Page 18 - CIMA SCS Workbook November 2018 - Day 2 Tasks

CIMA NOVEMBER 2018 – STRATEGIC CASE STUDY

Reference material – newspaper article

Pet’ll do nicely

The Pet Show is in town, where the great and the good of Cronland’s thriving, multi-billion dollar
pet economy show off their latest offerings.

As the economy in general slows down again, the pet economy continues to thrive, even with
high unemployment and a weak housing market. The industry has continued to grow throughout
the recession; according to pet specialist market research firm Bow-Wow, last year the people of
Cronland spent a staggering C$40 billion on their pets - that is more than the gross domestic
product of Barklovia.

Pet owners, or as they say in the industry “parents”, are buying human-style luxuries and medical
care. There’s the FetchIT – automatic ball launcher; dog beer (non-alcoholic); shower stalls for
dogs, and even antidepressants for the pampered hounds. You can also buy prosthetic testicles
for neutered dogs and cats, at about C$2,500 a pair, that apparently allow “your pet to retain
their self-esteem and helps reduce the trauma they experience from the operation.”

Let me make this very clear: there is a lot of money in this industry, as a trip to the Pet Show
clearly displays.

Many companies were pushing the idea of pet food that humans would actually eat. Pettady,
which sells tinned organic stewed apple for pets, agrees that the line between pet and “parent”
has become much harder to distinguish. People have been calling to ask if it was safe to use
Pettady to make apple crumbles.

The answer is, yes! The national sales manager at Pettady says the company that makes the apple
sauce for them also makes it for a brand of food for humans too. They just switch the labels
round, depending on the customer; the process of making the sauce is identical and it’s made
from the same apples.

34 KAPLAN PUBLISHING