The Dog Marketing Blog

The Humane Society of the United States has entered the pet food  business with the launch of Humane Choice, a vegetarian dog food made from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic-certified ingredients. Manufactured in Uruguay,  this product is  sold through select PETCO and Whole Foods stores.  A kibble which meets the American Association of Feed Control Officers (AAFCO) standards for adult maintenance is the only product available. Humane Choice’s marketing arm is the G&B Marketing company, which sends 6% of the wholesale price of each bag to the HSUS.

While I can only speculate about the motives behind the launch of this product, it seems more about providing a feeding option for people sympathetic toward the HSUS’s stand against domestic animals than the nutritional needs of dogs.   The group actively opposes farming of animals and the feedstuffs fed to meat animals; they feel animals are equal in status to humans and should not be owned or consumed.  HSUS opposes breeding and working with dogs,  which may be the reason no growth or performance formulas are offered,  I suspect it’s also hard to meet those standards without using animal protein.

A veterinary study reported on dogchannel.com found that dog foods labelled low-calorie had inconsistent labeling and feeding recommendations.  Content analysis showed that the food in the container  did not always match package claims.

Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University did an analysis of  44 different dog foods with labels indicating they would support canine weight loss. Such foods are required by federal law to show calorie counts, but unfortunately not only were these numbers  inaccurate,  the recommended feeding amounts would result in weight gain.

Dog obesity is a significant problem with nearly half of all dogs classified as overweight and nearly 10% obese in a 2008 study. Just as in humans, excess weight contributes to increased health problems, veterinary expenses, and decreased length and quality of life.  A recent study also found a correlation between overweight owners and over weight dogs.

Owners who want their dogs to lose weight need to think of the fundamentals – diet and exercise.  Unfortunately, dog food manufacturers are not always a reliable source of  weight loss advice.

Taylor Pond Farms is a raw food vendor with a booth at the Livonia Kennel Club and Oakland County Kennel Club dog show cluster in Novi Michigan in January. This was the second event the company had bought booth space and the second time they had been to the Rock Financial Showplace, the first time being for the Family Pet Expo in November, 2009.

The business didn’t start in pet food; owner Pete Moolhuizen got an idea to breed rabbits for meat for high-end restaurants on a trip to Europe. There he saw rabbit breeders doing well in that trade, so when he got back to the US, he started raising rabbits on their farm in Western Michigan. The business was doing well, and then one day he got a call from a dog owner asking what they did with the rabbit heads and feet, the parts that weren’t used by restaurants. At that time, they were just throwing them away. The dog owner offered to buy the leftover parts, word spread, and before long the business was offering a variety of meats strictly to pet owners. They had to stop raising their own rabbits because the demands of the business didn’t allow time to properly care for the animals.

Taylor Ponds sells through a network of distributors and their foods are strictly one-species per package, something that anyone who owns a dog with multiple allergies will appreciate.  They are not complete foods in and of themselves, but can be  fed as part of a raw diet along with other nutrients.  Except for these shows, the company relies on their distributors,  word of mouth and their website for promotion.

The Taylor Ponds website lists 10 different species of animal meat available, including rabbit, deer, duck, goat and fish. All meat is from US farms, except for some venison that is hunted. Their display at the dog show included a number of dehydrated treats including chicken and rabbit feet and beef trachea. The Moolhuizens found the serious dog people at the shows contained a higher proportion of raw feeders than the more pet-centric attendees at the Pet Expo.  Barb told me she was  surprised by requests for liver, which they  did not bring to the show. They plan to add more events to their marketing plan, next stop will be the Detroit Kennel Club show in March.

I attended the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit this morning and was able to see the Honda Element decked out with its Dog Friendly package. I’ve read about this option before in both the trade and dog-centric press, but this was my first opportunity to see it in person.  The package includes a soft sided crate anchored in the vehicle via a platform which sits a couple inches above the floor and encloses the area behind and below the seatback of the rear seats.  There is a collapsible ramp for the dog to walk up into the car and a fan in the rear compartment which directs air toward the crate. The car’s plastic floor cover is embossed with a bone design and all the seats have a dog-patterned seat covers which feel something like a wetsuit, I assume that this fabric is dog hair and slobber repellent.  A spill-resistant dish, collar and lead, tag, tote bag and poop bag dispenser are also included; buyers order custom sized items after purchase.

Free Standing Inserts

Marx Promotion Intelligence reported that overall Free Standing Insert (FSI) activity rose by 8% in 2009 to more than 272 billion coupons dropped. Pet retailers and pet products were important contributors to this increase.

• PetSmart rose from 4^th in 2008 to 2^nd in 2009 in terms of overall FSI pages; Target continues as the #1 retailer on this measure.
• Pet food and treats were in a three-way tie for sixth for the number of new products introduced via FSI in 2009 with 11, pet products rounded out the top ten with 8 new product introductions.
• Pet food and treats edged out household cleaning products to claim the #2 spot in number of coupons dropped in 2009; this was a 4% increase over 2008 levels.

The decline in the number of newspapers provides a challenge to the most traditional means of FSI distribution. Retailers and manufacturers are evolving to use targeted direct marketing to keep delivering  coupons to their customers.

The Pioneer Press reports on TwinCities.com about Minneapolis-St.Paul area animal shelters use of social media to publicize and place rescued pets. They discuss the social media strategies of the Animal Ark, Animal Humane Society, and the Minnesota Valley Humane Society All three organizations have established both Twitter and Facebook accounts. The AHS also has a YouTube channel and a Flickr account but these accounts are dedicated to the organization’s activities,  not specific adoptable animals.

All the organizations profiled seem to think that the social media outreach has resulted in more traffic to their adoptable animals’ pages, and the AHS has seen its donations increase, in a year when many charitable organizations have seen them fall.  Animal Ark cited several stories of animals adopted shortly after adding the “Add This” link sharing service to their profiles.  The MVHS feels that potential adopters  like the social media outreach, but the staff time to keep these additional sites updated is a drain on resources, free isn’t always completely free!

The Snif Tag collar based RFID tracking system for pets was dropped as company founders re-purpose the technology into a product that tracks hand washing by health care workers.   The product, which originated in the MIT Media Lab’s Physical Language Workshop, launched in late 2005 and was profiled in high profile media including Wired and the New York Times.

Described as “social networking for dogs,”  SNIF was a product in search of  a market. The collar-leash combo provided information about a pet’s activity level while the owner was not present and its interaction with other dogs wearing the same tracking device.  I would  suspect that anyone willing to shell out almost $200 for the electronically enabled collar and lead set might not let their pet far out of their sight, rendering this second piece of data redundant. If the pet would get out of sight of the owner, there was no way for the owner to find a lost animal using the SNIF tag; a function that is available through some GPS enabled collars.

The SNIF website is still up with links to its news coverage, but the product ordering and retailer locator functions are no longer providing data on the discontinued product. The inventors mention they may re-introduce the product later with a more robust marketing budget, but I will be surprised if it fulfills the initial hopes for its success.

Freshpet Logo

Petfood Industry reports news from Tyson Foods fourth quarter earnings report regarding its Freshpet line of refrigerated pet foods.  Freshpet is currently in test rollout with national retailers and is reportedly finding high consumer acceptance;  club stores are next in their distribution plans.  The Freshpet website describes the product as lightly cooked and emphasizes that it remains refrigerated from production through sale and use.  Freshpet foods combine the real food appeal of raw feeding while minimizing concerns about bacteria and the yuck factor some people experience when their pets devour raw meat.   The earnings report also mentions Tyson participation in the refrigerated pet treats market, but gives few details.

I’m a bit confused on the evolution and marketing of Tyson’s refrigerated dog treats. Doing a Google search, I found a section on the Freshpet website which references the Loved Dog brand treats. The treats tie in to dog trainer Tamar Geller’s dog coaching brand of the same name and they are mentioned as being introduced by Geller rather than by Tyson on the site. There are no evident links from the Freshpet homepage to the Loved Dog treats.  I found a blog post referring to the Loved Dog treats being available in the summer of 2008. The only links on the Freshpet homepage that lead to treats are for products branded as dognation treats, and a reference is made that this is a new name.  If any readers have insight into what’s going on with the production and marketing of these  Tyson-manufactured refrigerated treats, please leave a comment.

Aqua Pure Breed logo

Aqua Pure Breed started following me on Twitter, introducing me to another entry in the bottled water for dogs category. This product offers  innovative user-friendly packaging; it comes in a wide-mouthed plastic bottle  that serves as a bowl.  In addition to plain spring water, Aqua Pure Breed comes in two enhanced varieties, one for joint support and one claiming to support healthy skin and coat. The only package size now available is 8 ounces, and the plain variety comes with either a pink or blue top.

The company website has a retailer finder which wouldn’t function for me, but their Facebook page has announcements of  new retailers, most of which are in the company’s home state of California. Home delivery of 48 bottle cases of Aqua Pure Breed is available for $59.95.

The company website notes product launch in spring 2008, but other materials note that the product became available at retail in the summer of 2009.  Their Twitter and Facebook streams mention high-profile dog events, like the AKC Invitational shows taking place this weekend in Long Beach. The company has also publishes the Active Dog Guide which identifies dog-friendly places in several US locations and it actively encourages people to includes their dogs in more activities and  businesses to become more dog friendly toward both their employees and guests.

What I like about this product is the packaging, which eliminates the need to take a separate bowl when traveling with your dog.  I might argue that 8 ounces may not be adequate for every dog, so I would hope to see larger bottles offered in the future.  Aqua Pure Breed promotes the bottles as disposable; they are recyclable as well. No mention was made as to whether the products are approved for human consumption.

Free Kibble Logo

Petfood Industry reported that Halo pets has signed on as a sponsor for Freekibble.com’s  iPhone app, Kibble Katch.  Freekibble donates 10 pieces of kibble for each click on a trivia game on their site.  The food is donated by corporate  sponsors which manufacture premium natural  petfoods, including Castor & Pollux and Canidae on the Freekibble website;  Halo donates food for games played on the iPhone app.  Freekibble is the brainchild of Mimi Ausland, a 12 year old girl from Bend, Oregon and offers sections that spawn both dog and cat food donations.  The synergy here combines many elements bubbling up in marketing and social movements today: youth involvement in social causes, casual gaming, mobile advertising applications, and the growing popularity of the natural petfood category.