I recently attended Global Pet Expo 2014 in Orlando, Fla., and noticed a few trends in the pet food industry. The most noticeable is that pet product segmentation on small, large and especially toy breeds is increasing.

Here is a look at some new products that are targeting specific niches in the pet food market.

New Wellness toy breed lines

Wellness not only introduced an Adult Toy line, but they also added a Healthy Weight Toy and Senior Toy. These introductions make sense given that the market growth has been greatest in the small dog segment and that these "parents" are more apt to spoil them versus larger dogs.

One must question, however, Toy SKU incrementality given that all the brands that play in the Toy segment also have Small Breed SKUs (Blue Buffalo, Pro Plan Focus, Nutro Natural Choice and Nature's Recipe).

A safer way to play the size differentiation/breed game seems to be "small breed" and "large breed." Hills Ideal Balance joined the fun with their two SKU Global Pet introduction.

Royal Canin's puppy SKUs

Royal Canin introduced 5 new SKUs for specific breed puppies, bringing their total breed specific puppy offering to 12 SKUs (on top of an extra small, mini, medium, large and giant puppy offering).

While it is difficult to envision shelf space for all these items, online continues to grow and pet parents instinctively want to feed their puppies food made specifically for them. Royal Canin dominates the breed-specific segment with Eukanuba falling second and Nature's Recipe a very distant third.

Hills Science Diet brings weight management

I wrote last year about Hills Prescription Diet Metabolic's introduction at NAVC. Given that there is still no shortage of fat dogs, this product's easier availability is sure to bring solutions to concerned pet owners.

In terms of standing out on shelf, the claim that "70 percent of dogs lost weight in 10 weeks" is powerful in a category that is woefully short of hard claims.

Another product that caught my eye was a new venture by an Italian company Forza10. Their Oto Active was listed in the new product showcase, and it too made clinically-based efficacy claims: "71 percent of dogs completely healed of ear issues in a 30-day study."

Homemade dog treats just got easier

The Carob Chip cookie mix won "best in show" in the natural products segment. A quick Google search reveals a lot of cookie recipes, so some people must bake for their dogs.

Personally, I had my eyes on another DIY treat from Your Dog's Diner — Bake & Break Kibble Crack Mix. I was attracted to this product because of the great graphics (I'm a visual gal!), but I have to admit that were I inclined to make my dog homemade treats (I'm not), I would go for the cookies over the kibble cracker mix every time.

Congratulations, Puppy Cake.

Nature's Variety takes segmentation to a new level

When I saw this at the show, I was attracted to the unique positioning and the great packaging. When I went online and saw the personality quiz — wow! Nature's Variety has demonstrated that they really understand how cat owners think.

Of course, I gave them a whole bunch of personal information about myself and my cat because I had to see which of the 12 personalities she really was (champ).

And because they're good marketers they gave me an opportunity to share my quiz results and sent me a coupon.

Dog for Dog shows that we don't have to differentiate on product

Sometimes evaluating a pet food on the shelf can feel pretty formulaic.

  • All natural? Check.
  • Geographic source protein? Check.
  • Made in USA? Check.
  • Probiotics? Check.
  • Contains other good things? Check.
  • Gives back to community? Lots of checks.

Everyone knows there are a lot of dog foods on the market, so how can a new one stand out? Dog for Dog's unique marketing proposition took "gives back to community" one step further. This new launch won "best in show" at 2014 Global Pet and according to this news release, a dog food hasn't won this honor in over five years.

So cause marketing still motivates passionate people to support the brands that support their issues. Congratulations to Dog for Dog — now if they could just find a way to actually appear in a Google search ...