Great products will sell more products. At first, that may sound like a “water is wet” statement; however, in reality, this is a profound change of perspective in the nature and substance of marketplace competitive advantage for pet food brands. Strategic best practices are recalibrating beyond dependence on clever, creative, well-financed ad campaigns to focus on the authentic merits of a superior product portfolio. This, in part, is marketplace evolution in the face of what Agentic AI portends for the future of pet brand building.
Consider the rapidly expanding role of Agentic AI advisers that are injecting themselves between the brand and the customer on the path to purchase. These digital truth seekers and soothsayers represent the world’s vast knowledge of superior pet nutrition, animal health and well-being, ingredient integrity, food science, sourcing practices, formulation and manufacturing advances. All while guiding the consumer in an empathetic, reasonable voice backed up with citations, evidence and data on which products to buy. Are their recommendations based upon clever ad campaigns, celebrity spokespeople or self-promoted features? No.
Their voices are founded on credible recommendations and guidance, presented in an instant, interactive setting and tailored to the unique needs of an owner’s dog or cat. Important to note that AI remembers every conversation a consumer has over time about their pet’s health conditions, or special needs, and brings that unique knowledge to the table in its recommendations.
AI forms its guidance by crawling web sites, brand-owned and third-party blogs, editorial media and other trustworthy sources it deems credible in search of facts, information and fundamental truths about products. Crawlers purposely ignore paid media, brand self-promotion and ads as biased sources, while instead coalescing and focusing on product information, ingredient statements, editorial stories and social media reviews, studies, journals, tests and reports from credible, trusted outlets. Their goal is objective analysis of better, superior pet nutrition and truth.
Can AI get your story wrong? Absolutely. Hence the emergence of Agentic Engine Optimization (AEO) as a core and defining new practice area in the pet marketing lexicon. Can AI Crawlers be informed and fed information to help refine recommendations and ensure the brand narrative and product bona fides story are properly presented? Yes. Beware leaving AEO unattended, as you truly want your brand to show up in the consideration set presented in an AI recommendation. AI won’t bring back 100 brands for guidance. It will be a limited number based on the prompt criteria and back-and-forth Q&A refinement conversation that is typical of an AI query. Are you on the preferred list?
That said the salient point in here is this: product-led marketing is AI relevant while also centering on the issues most endearing to pet parents. The pet brand marketplace is headed towards a dynamic new era where catering to the most informed consumer base in the industry’s history becomes the exact leverage point to build business. Thus, competitive advantage is found in the product innovations and formulation stories themselves, more than clever ads, production values, celebrity spokespeople and other engagement devices that historically formed the center of strategic planning in go-to-market support programs.
Product-first creativity is the outcome of a product-led organization. Imagine a pet food business that is product design driven: where marketing, retail, merchandising, financial planning, supply, distribution, and brand storytelling all orbit around creative product innovation and formulation efficacy.
Product-driven strategies can spin up an eco-system that offers retailers and consumers hero products, classic products and new technology products. Each of these will have a distinct, yet interdependent role: hero products can be creative beacons that deliver a brand halo. Classics work to ground brand continuity. While technical and manufacturing advances offer much needed differentiation that also feeds pet food culture tension.
Product-led brands create products that push the leading edge of pet nutrition while turning product innovation into a brand separation and distinction platform. Product portfolios, organized by role and benefit, can offer a storytelling roadmap. On this map, trend-driven products create a sense of urgency while leading edge innovation is aimed at credible industry nutrition influencers and pet food purists and early adopters. Meanwhile classic icons are a source of consistent recurring revenue. These foundational SKUs operate as an anchor for your brand narrative. The addition of seasonal, rotating collections could potentially add episodic drama and drive retail buzz.
The pet product portfolio approach helps assure that nutritional bona fides are distinct, commercially optimized and culturally embedded. The latest Agentic AI research confirms that crawling leans heavily on non-paid media, with an accelerating role for journalism and press releases – both considered credible sources that inform AI recommendations. Indeed, AEO optimal strategies suggest that we’re entering a Golden Age for public relations within the marketing mix given the double win benefits. First editorial media is a highly intrusive and credible medium for product stories that naturally appreciates product-centric details about advancements in nutrition, novel ingredients and manufacturing innovations. Second, AI crawlers prefer editorial media coverage and its sidekick press releases as a source of learning. This twofer benefit recommends greater investment in non-paid media strategies in your marketing plan budgets.
Within the sources of information AI trusts, we find the following array of tactics brands should be employing, even if AI didn’t exist.
- Brand owned and third-party long form blog articles that lean into data and information on product formulations, ingredients, manufacturing techniques and studies about animal nutrition.
- Generating articles in third-party e-newsletters and reports
- Publishing data-enhanced e-books on pet nutrition and new products
- FAQ documents, and charts that show formulation priorities and benefits
- Sharing academic studies, industry reports and tests that verify the efficacy of product functionality
- Deploying the voices of respected, trusted outside experts to validate your claims
This year focus on your products, deploy PR, publish information on your nutrition advancements in the right channels — while monitoring what the Agentic platforms think they know about your brand and products. Adjust accordingly. This is the path to growth in 2026.
Robert Wheatley is CEO of Chicago-based Emergent, a brand communications firm focused on state-of-the-art PR, retail marketing, Agentic Engine Optimization (AEO), content creation, social media and business strategy. Emergent is steeped in leading edge pet brand business building experience with a deep track record in advancing business results in premium pet brand categories. Robert is a voice for pet care industry innovation, trends and marketing best practices.
