Pet wellness is no longer a niche; it’s a movement.
As pets become true family members, owners expect their care to match the standards they apply to their own health. The human wellness industry has already paved the way, creating a playbook for premium, proactive, and personalized marketing. For pet brands, the opportunity isn’t just to mirror these trends — it’s to translate them into campaigns that connect and convert.
Mirrored Trends & Buzzwords
For pet brands looking to leverage the ever-growing pet space, marketers can take cues from the strategies used by top wellness brands. Think about the buzzwords that resonate in organic, all-natural human products: superfoods, gut health, fitness trackers, clean ingredients, etc. These same terms are now penetrating pet products.
Millennials and Gen Z are especially driving this shift. These generations are environmentally conscious and socially aware as they gravitate toward cruelty-free, eco-friendly and ethically sourced pet products. Transparency is what they demand. Clear and honest information about how pet brands source and produce their products is the expectation, and any brand that fails to meet those expectations may end up struggling to maintain loyalty within an ever-growing and increasingly competitive pet space.
Konnect clients Other Half™ and Vital Essentials both embody this no-nonsense approach, speaking directly to pet parents with a mission to do what other brands won’t: creating clean, conscious, and clinically tested products backed by proof.
Other human-inspired trends showing up in the pet space outside of supplements include pet fitness trackers and smart collars for activity and health monitoring. Just like how humans track their 10,000 steps a day, pet parents are looking to keep a pulse on their furry friend’s fitness in an effort to increase their wellness even more.
For brands looking to leverage this connection, show the human–pet wellness parallel within your own pet brand. Mirror human wellness cues like smoothie bowls, yoga mats, and functional ingredients to make benefits relatable. Use shared-lifestyle language (“Your morning smoothie, their morning bowl”) and position products as part of a daily ritual.
Spotlight Human-Grade Ingredients
A quick walk through natural food product expos like Expo West reveals functional mushrooms, CBD and other trending health ingredients. Today, you’ll find some of those same exact functional ingredients at pet industry shows like SuperZoo.
When we think of “Functional Ingredients,” it goes beyond the buzzwords of organic and natural ingredients. They’re ingredients that provide even more value to the food, nourishing us from the inside and allowing us to thrive. When it comes to animal nutrition, these ingredients are designed to target specific needs, like joint health, digestion, skin and coat health, immune systems and so much more. We see Millennial and Gen-Z pet owners driving demand for these holistic solutions, including:
- Nutraceuticals and supplements for joint health, anxiety, and immunity
- Pet-friendly CBD products for pain and stress relief
- Probiotic and dermatological care for gut and skin health
For pet brands that can back their functional ingredient list, consider spotlighting human-grade ingredients by decoding labels in plain language and creating recipe-style, benefit-forward content. Partner with lifestyle influencers to integrate products into everyday pet routines.
Sell Tailor-Made Prevention, Not Just Products
In the same vein as functional ingredients, pet owners are looking for brands that support health from the inside out. Owners of furry friends would rather spend more money at the grocery store on items that work from within than at the vet, fixing problems from the outside.
Similar to human nutrition, pet parents are seeking diets and supplements tailored to breed, age, weight, and health conditions. Innovation is also shaping prevention-first solutions:
- Vital Essentials created an AI-powered Nutrition Calculator to make raw feeding more accessible, offering personalized recommendations on how to incorporate 20%, 50%, or 100% raw protein into a pet’s diet.
- Other Half Pet launched Doggie Dental, a first-of-its-kind oral health powder featuring a patent-pending Canine Oral-Health Postbiotic (COHP).
- As Other Half CEO Mike Watts explains: “The pet dental space is overdue for innovation. Overall, most solutions don’t address the real problem, which is the bacterial biofilms in the mouth that lead to plaque, tartar and bad breath. The space is too focused on surface-level fixes instead of tackling the underlying cause.”
How can pet brands leverage this momentum? Lead with proactive health messaging that helps avoid costly vet visits, mobility loss, or dental issues. Bundle preventative products into subscriptions and back claims with expert voices. Finally, leverage trade press to debut innovations, share R&D wins, and position leadership before you take it to your end consumer.
Packaging With A Purpose
For Millennials and Gen-Z, packaging can be a decision-maker. This generation gravitates toward eco-friendly, cruelty-free, and ethically sourced pet products with biodegradable, recyclable, or compostable packaging as something that’s no longer optional, but expected.
Transparency plays a huge role here. Pet parents who are buying human-grade ingredients want packaging that reflects the clean eating cues they know from places like Sprouts or Whole Foods…not generic grocery branding.
At SuperZoo, Vital Essentials showcased this trend with a bold redesign of its popular RAW Bar individually wrapped dog treats. These single-ingredient raw protein treats now feature reengineered packaging for better functionality, chew level indicators, and clear guidance for selecting the right product for a pet’s needs.
The Future of the Pet Industry
The US pet industry is projected to reach $157 billion in 2025. That’s up from $152 billion in 2024, according to the American Pet Products Association. This steady growth is fueled by younger generations embracing pet parenthood, a cultural shift toward seeing pets as family, and a willingness to invest in their long-term health and happiness.
For brands, the message is clear: Pet wellness is a powerful, profitable movement. The brands that successfully translate human wellness cues into pet-specific solutions will be the ones leading the pack.