{"id":11443,"date":"2017-01-11T20:30:30","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T20:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smallbiztrends.com\/?p=428531"},"modified":"2017-01-11T20:30:30","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T20:30:30","slug":"why-this-popular-candy-brand-is-selling-dog-food-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessnewsbox.com\/?p=11443","title":{"rendered":"Why This Popular Candy Brand Is Selling Dog Food (Watch)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script src=\"http:\/\/videos-by.vemba.io\/v2\/placements\/10768.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>You probably know Mars Inc. as the maker of popular candy like M&amp;M\u2019s and Snickers. But the company actually makes more money from your pets than from your sweet tooth.<\/p>\n<p>The candy giant recently announced its acquisition of VCA, a network of veterinary hospitals and doggy day cares. And this isn\u2019t its first foray into the pet business either. Mars Inc. already owns Pedigree and Iams brands, along with over 1,000 veterinary clinics.<\/p>\n<p>This might seem like a strange combination of product and service offerings. But when you think about changing consumer trends, it actually makes a lot of sense. Consumers are becoming more health conscious, and thus less interested in spending tons of money on sugary treats. And people are also becoming increasingly concerned about the wellbeing of their pets. So they\u2019re willing to spend on them like they would any other member of the family.<\/p>\n<h3>Consumer Trends Drive This Diversification Strategy<\/h3>\n<p>Mars Inc. didn\u2019t just <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbiztrends.com\/2015\/07\/diversify-products-own-a-niche.html\" >shift from selling<\/a> candy to selling dog food overnight. The company appears to have moved slowly as it keeps an eye on changing trends among consumers. And other businesses that might be working in changing industries could learn a valuable lesson from this slow business evolution.<\/p>\n<p><small><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/pic-382706374\/stock-photo-viersen-germany-february-27-2016-the-german-headquarter-in-viersen-mackenstein-coordinates-the-greatest-recall-campaign-after-a-customer-came-across-a-piece-of-plactic-in-snickers-ch.html\" >Mars<\/a> Photo via Shutterstock<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n<p>This article, &#8220;<a href='https:\/\/smallbiztrends.com\/2017\/01\/diversification-strategy.html'>Why This Popular Candy Brand Is Selling Dog Food (Watch)<\/a>&#8221; was first published on <a href='https:\/\/smallbiztrends.com\/'>Small Business Trends<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/SmallBusinessTrends?a=372QJ-3k6vE:VGdqSPTDRV4:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/SmallBusinessTrends?i=372QJ-3k6vE:VGdqSPTDRV4:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/SmallBusinessTrends?a=372QJ-3k6vE:VGdqSPTDRV4:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/SmallBusinessTrends?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/SmallBusinessTrends?a=372QJ-3k6vE:VGdqSPTDRV4:D7DqB2pKExk\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/SmallBusinessTrends?i=372QJ-3k6vE:VGdqSPTDRV4:D7DqB2pKExk\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/SmallBusinessTrends?a=372QJ-3k6vE:VGdqSPTDRV4:gIN9vFwOqvQ\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/SmallBusinessTrends?i=372QJ-3k6vE:VGdqSPTDRV4:gIN9vFwOqvQ\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/SmallBusinessTrends\/~4\/372QJ-3k6vE\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mars Inc. is officially getting into the pet food business. This odd couple should be a lesson to small businesses on the importance of expanding brand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessnewsbox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessnewsbox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessnewsbox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessnewsbox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessnewsbox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businessnewsbox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessnewsbox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessnewsbox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessnewsbox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}