Marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry that's whole job is to sell you products. Many large corporations put a lot of time and money into making a product look good so you'll purchase from them. Sometimes, this is a good thing because then you can learn about the amazing work businesses are doing out there to create products that you want, but sometimes marketing can live up to its reputation as tricky, misleading, pushy and deceitful. This particularly happens in the case of these five descriptive (and unregulated) words:
One. Premium.
Unfortunately, premium is not an officially regulated term, everyone has a different idea of what's premium! For some, premium can mean chickens that were left to free-range rather than be caged. For others premium means 70% meat and 30% vegetables. A business that uses premium in their marketing isn't necessarily lying or a bad business, but it requires a deeper investigation into what the brand is actually offering.
Two. Natural.
Natural is another word that in marketing terms means nothing. There's no regulation on what is considered natural. As the saying goes, 'arsenic is natural', and dogs sleeping on your bed is not natural. Just like above, it requires a deep investigation into how 'natural' fits into the puzzle of the whole product.
Three. Holistic.
Not regulated, yes, but also a 'holistic' mindset as they're claiming can look different to everyone. When something is creating 'holistically', they're created according to one person's idea of how to help the whole system — or, more likely, they just threw that on to make it sound good! As something like 'vet-formulated' is more regulated, holistic is a free and easy way to flag some kind of consideration to a product.
Four. No 'artificial' flavours.
A product that says 'no artificial flavours' is unfortunately likely still plagued with 'natural' flavours. Natural flavours are made up of over 100 different chemical compounds created and manipulated in a laboratory to create this 'natural' flavour derived from one natural source. These natural flavours are GRAS, but it begs the question, what are they trying to make you feel by creating this non-existent distinction?
Five. Clean.
Nobody was actually in the factory scrubbing the meat, vegetables, fruits and fillers clean with soap. So what does clean mean? It's worth investigating as a whole to see what clean means to this company and the product.
So, what actually matters is NONE of the marketing terms on the front of the packaging. It's all about reading the ingredient list. Look for whole ingredients, organic and wild-caught foods, no hidden or alternative names for common ingredients, no grains or e-numbers. Take it further and look into the processing, sourcing and packaging of the product.
Or, simplify it! Buy Pawganic Pet Food online or in-store now for premium, natural, holistic and clean pet food with no artificial flavours, no added flavours at all! Our pet food is formulated by a certified vet nutritionist and created with locally sourced wild and free-range produce.
Love your pet the Pawganics way.
