Fresh Step brings a little luxury to the litter aisle
By Larissa Marten, Associate Marketing Manager – Litter, and BreeAnn Crofts, R&D – Litter
Consumers are finding moments of luxury in everyday products, from the fragrances they wear to the scents they bring into their homes. Now, Fresh Step is bringing that mindset to an unexpected place: the litter aisle.
Launching exclusively at Walmart this week before expanding nationally in April, Fleur de Purr by Fresh Step combines sophisticated fragrance with trusted odor control.
Created with Zillennial cat parents in mind, Fleur de Purr is available in two distinctive fragrances, No. 9 and No. 27. It offers a more expressive take on litter for consumers who care about their cats, their homes and the products they bring into those spaces.
Why it matters
Younger consumers are embracing “little treat culture,” looking for small ways to bring enjoyment and a sense of indulgence to everyday life. Fresh Step saw that behavior taking hold across categories such as beauty, fragrance and food and identified an opportunity to bring the same mindset to an everyday essential: cat litter.
The opportunity: Cat litter has traditionally focused on function, including odor control, clumping, dust and cleanup. Fleur de Purr extends the idea of the everyday “little treat” to the litter aisle, pairing the performance cat parents expect from Fresh Step with sophisticated fragrance inspired by prestige beauty and home fragrance. Rather than asking consumers to choose between performance and experience, Fleur de Purr delivers both.
Reimagining the litter experience
To bring the vision to life, the team developed two designer-inspired scents:
- No. 9: A sophisticated woody fragrance featuring soft woods, violet leaf and cardamom
- No. 27: A warm amber fragrance with notes of golden amber, cashmere and musk
Developed with cat safety in mind, both take inspiration from sought-after fine-fragrance profiles rather than traditional pet-care scents.
The challenge: Fragrance cannot come at the expense of performance. The team rethought how fragrance functions within a litter formula, pairing fine-fragrance accords with odor-control technology to deliver both delight and performance in one of the home’s most functionally demanding environments.
That approach shaped the entire consumer experience, from the formula and luxury-inspired packaging to the product’s premium positioning.
Designed for discovery
Fleur de Purr will launch first at Walmart, which collaborated with Fresh Step on the concept and launch experience. The partnership is designed to help shoppers discover an unexpected offering in the litter aisle.
The launch includes:
- Creator-led content featuring entertaining introductions and authentic reactions to the fragrances
- Social and digital media that build curiosity around the new scent experience
- Prominent placements on Walmart.com and retailer media that connect discovery with purchase
- In-store merchandising and scratch-and-sniff displays that let shoppers experience No. 9 and No. 27
The bottom line
Fleur de Purr turns an emerging consumer behavior into a new kind of litter experience, pairing Fresh Step’s trusted performance with sophisticated fragrance and thoughtful design. The launch gives Fresh Step a new way to engage cat parents and expand expectations for the litter category.
