The Dog Marketing Blog

Pethead logo

I recently came across an article discussing Pethead grooming products in Pet Product News International magazine. Pethead is licensed to Skaffles LLC by Bedhead, which is an edgy brand of human hair products which features packaging with unusual shapes, colors and fonts.  This is the first time I’ve seen any human hair care or personal care brand extended into the pet space.  Like the Bedhead brand,  Pethead products are positioned at a premium price point, with shampoos at $18 on Amazon.com According to the article, this is also Skaffles’ first foray into pet products, the company previously specialized in trendy accessories targeted at teenage girls.   The Pethead brand also includes accessories for dogs.  Skaffles plans to further extend its pet products into grooming items for cats and American Kennel Club (AKC)  licensed merchandise.  This product line again confirms the humanization of pets trend and marks a breakthrough in crossover branding, which I’ve previously only seen in pet toys and clothing.  I’m eager to see what pops up next!

Petco Logo

An article from the San Diego Union Tribune talks about the social media strategies of two area businesses, one of which is Petco.   Petco learned that employees were talking about the company on both Facebook and Twitter and decided to leverage those tools for the brand.  On Facebook, Petco has both a fan page and a group; the group encourages people to become a fan.  Petco also has an official Twitter account a YouTube channel and a blog on their main site; links to their social media accounts appear on the blog page. Not only does Petco use popular social media sites extensively, they also promote a pet-centric online community with zootoo.com through the Petco.com site.

Rescue to Rally truck

MediaPost reports that Purina’s Pro Plan brand is sponsoring a contest where consumers can win pet food coupons while voting to select which rescued pet and its owner will win a trip to the National Dog Show as well as a food donation to the shelter that adopted out that pet.

The Rally to Rescue program launched in 2005 and actively supports rescue events throughout the year;  I’ve seen a number of pop-up tents with their logo donated to rescue groups at Pet Awareness events.  This support direct to groups doing the hands-on work of pet rescue and re-homing is the most effective way to actually benefit homeless pets and rescue workers.

Purina is one of a number of pet food and product companies that promotes its company through support of rescue organizations and events; MediaPost cites both Frontline and Pedigree. As previously noted in this blog, a German Pedigree rescue promotion benefited not only homeless pets, but Pedigree sales in that country.

Grr-nola package

Further evidence of the humanization of pet foods is provided by the launch of All American Pet Company’s Grrr-nola bars.  An article on All About Feed notes that the manufacturer makes a number of health claims for the product and has it endorsed by a veterinary cardiologist.

This seems like a natural extension of the humanization of pet foods and this is the second product I’ve blogged about targeted specifically as a breakfast product for pets.  Of course dog biscuits, which have burgeoned into an entire snack food category have been around from the early days of manufactured pet food. I would think targeted dinner meals might be up next; doggie lunch buckets for dogs going to daycare seems like more of a leap and one likely to trigger guilt feelings in the working owners of stay at home dogs.

The press releases on the All American Pet Company’s website make some interesting statements.  They make some carefully worded statements of about the healthful ingredients in the food in a side bar attributed to their veterinary endorser, Kathy Williams DVM. The site also emphasizes that their products contains no wheat gluten, the ingredient involved in the massive 2007 pet food recall.

A couple things regarding their distribution plans seem unusual; the food is referred to as super-premium, yet they aspire to distribute it in big box stores, a strategy that is divergent from that of other foods in this category.  Veterinarian’s offices are also mentioned as retailers; it is unusual to see non-prescription foods available in these locations, so I’ll be interested to see  how this plan succeeds.