Do you feel lonely? Dreamers who are alone away from home will be lonely; little girls who are eclipsed after lost love will be lonely; white-haired grandfathers who watch the sunset alone will be lonely... We are often in loneliness, and lonely individuals need warm souls to accompany us, so we keep searching, and finally one day, we find the carrier of emotion - pets.
In recent years, with the change of personal living habits, solitude has gradually become a highly efficient companion product, but the desire for companionship in the heart has only increased a lot, so many people have raised pets, driving the development of the pet industry. According to iResearch's "2021 Pet Consumption Trend White Paper", the scale of China's pet industry has climbed rapidly from 72.5 billion yuan in 2015 to 298.8 billion yuan in 2020, with a compound growth rate of 32.8% in the past six years, and iResearch estimates that the scale of the industry will exceed 440 billion yuan by 2023.
Pets enter human life and become human friends, and naturally they also need to be meticulously cared for by humans. As a cutting-edge pet lifestyle brand, we provide users with interesting and practical pet supplies, so that users can get along with their pets more harmoniously. Recently, the "New Consumer Maker" column had the opportunity to interview Donald Kng, the founder of "uncarded", to further understand how uncard is close to users and create a fashionable way to raise pets.
Guest of "New Consumer Creator" Issue 064
Donald Kng, founder and CEO of Uncard
01 Keep exploring
Leading the new trend of the pet market
The Creator:
In the 5 years since the establishment of the uncard, what changes and new trends have you observed in the domestic pet market? Which brand strategies are affected by the uncard?
Donald Kng：
There are many changes, but not many important changes. New trends are constantly emerging in the market, but the cycle of these trends is generally not very long, and everyone is constantly exploring new concepts. Through the observation of these years, I think that the trend changes and new trends in the market have not affected the brand strategy of the uncard, because from the very beginning we have determined the product structure, design concept, sales channels and other aspects of the content, the uncard focused on the scene-based, symbolic product logic, which is our unique brand strategy throughout.
"Creator": In your opinion, what is the consumption pain point of the current domestic pet breeder?
I think the real pain point of the current pet owners is not that they can't buy products, but that they can't choose good products that are really suitable for themselves among many products. More and more brands are entering the pet market, resulting in a situation where products are becoming more and more fragmented, and consumers are easy to blindly follow the trend in the face of many products, which I think is one of the main pain points of the current pet population.
Uncarried cactus cat climbing frame
"Creator": Since its inception, what difficulties have you encountered without a card? How to solve it? What are the highlights?
We have been doing products that others have not done and practiced things that others have not done, but in the process of implementation, we found that China's supply chain cannot realize our "imagination" idea, and it will cost a lot of manpower and financial resources. For example, in the development of the "watermelon cat litter pot" product, we continue to polish, modify the mold, the final finished product is composed of up to 14 sets of molds, this complexity, is all the cat litter pots on the market can not achieve.
Speaking of the achievements made in these years, the first thing should be the subversive products that we have brought to consumers over the years, through these products, we have gradually broken the past chinese consumers' cognition of the low-end of pet products. Now, China's pet consumer brands have undoubtedly walked in the forefront of the world, and the uncarded cards are also making solid preparations for the brand to go to sea.
02 Draw inspiration from human life
The Creator: How did you come up with the concept of "drawing good inspiration from human life"?
The so-called "drawing good inspiration from human life" is actually extracting the "collective imagination" of the target consumer group in life. The worldview and values that the uncard is committed to building from the product to the brand to the brand are created through the collective reimagining of the brand and the consumer, the consumer and the pet.
For example, through big data, We found that China contributed 70% of global watermelon consumption, and we immediately launched a cat litter pot based on watermelon; many girls like to raise green plants, so we integrate cactus elements into the cat climbing frame. The underlying logic of these seemingly straightforward symbols is the consumption trend or social hotspot related to the symbol.
Welcome to VETRESKALAND
We believe that when a product enters the context of consumer life scenes, it not only carries functional attributes, but also the emotional appeal of reimagining the communication mode and relationship mode between consumers and pets. It is also from this that the uncard hopes to create a complete "uncard world" and realize the emotional interconnection and equality of status between humans and pets in the "uncard world".
From the perspective of the brand positioning of "fashion pet raising method", the target group of uncarded cards seems to be pet owners, so the core of product development is for pet owners or pets?
Due to the particularity of pet products, the consumer of the product is a human being, and the user is a pet. If consumers do not recognize our products, all the efforts we make for pets on the products will not be realized. Therefore, the core of our product research and development is first of all around people, in order to ensure that consumers love our products, accept our brand values, recognize our brand spirit, and then meet the pain points and needs of pets in use.
"Creator": Why did you use the distribution model to promote the product when you didn't have a card in the first place?
Donald Kng：
When the pet industry faces promotion, the most difficult problem is not coverage, traffic delivery technology, etc., but how to find the precise audience. At the beginning of the brand, we judged that pet products cannot rely solely on the DTC model to promote and sell. Therefore, we set our sights on offline stores such as pet stores, cat houses, and supermarkets, and solved the problem of "quasi" through their channels. At present, the turnover of the distribution system without cards accounts for a relatively large proportion of the total turnover.
03 When going to sea
Be a world-class fashion player
Creator: What is the next product development direction?
Next, the uncard will continue to explore more around super symbols such as cacti, watermelon, and cherry, to create a brand worldview, and then create a complete sense of series. In the future, we will continue to extend this part and create the concept of "uncarded world" as completely as possible.
In addition, in the past two years, some products with relatively higher repurchase rates have been launched, such as cat food, canned staple food, cat litter and so on. Around these single products, the uncard not only fills the gap in the product category, enhances the competitiveness of the brand, but also enhances the user's consumption experience, so that they can enjoy a one-stop shopping experience without a card.
Uncarried large orange big li cat scratch box
"Creator": What are the specific plans for the construction of offline experience stores and the expansion of overseas markets?
Next, we will continue to open brand offline experience stores in major cities in China, so that potential consumers can directly feel the product through experiential consumption, so as to have a deeper understanding of the brand; at the same time, this is also an effective way to attract partners.
In terms of overseas market expansion, we currently focus on only China and North America. Compared with the Chinese market, the overseas market is very different, each other's cultural backgrounds, living habits are different, and the requirements and understanding of the brand are inevitably different, so the team needs to conduct in-depth research and analysis on different markets.
This year is the first year of the uncarded sea trip, and I will follow the team to New York, Singapore and other places to carry out brand overseas activities. At present, there are still very few brands in China's pet industry that can really go to sea and achieve localization, and we are relatively experienced in this regard.
Uncard flower series dog products (overseas version)
Creator: What are the brand goals and visions for the future of uncarded cards?
We are committed to being the coolest and most influential pet brand in the world, not only in China.