Name Change May Give Cats Pause NASSAU AND SUFFOLK Edition

• Published in: Newsday
• Main Author: By David Kalish. David Kalish is a free-lance writer
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Long Island, N.Y Newsday LLC 18.12.1988
• Edition: Combined editions

Despite the risks, Mars hopes the change will bolster global cat food sales in a world where people travel more than ever and there is relentless cross-cultural exchange of ideas. While Kal Kan is strong in the United States, Whiskas is a $1-billion worldwide powerhouse. Whiskas, which has been sold outside the United States for roughly 20 years, is the largest-selling cat food brand in the world, said Kal Kan spokeswoman Alice Ragenovich. In the United Kingdom, it ranks first in sales among all grocery products, Mars officials said. McLean, Va.-based Mars, a privately held company, thinks it can beat the odds. Mars strategists believe American consumers will prefer the name Whiskas, a nonword that sounds like "whiskers," over Kal Kan, whose connotations may be mixed. Mars researchers conducted extensive tests of American preferences in surveys and focus groups and found Whiskas "better represents feline imagery" than Kal Kan, a company executive said. Whiskas, in addition to appearing on cans of Kal Kan cat food, will become the new name of Mars' Crave, which ranks fourth in dollar sales among dry cat foods, according to [John C. Maxwell Jr.]. These two repositioned Mars products will be called, simply, Whiskas Wet and Whiskas Dry. A third Mars cat food, the "ultra-gourmet" Sheba line, a pricey pet food introduced internationally last year, will not be affected by the name change.