M aybe, just maybe, a marketing disaster has been averted. And, I guess with all the bad luck pet food processor Menu Foods experienced with its tainted products, the company doesn't need any more problems.
Not to mention the lousy luck pet owners throughout the Americas experienced in mid-March 2007, when their cherished dogs and cats died of kidney failure brought on by a wheat gluten ingredient imported from China, an ingredient that happened to be contaminated by a chemical used to make plastics.
Take a moment and look at all of the popular brands of pet foods processed by Menu Foods.
Does anything strike you strange about this — especially from a marketing point of view? Well, it did me the moment I saw the list.
It's this: How come when I was told by my veterinarian that the health of my cats would be better if they were fed Hill's Science Diet canned food? At the time, the advice was given to ward off feline cystitis. I recall the vet saying that because of its exclusive recipe components and processing, Hills Science Diet was better than any other cat food on the market. So, I paid the premium price (as I purchased it by the case) and was assured and satisfied that the extra cost afforded my cats protection. After a while, though, I abandoned the canned food because it accounted for too much tartar being deposited on the cats' teeth, and switched to Hill's Science Diet dry food.
But, imagine my surprise while watching the Menu Foods debacle unfold on television and immediately noticing the various branded cans of different cat and dog foods. Hey! I thought Iams was processed in its own proprietary plant?? And, what's with Eukanuba coming from the same processing line that handles Science Diet?? Other than the can labels, tell me again what's exclusive about the pet food being processed by Menu Foods.... Tell me again what exactly is it pet owners are paying for when they dole out the extra bucks for private label Paws when it looks like they can get the same pet food content at a cheaper price from Winn-Dixie.
I don't know if this is going to sink in with America's pet owners. Maybe the whole thing will blow over before anyone else realizes that, maybe, all pet foods are the same, and only the 'Cadillac' price charged is different. Maybe. But, something tells me it won't. Something tells me there's a bunch of lawyers right this moment working up law suits not only against Menu Foods, but against Science Diet, Iams, Eukanuba, Paws, and all the rest of the big-named marketers for perpetrating a fraud. The fraud being that we pet owners took the major brands at their word that they did, in fact, provide an exclusive, proprietary pet food, when in all appearances, it's all the same food that comes from one processor.
I anticipate that Menu Foods will argue that for each exclusive brand lot run they process, an exclusive recipe is used. That's the way it works in the pharmaceutical business when one manufacturer job-fills different brands of basically the same medicine. However, there's a big difference between the plant that processes for human consumption, and the Menu Foods situation: Menu Foods was victim to cross-contamination of all products by a common ingredient, which indicates that a common recipe made of common ingredients is used in all their pet foods. Such is not the case with company-divergent human pharmaceuticals. Commonality of main ingredients is the case with private label store branded human-designated food products. We consumers know what's going on when we purchase a half-gallon of 'X-Y-Z store brand' ice cream. There's no pretense of exclusivity on the part of the distributor of the generic ice cream. Just the opposite is the situation with the branded pet foods. They claim to be exclusive; that's why we bought it.
Talk about a massive marketing migraine!
