Talk:Freshpet

This edit request by an editor with a conflict of interest has now been answered.

I have some suggestions for an independent editor to evaluate. The Wikipedia's Contact Us page says this is how I should handle these requests since I have a conflict of interest as an employee of Freshpet.

1. Please delete the sections “Marketing Approach” and “Viral Video History.”

Marketing approach

At the end of 2018, advertising analytics firm Ace Metrix named Freshpet's “The Story of Princess” TV spot as the #1 best storytelling ad of the year.^[1] “Princess” tells the story of Princess the pitbull, who was rescued from a fighting house by her owner, Kandi.

In October 2018, Freshpet launched their Tattoo Pawlor event in partnership with First Class Tattoos in New York City. 10 pet owners were selected to have their pet's face tattooed on themselves, courtesy of Freshpet.^[2]

In September 2018, Freshpet released “Pet Parents, Oversharing,” a podcast hosted by improv comediennes and pet owners Kaity Reagle and Andrea Shapiro. The 7-episode season explored the relationships people have with their pets.^[3]

In September 2017, Freshpet released its “Picky Eater Approved” TV spot, which featured the story of Rudy the pug who went on a hunger strike until his owner, Mary Ann, fed him Freshpet.^[4]

Viral Video History

In December 2014, Freshpet released its “Freshpet Holiday Feast” video, which quickly became popular with over 13M views. The video began the brand's holiday tradition of a releasing an entertaining video for animal lovers every December.

On December 7, 2015, Freshpet uploaded the Santa Elves video on their YouTube page, garnering 1.7M views.^[5] The video was made in collaboration with the Salt Lake County Animal Services^[6] and Freshpet donated one meal of Freshpet food for every share the video generated. Other viral video releases from the brand include “Cats Vs. Dogs,” “People Eating Dog Food Without Knowing It,” and “Santa’s Elves,” a 2015 holiday video featuring social media celebrity Marnie the dog.^[7]

In 2018, Freshpet released dual videos for the holiday season, with “Pet Parents Go Overboard for the Holidays” and “The Pup Who Stole Christmas,” which together amassed over 6M views.^[8]

• Explanation: Both sections and their content are generally promotional and don’t fit well with WP:NPOV.

2. In the “Products” section, please replace the second paragraph: “Freshpet also claims its food does not contain any processed meat meals or by-products, and is made in small batches at lower temperatures to preserve the natural goodness of the ingredients.”

WITH: Freshpet ingredients are cooked in small batches in low temperatures, and have no preservatives.^[9][10]

• Explanation: Rewrites the sentence in a WP:NPOV and adds reliable sourcing to support the facts stated. The current sentence has no sourcing.

**Done. --SilverTiger12 (talk) 18:39, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

3. Please delete the “Minimal Processing” section:

Minimal processing

Unlike traditional shelf-stable pet foods, Freshpet ingredients are cooked once at lower temperatures. Thus, similar to less-processed foods such as milk, natural cooked meats and yogurt, the meals have a shorter shelf life.

• Explanation: Removes an unnecessary section - the information is better addressed in the Products section.

**Deleted. --SilverTiger12 (talk) 18:39, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

4. Before the “Manufacturing Facility” section, please add a new “History” section.

• Explanation: Organizing articles to reflect standard Wikipedia best practices for articles about a business. See, for example, the WP: Good Article for Nestlé Purina PetCare.

• • Done --SilverTiger12 (talk) 18:50, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

5. In the new “History” section, please add the following as the first paragraph::

Freshpet was founded in Secaucus, New Jersey in 2006 by Scott Morris, Cathal Walsh and John Phelps, former pet food executives who wanted to create pet food with fresh ingredients and no preservatives.^[11][12] In August 2006, the company opened its first factory in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.^[13][14] Freshpet ingredients are locally sourced meats, fruits and vegetables.^[15][16]

• Explanation: Updates article to include historical background of the company’s founding, early days and product-types. Includes reliable sourcing to support the statements.

• • Done --SilverTiger12 (talk) 18:50, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

6. Please move the following two paragraphs in the “Manufacturing Facility” section to be the last two paragraphs in the new “History” section:

“In 2013, Freshpet opened a new manufacturing facility, the Freshpet Kitchens, located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This new $25 million facility was built to resemble human-grade manufacturing standards.^[17] Freshpet stock is traded on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "FRPT".^[18]

In 2015, the company opened a new research and development center in the township. In 2018, it announced an investment of $100+ million to expand its pet food production operations at its current location.^[19][20] In February 2020, Freshpet announced that a new pet food manufacturing facility will be built in Ennis, Texas, which is expected to create 427 jobs. The state awarded Freshpet with a $2.0 million grant from its Texas Enterprise Fund.^[21]”

• Explanation: Organizes the article to reflect Wikipedia best practices (consolidating too many narrow sections) and adds more context to the history section.

• • Done. --SilverTiger12 (talk) 18:50, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

7. Please delete the section “Manufacturing Facilities.”

• Explanation: Removes overly narrow section and better organizes the article to reflect Wikipedia best practices.

• • Done.--SilverTiger12 (talk) 18:50, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

8. In the “Products” section, please replace the first sentence: “Freshpet food makes refrigerated dog and cat foods and dog treats under the brands Freshpet select, Dog Joy, Vital, Nature's Fresh and Dognation.”

WITH:

Freshpet makes refrigerated dog food, dog treats and cat food under the brands Freshpet select, Dog Joy, Vital, Nature's Fresh, Dognation and Homestyle Creations.^[22][23][24]

• Explanation: Rewrites sentence for clarity and adds missing reliable sources. There are currently no sources.

9. Please update the section “Philanthropic Efforts”

TO:

“Environment and Philanthropic Efforts”

• Explanation: Updates header to better reflect the content of the subsection, which will include information about the company’s environmental practices.

10. In the new “Environment and Philanthropic Efforts section, please replace the two paragraphs:

“Freshpet operates its business, from wind-powered, landfill-free kitchens, to donate over 3 million meals to rescues and shelters across the US. In 2018, the company started its Fresh Start campaign, a charitable effort to raise awareness for over-looked shelter animals that face stigmas to adoption, such as breed types, disabilities or past abuse. As part of the campaign, Freshpet funded a new intensive care unit for the Animal Alliance of New Jersey, a shelter that specializes in rescuing high-risk cats and dogs that often need serious medical intervention.^[25]

The 2014 "Holiday Feast" video was a joint venture between Freshpet and the Humane Society of Utah^[26] to help animals find permanent homes. This collaborative effort was able to collect supplies and donations for many animal shelters. Freshpet also paid the adoption fees and provided the families with a supply of pet food to get them started.^[27]

WITH:

Freshpet’s facilities run on renewable energy and uses wind-power, landfill-free kitchens and a rainwater irrigation system.^[28]

The company has collaborated with the Humane Society to help animals find permanent homes, and collect supplies and donations for animal shelters.^[29][30]

In 2018 Freshpet launched Fresh Start, a charitable program to raise awareness for overlooked shelter animals.^[31] The program gives grants to no-kill shelter and rescue organizations in the U.S.^[32]

• Explanation: Rewrites section to remove promotional language and unsourced statements. Adds missing reliable sources.

Thank you for your consideration. NJ0220 (talk) 17:42, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

I went through and did two of the requested edits, but am cautious about doing most given as I do not normally edit these types of articles. Commendations for sticking close to Wikipedia policies, though. --SilverTiger12 (talk) 18:39, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

I did a few more, but I'm not sure about all of it. It looks like the Environment & Philanthropic section you propose would only be three single-sentence paragraphs, which isn't very good. And I am also wary of completely deleting the Marketing & Viral Video sections, because those do seem to be notable facts about the company. --SilverTiger12 (talk) 18:50, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

@SilverTiger12: Thank you for your thorough review’ I know there were a lot of requests! Do you happen to have time to finish up? #8, #9, #10 remain unreviewed. Also, could you consider the following:

Please delete the flag on top of the article, above the infobo - Advert|date=February 2021

'Explanation: promotional content has been removed as a result of these Request Edits. The article is now significantly shorter and neutral.

Thank you! NJ0220 (talk) 19:01, 3 March 2021 (UTC)

NJ0220, some of the changes you requested were too promotional in their nature. I've gone through and pruned some of the language, and taken out some material which isn't relevant to an encyclopaedia article. I believe the language is now sufficiently neutral, and have removed the 'advert' tag.

Part of an edit requested by an editor with a conflict of interest has been implemented.

Hi, I would like to propose some changes to the Freshpet article. I am an employee of the company so I can’t directly edit the page myself since that would violate the conflict of interest rules. This article, about a publicly-traded NASDAQ company with a $4.36 billion marketing cap (December 13, 2021) is currently a stub. The company, which was founded in 2006, has had substantial press attention and there’s no reason it should not be brought up to the standards of Good Articles for public companies, such as Hershey Creamery Company, large private companies, such as Chuck E. Cheese, or a directly analogous company, such as Nestlé Purina PetCare. As these Good Articles demonstrate, this can be accomplished without a page becoming promotional. Some previous cuts to this article seem overzealous in light of these GA models. Plus I found reliable sourcing for all the proposals below.

Could an independent editor please review these proposed changes? Thank you very much.

1.

The second sentence in the lead includes some jargony language about being “refrigerated at the point of sale” that is actually inaccurate and not supported by the source cited in that sentence (which does not use the words “point of sale”). Here is a proposed update to that sentence which fixes the issue:

Its cat food and dog food products are marketed as fresh, and need to be kept refrigerated.^[1]

2.

The third sentence in the current version of the lead has been tagged as needing citations. Here is a proposed replacement for the present version of the sentence; this new version contains only those pet food brands for which there is appropriate sourcing:

The company’s pet food brands include Freshpet, Dog Joy, DogNation,^[2] Vital, Homestyle Creations, Nature’s Fresh and Spring and Sprout.^[3]

I am revising Request Edit #2 here because the sentence I proposed modifying has since been entirely cut. Request Edit #2 is now modified as follows: Please add a new third sentence to the lead which reads: The company’s pet food brands include Freshpet, Dog Joy, and DogNation.^[4]

I have cut the number of brands mentioned from seven to the three biggest ones so the lead is e. informative but does not have a promotional list feeling. A primary source such as the Yahoo! Finance company profile cited here is acceptable since it is being used “to make straightforward, descriptive statements of facts that can be verified by any educated person with access to the primary source but without further, specialized knowledge.” WP:Primary.

3.

Freshpet was the first company to distribute fresh, refrigerated pet food in North America. To reflect this, I propose adding the following new sentence to the lead after the third sentence in the current version:

The company was the first to distribute pet food in the fresh and refrigerated category across North America.^[5]

4.

The existing History section is very short and omits numerous noteworthy events in Freshpet’s history. I propose breaking up the second sentence and expanding on it with the following language, which incorporate the existing text but provide additional details about the company’s early history with appropriate sources:

The company opened its first factory in Quakertown, Pennsylvania in 2006.^[6][7] Freshpet’s early success was bolstered by the 2007 mass recalls of pet food products, which saw many pet owners turn to alternative brands that had not been connected with the tainted pet food.^[5][8] In 2009, Freshpet entered into an agreement with Tyson Foods. Under the terms of the agreement, Tyson acquired a minority stake in Freshpet, while providing the company access to its distribution network for refrigerated foods.^[9]

The company opened a new factory in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 2013.^[1] In 2014, the company began collaborating with the Humane Society to help animals find permanent homes, to collect supplies and donations for animal shelters.^[10][11] In November 2014, Freshpet went public, raising $164 million in its IPO,^[12][13] with a market capitalization of $447 million.^[13]

Since these are not available for free online, here are relevant excerpts from the two cited articles in The Record:

2009 article:

 Tyson, the largest U.S.-based meat producer, said it will take a minority investment in Freshpet; the company wouldn't disclose any other details. Freshpet will use Tyson's distribution network for refrigerated products to expand its national footprint.

2014 article:

 Freshpet, which had raised $164 million last month in an initial public offering, with shares initially priced at $15, said its adjusted third-quarter loss totaled 14 cents a share, excluding interest expense and $6.8 million in debt guarantee fees.

5.

The final sentence in the History section paragraph is missing a number of pertinent details about the company’s recent history. I propose incorporating that sentence as part of a new second paragraph for the section, which would also include additional details from the company’s recent history. Here is some suggested language:

Freshpet began to distribute its pet food products in the United Kingdom in March 2017, through the British supermarket chain, Tesco.^[14][15] The business announced an investment of more than $100 million to expand its pet food production operations at its Pennsylvania location in 2018.^[16][17] In 2018, Freshpet launched Fresh Start, a charitable program to raise awareness about shelter animals and to raise funds for animal rescue organizations.^[18] In February 2020, the company was offered a grant of $2.1 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund to build a plant in Ennis, Texas.^[19] In September 2021, Freshpet released its first meat-free refrigerated dog food brand, Spring and Sprout.^[3] As of December 2021, the company’s market capitalization was $4.4 billion.^[20]

I have revised Request Edit #5 to remove a sentence that is based on a possibly weak source.

6.

Please add a new “Products” section below the History section. An editor previously removed this section, but since it is in keeping with Good Articles for companies such as Nestlé Purina PetCare, Hershey Creamery Company, and Pearson's Candy Company to have a section about a company’s products or services, I propose that a new one be added. Removing it brought the article back to stub format instead of moving it toward a Good Article. The GA company format of having an extensive Products section is routinely followed for tech companies, for example. Lenovo Fitbit LG Electronics Canon Inc.. From a Wikipedia article best practices standpoint, the nature of the products should not matter. Here is suggested language for a Products section, which I have tried to write in a more neutral and less promotional way than the previous version that was removed:

Products

Freshpet provides several different pet food brands, including Freshpet, Dog Joy, DogNation,^[21] Vital, Homestyle Creations, and Nature’s Fresh. and Spring and Sprout.^[3] The Spring and Sprout brand’s pet food is meat-free and is based primarily on plant-based protein sources.^[3]

Rather than shelved dried or canned foods, the company’s products are similar to refrigerated food for human consumption.^[1] The company requires its production facilities to operate at standards required for producing human foods.^[8] Freshpet main ingredients are meats, fruits and vegetables sourced from local farms.^[1][22] The company’s products have no preservatives^[23] and must be sold within 90 days of production.^[8]

Freshpet’s facilities employ several systems to improve environmental sustainability, including renewable energy sources to power the facility, landfill-free kitchens, and rainwater irrigation.^[24]

I am revising Request Edit #6 to remove two statements which are based on possibly weak sourcing.

7.

The revenue information in the Infobox is now out-of-date. Here is an updated version (with better sourcing):

| revenue = $318,790,000 (2020)^[25]

8.

Please add a new Marketing and Advertising section to the article. I believe this section is in keeping with similar sections about noteworthy advertising in model Good Articles, such as Nestlé Purina PetCare#Marketing and advertising, Noodles & Company#Advertising, and Proactiv#Sales and marketing. Here, the source is The New York Times, adding to the credibility of the argument that this is significant.

Marketing and Advertising

In the early 2010s, Freshpet ran a multiyear marketing campaign advertising the company’s products lacked preservatives based on puns involving the names of dog breeds, such as a photo of a pug with a placard around its neck that read “Pug off, preservatives”.^[26] In 2013, Freshpet ran a marketing campaign in the United States to emphasize its use of locally sourced ingredients, which employed patriotic themes, music, and imagery.^[26]

Thanks very much for your consideration. NJ0220 (talk) 23:09, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

 Partly done: #1 and #7 done, #2 not done. The remainder appears to be promotional in intent if not in tone; please obtain editor consensus here on the talk-page for any or all of these changes. Please note that the merits or demerits of other articles have no bearing on this one. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 12:31, 29 December 2021 (UTC)

Justlettersandnumbers has closed this RE but I’ve re-opened it so the individually unreviewed Request Edits #2-6 and #8 can be considered.

Justlettersandnumbers seems to supports this (“please obtain editor consensus here on the talk-page for any or all of these changes.”) This is sensible since it was Justlettersandnumbers who cut this article down to a stub (e.g. dif dif dif), despite it being about a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company with extensive high-quality press coverage (e.g., https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/business/media/freshpet-dog-food-promotes-products-sourced-in-the-us.html%7CNew York Times] Street Journal Inquirer). The unreviewed REs I have proposed would begin to build the article back up with better sources and a NPOV. Under WP:COIEDIT policy, the “Request Edit” template is virtually the only mechanism for me as a declared COI editor to notify uninvolved, independent editors of a pending proposal. But by closing the Request Edit template within hours after it was posted, Justlettersandnumbers has blocked a review by other editors, locking in their preferred version of the article (contrary to WP: OWN) as well as making it very difficult to follow their instruction for me to get other editors to review this. I’m going to WP:AGF that Justlettersandnumbers didn’t realize the primary means for a declared COI editor to get independent editor attention is centered on having an open Request Edit template.

I want to briefly address Justlettersandnumbers’ broadly stated two-pronged rationale for the bulk dismissal of 6 of the 8 REs. First, Justlettersandnumbers says the proposal “appears to be promotional in intent if not in tone”. In fact, the presumed “intent” of an editor is not a criteria in determining WP:NPOV or WP:PROMOTIONAL – under WP policy, proposals are reviewed on the merits, not on assumptions about the editor’s intent. (WP:AGF and WP:COINOTBIAS.) Justlettersandnumbers doesn’t address Requests #2-6 and #8 individually (as is customary on the RE queue), so there has been no specific item-by-item NPOV analysis to address. Nonetheless, I have taken a closer look and have removed some statements and sources that might possibly be seen as questionable. Second, Justlettersandnumbers incorrectly states that “the merits or demerits of other articles have no bearing on this one.” This is not true. As the Manual of Style says, “The usual practice is to name and order sections based on the precedent of similar articles.” WP:Manual of Style/Layout#Names and orders for section headings. GA and FAs which are “similar articles” carry even more weight, especially for sections and subsections that are consistent across multiple highly analogous GA and FA articles. Here we have: (Nestlé Purina PetCare, Noodles & Company, Hershey Creamery Company, and Cracker Barrel).

I’d therefore ask that this RE be considered as unanswered and reviewed by additional editor(s). NJ0220 (talk) 19:11, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Should Good Articles for similar companies to Freshpet be used to determine article structure, such as typical section headers and the implied choices of relevant content? NJ0220 (talk) 20:20, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

• Yes
• No

Discussion:

• Yes. (Note, I have a COI, declared above.)

In denying a request to add structure and the implied content in line with Good and Features Articles, User:Justlettersandnumbers said: “Please note that the merits or demerits of other articles have no bearing on this one.” According to the Manual of Style, “The usual practice is to name and order sections based on the precedent of similar articles.” WP:Manual of Style/Layout#Names and orders for section headings. Freshpet is a dollar public company traded on the NASDAQ with a multi-billion dollar market cap. A review of GAs and FAs for large companies in the food sector comes up with the GAs Nestlé Purina PetCare, Noodles & Company, Hershey Creamery Company, and the FA Cracker Barrel. Therefore, these articles, or others of a similar nature, can and should be used as models for the name and order of sections - including the implied content for these sections. In this case, based on these similar GA and FA articles, the structure should be roughly as follows: See User:NJ0220/sandbox.

(Whether similar company pages can stand as examples for this company’s page is intended as an honest and objective question. I hope that by following the rules, acknowledging my COI, and respectfully continuing to submit revisions that adhere to editors’ feedback, my “intent” will not be presumed to be “promotional” as per WP:COINOTBIAS). NJ0220 (talk) 20:20, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

• Bad RfC. There's no need to litigate such a broad and sweeping question for the purposes of this edit request. I agree with Justlettersandnumbers that the majority of your edit request looks and feels promotional. Although we appreciate that you go through the edit request process rather than edit as an undeclared paid editor, COI editors have no right to the implementation of their edit requests by volunteer editors, and large requests such as yours above are difficult and time-consuming to implement, which is why they should generally be broken up into smaller requests. Justlettersandnumbers did the correct thing by implementing the non-controversial parts of your edit requests and advising you that the rest of your proposal was non-actionable at this stage. My advice to you would be to close this RfC, refrain from litigating the application of policies and to come back with a new edit request that is more likely to get consensus and be implemented. JBchrch talk 21:50, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

• Comment, beyond the requirement to adhere to MOS:STRUCTURE, the answer really is dependent upon a number of variable factors, and I think the limiting factor here has been a lack of sources independent of the subject. So no, not necessarily. Cavalryman (talk) 22:01, 22 February 2022 (UTC).

• Bad RfC - They can be used as a starting point but do not need to be a binding RfC at this point. Emir of Wikipedia (talk) 15:18, 6 March 2022 (UTC)

I have withdrawn the RfC and am submitting a more focused one based on the advice of editors here. NJ0220 (talk) 17:40, 25 March 2022 (UTC)

Should either of the following revised sections be restored to this article?

1. A “Products” section, containing information about Freshpet products that have been covered by independent, reliable press sources such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
2. A “Marketing” section, which describes the small number of marketing campaigns which attracted mainstream press coverage from the New York Times.
3. Both #1 and #2.
4. Neither #1 or #2.
5. A combined "Products and marketing" section.

NJ0220 (talk) 17:42, 25 March 2022 (UTC)

The company was the first to distribute pet food in the fresh and refrigerated category across North America. After a 2007 crisis of wet and dried dog food tainted by the melamine, Freshpet’s uncontaminated fresh food offerings experienced dramatic growth in the number of stores carrying its products. [1][2]

In November 2014, Freshpet went public on the {{NASDAQ]], raising $164 million in its IPO.[3][4] with a market capitalization of $447 million.[4]

As of 2021, the company’s pet food brands included Freshpet, Dog Joy, DogNation, Spring & Sprout.[5] Vital, Homestyle Creations, Nature’s Fresh and Spring and Sprout.[6] Its cat food and dog food products are marketed as fresh, requiring refrigeration since[7] the company’s products have no preservatives.[8]