Found myself writing a novel and a half as I geared up for a pitch in the pet industry.

I’ve been in the consumer space for quite some time now, and not once have I worked with a pet brand. Strange, right? Not for any intentional reason. If anything, it made me pause and ask why this one felt so exciting to begin with.

Before every pitch, I run a simple exercise. I let my brain spill a bit. What is this brand? Why them? Why am I excited to work with them? Why did they make my outreach list, or why did that inbound message hit in a way that felt different? It’s less about getting to the “right” answer and more about getting to an honest one.

And almost every time, I land on the same question: what should people feel when they encounter this brand?

That’s the real work.

Because in CPG, we spend a lot of time talking about ingredients, sourcing, and claims. Organic. Sustainable. Clean. Functional. Premium. All important, all valid. But most consumers are not standing in the aisle making a rational checklist. They’re making a much faster decision, one that’s rooted in instinct.

Do I trust this?

And that trust isn’t built through information alone. It’s built through feeling.

The best brands don’t feel like products. They feel like someone you trust. There’s a sense of care baked into them. A familiarity that doesn’t need to explain itself. The feeling of walking into a warm kitchen, sunlight hitting the counter, something fresh just pulled from the oven. A small exhale you didn’t realize you needed.

That’s what people are reaching for when they choose what to eat, what to drink, what to bring into their homes. And it becomes even more important in categories that carry a sense of responsibility, like food, beverage, wellness, and pet. These aren’t just purchases. They’re decisions tied to care, for yourself, for your family, for something or someone that relies on you.

When I’m deep in a packaging design or building out a brand system, I’m constantly coming back to this idea that the work is really about balancing two things: the familiar and the delightfully new. Too familiar, and you disappear on shelf. Too new, and you create hesitation. But when you get it right, something clicks. It feels safe enough to trust, but interesting enough to try.

That’s where memorability lives. I call it “kissing the line between familiarity and surprising delight”

And in CPG, memorability is everything. Because people don’t give you many chances. A bad taste, a confusing package, a disconnect between expectation and experience, those things stick. And once they do, it’s incredibly hard to win someone back.

As they say, “you don’t get a second chance at a first impression.” 

So yes, your ingredients matter. Your sourcing matters. Your claims matter. But none of it lands if the brand doesn’t feel right.

Because at the end of the day, people don’t build relationships with products. They build relationships with what those products make them feel.