‍What the Pet Industry Can Teach Consumer Brands About Emotional Purchasing

A dog starts scratching its neck every night. Its owner notices that the skin looks red, worries that the irritation is getting worse, and starts searching for something that might help. The purchase starts with a practical problem, but emotion is already part of the decision.

Emotional purchasing describes decisions in which feelings such as concern, affection, hope, or responsibility influence what someone buys. Pet care provides a particularly clear example because owners often make purchases for animals they care deeply about and whose needs they have to interpret.

That doesn't mean practical judgment disappears. Owners still want to know what a product does, what it contains, how to use it, and how closely it fits the problem in front of them. Consumer brands can learn a great deal from the way those two forces work together.

Pet Purchases Often Begin With Responsibility

Buying for a pet differs from buying for yourself because the person paying isn't the person using the product. The owner has to interpret another being's needs and make a decision on its behalf.

That responsibility can add weight to an ordinary purchase. A dog with irritated skin can't explain what caused the discomfort or which product would help. Its owner has to notice the signs, decide what may be appropriate, and recognize when the problem calls for professional care.

In a 2012 study, Boya, Dotson, and Hyatt identified different groups of dog owners based partly on the strength and nature of their relationships with their dogs. Those groups also differed in the way they bought products and services for their pets.

You can see the same basic pattern in many consumer categories. People often buy on behalf of children, partners, relatives, or other people they care about. When they're buying for someone else, they may feel responsible for the outcome, so the decision carries consequences beyond price and convenience.

Emotion Can Increase Scrutiny

It’s easy to assume that an emotional customer pays less attention to practical details. Researchers studying pet purchases have found a more complicated relationship.

Ai and colleagues (2025) reviewed 40 studies of pet food purchasing and found that psychological factors were among several influences on owners' choices. Product quality, ingredients, price, brand reputation, sustainability, and the pet's health status were also recurring factors. Rombach and Dean (2026) also found links between pet engagement, forms of pet humanization, and the product attributes owners valued.

So concern can lead to closer inspection rather than a faster, less informed purchase. When people care strongly about the outcome, they may spend extra time checking ingredients, directions, reviews, evidence, guarantees, and product suitability.

That combination has implications for any business selling products connected with health, children, personal care, safety, or other emotionally important areas. An emotional hook may attract attention, but it won't answer the practical questions that follow.

Pup Labs provides a straightforward example with K9 Soothe, a topical spray made for dogs experiencing itching, irritated skin, and hot spots.

Provide Specific Information About Products Meant for Specific Problems

Once a customer has identified a problem, broad marketing language becomes less useful. Someone dealing with a concrete concern usually wants to know how closely a product fits that concern and what using it will involve.

Take Pup Labs' dog soothing spray for itches, for example. It comes with application instructions, including the number of sprays per use and the maximum daily frequency. Buyers can answer two basic questions before purchase: how the product is used and how often it can be applied.

Consumer brands in other industries can apply the same principle. A skin-care company can state which concern a formula is intended to address and how it fits into a routine. A baby-product company can make age guidance prominent. A home-care company can tell customers which surfaces are suitable and how the product should be used.

The customer still has an emotional reason for looking. With specific information, they can judge how well the product fits their situation.

Trust Depends on Restraint as Well as Detail

Marketers may feel tempted to lean harder on emotion when someone is worried about a pet, a child, their health, or another personally important issue. Stronger language can seem like the fastest route to a sale.

The same customer may also be highly alert to exaggerated promises or claims that lack enough supporting information. If they feel responsible for the outcome, careless marketing can give them another reason to hesitate.

That calls for restraint as well as detail. Brands can acknowledge the concern that brought the customer to the product without intensifying it. They can explain what the product is designed to do, state the limits of its use, and make important instructions easy to find.

This is especially important when a consumer product sits alongside professional care. A topical spray for a dog's irritated skin, for example, may have a place in the owner’s home-care routine, while persistent or severe symptoms may still require a veterinarian. Clear boundaries help customers understand the role the product is meant to play.

Conclusion

Consumer brands can take a useful lesson from pet care because affection and practical judgment are often involved in the same purchasing decision. Owners may feel worried, protective, hopeful, or responsible, and those feelings can send them searching for a product. They may then examine that product closely because the outcome is important to them.

Brands in other categories can respond to emotional purchasing in the same way. Start with the problem the customer is trying to solve. Explain the product in concrete terms. Give people enough information to judge fit, use, and limitations. Keep emotional language proportionate to the situation.

References

• Ai, C., Akaichi, F., Glenk, K., Revoredo-Giha, C., & Costa-Font, M. (2025). What drives pet food choices? A systematic literature review. Animals, 15(22), 3235.
• Boya, U. O., Dotson, M. J., & Hyatt, E. M. (2012). Dimensions of the dog-human relationship: A segmentation approach. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing, 20(2), 133–143.
• Rombach, M., & Dean, D. L. (2026). Exploring predictors of US consumers' pet food preferences: Spoiling them one bite at a time! Pets, 3(1), 8.

[Photo by SeventyFour from Getty Images on Canva.]

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