continually listening to its consumers and creating various chew options to fit their individual needs.

“When it comes to our own assortment, we continue to expand our offering,” said Sam Chen, VP of Sales and Marketing of NPIC. “Our No. 1 selling item has been the puppy teething rings in the market for some time. But then we understand that the ring might not work for all of the puppies out there. So, we created a new format in the puppy teething sticks, which is small sticks for a smaller puppy. We also have jumbo puppy teething sticks, which is an X-shaped extruded stick that’s suitable for larger puppies. So, [we’re] kind of leveraging the same strategy from flavor creation. We started off with chicken, and then earlier this year we extended into two other puppy favorite flavors: peanut butter and pumpkin. All those new product extensions have been very well received by the market.”

The company has been striving to serve and support its retail partners since its inception.

“Whether that’s our business customer or the end consumers, the way that we really support our retail partners and even the distributor partners is number one: stable prices,” Chen said. 

“So, in the past 18 months, we didn’t take any price increase to really ensure there’s no disruption in our day-to-day business,” he continued. “Number two is we continue to schedule product training for our sales reps in the field, but also to make sure that they have enough knowledge and information to share with the retailers with regard to how those new flavors are doing. How are they different from all the other competitive products that’s in the market, and then provide enough support from the funding standpoint. Whether that’s a pricing discount for our distributors and having them pass on to the retailers, or additional marketing programs that we continue to invest in to make sure that the end consumers and the retailer alike can have information regarding all these new product launches.”

NPIC praised its retail partners for the unwavering support it has received from them throughout  the years. 

“One thing that we were very happy about is the space that retailers were willing to share with our brands,” said Chen. “With some of the key accounts through constant product education and account communication, we were able to secure a really great placement and exposure. We are able to really demonstrate what we want to talk about whether that’s the entire Get Naked functional dental sticks line that includes eight different function focuses or that’s the N Bone life stage assortment where we have the puppy teething ring, adult dental rings or senior dental rings.”

“So, we’re able to leverage some space and then demonstrate the whole line and then to tell our stories to the end consumers,” he continued . “The second thing that is very exciting to us, is that they never shied away from sharing their feedback with us. They’re really at the front lines, so we took a lot of the feedback that they heard from the consumer and built it into all product development and the way that we think about innovation. We create these new flavors for the puppy teething sticks, and that’s exactly what we heard from the retailers based on consumer feedback.”

There are several opportunities that are presented through the pet specialty retail channel, and NPIC is grateful to be part of the channel and space.

“I think the biggest thing going into the pet specialty channel is driving brand relevance,” Chen said. “People go to the pet specialty stores not just to shop.hey are looking for guidance and expertise and just broad knowledge with regard to their pet, whether that’s feeding, training or other things in that realm to establish a good relationship between the human and the pet. So, thinking from our standpoint as a pet manufacturer, we really want to be in the pet specialties assortment just because the credibility sort of comes from the retailers and then for what the pet owners are looking for.”