| Abstract: | Motivated by the fact that pet food and pet care is a big business and pet owners in the United States spend more on their pets each year, the objective of this research is to determine whether dog owners buy for their dogs the way they buy for themselves. The data show that dog owners are more loyal to dog food brands than human food brands. Dog owners are also found to be more sensitive to human food price than dog food price. The survey results also show that dog owners are more serious about buying healthy dog food than buying healthy human food. The findings are significant because they suggest that manufacturers and marketers of dog food and vet care service providers can gain some insight about the type of food and medical services dog owners might buy for their dogs by studying dog owners' food and medical service consumption decision patterns. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
