The Dog Marketing Blog

MediaPost reports that Purina and Oddcast have developed an application called Beggin Time which allows people to place themselves and a pet in a dance video which can in turn be emailed or “go viral” as we marketing folks like to say. The article refers to it as a Facebook app, but I could only request to be its friend from the Facebook side, I found it on the Beggin Strips website.  You pick your own human and pet face and then they dance to the Beggin Time “Can’t Top This” song sung to the tune  of  “You Can’t Touch This.”  It is indeed fun and I couldn’t resist sending it via the Facebook and email options  to several friends.

While searching for gifs to use in my next web project,  I came across  Tiles with Style, a ceramic tile vendor that features, among other things, ceramic dog paw prints that can be inset into a ceramic tile wall or floor.  Incredibly cute!  My husband doesn’t agree, so I don’t think I’ll be able to sneak them into that master bath remodel that I’d like someday.  If dog paws aren’t enough for you, biscuits, fire hydrants and even cat paws are also available.

As promised,  I’m returning to my Detroit Kennel Club vendor interviews with a profile of  Smucci custom pet beds. The owner/artist Debi Kahn was doing interior decorating when she got the idea for making beautiful furniture that doubled as pet furniture. She blogs about her DKC experience and includes some great photos from the event. Some of the inspiration came from her own pets; one of her cats likes to nap in the bowl shaped washbasins in her home, so she created wooden bowl beds for cats.  Debi used some of her own photographs to create the fabric designs used in most of the beds; the photos are transferred to fabrics using a very high quality printing process that retains that photographic quality feel. The wooden bases for the beds have an artistic flair as well. Most have a high fashion modern art look, but one resembles a manger and the accompanying pillow is printed with a design based on a photograph of a slice of straw bale.   Most of the beds unfortunately would probably not withstand the presence of a young Bull Terrier, but I’m sure  many smaller and older pets would enjoy these artful comforts. Wonderful to see another person making pet furniture that fits in to a stylish decor.

At last weekend’s Detroit Kennel Club show, I took some time Sunday morning to do another vendor review.  Even though it appeared they sold less vendor space this year than last, I knew there was no way I’d get through the whole gamut, so I confined myself to one of the short sides of the hall. My interviews included Gretchen’s Creations, with interesting personalized plaster bas-relief artwork (including the option to incorporate cremains in the pieces), Sunbear’s Just Bones, who buys all their food ingredients at Kroger (not China), Smucci’s which makes astounding functional pet bed decor, and Lisa Welch Designs, a jewelry maker with lovely dog-themed designs.  More to come!

MediaPost notes a number of moves that Toyota is making to pomote the new Venza to dog owners. Toyota was the sole automotive sponsor of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show and has signed up to sponsor Cesar Milan’s Dog Whisperer in its fifth season. In previous seasons, Cesar drove  Jeeps and other Chrysler products. Toyota plans to promote Vensa at dog-related events and websites and is following in the steps of other manufacturers, like GMC and Saab, in offering dog related vehicle accessories. Kurgo is mentioned as a partner for these products, although dog accessories are not currently mentioned on the Toyota website.  I’ve never seen any of these attempts meet with great success, as the merchandise offered is frequently impractical and overpriced, but I will follow their efforts with interest. Since Honda has been a leader in the dog-friendly vehicle market, it’s interesting to see another Japanese manufacturer take this direction.

Four Legged Media just launched a site called MacroMutt that promotes local dog photographers, targeted at local dog owners.  They pick the photographers, no pay to play, but they will accept sugesstions. I recommended Irene Morden, and I’ll be sending in others as I think of them. It’s fun to browse even if you’re not looking for a photographer, and I’m sure it will only improve as it grows.  FLM also hosts Barkability, a dog merchandise site which features cool dog products.

I decided to make use of the time I had free waiting for group competition at the Oakland County Kennel Club show and talk to some of the dog show vendors about their businesses.  My interviews included Gotcha Framed, with artsy magnetic frames, show circuit staple Whitman Sharpening, Glass Garden Engraving with hand painted glassware, Always Special and Personal with scented wax dipped stuffed toys, Diane’s Dream Pet Products, Cedar Creek pet beds, and Pet Fabulous, with high end leather leads and collars. I’ll break the individual interviews out in separate posts, but some general observations. Only one of the people I talked to had ever shown dogs; three had exhibited at craft or art shows first, and heard about the dog show opportunity from other craftspeople.  Others started their business targeting other customer niches and discovered better dog marketing opportunities; two actually started selling pet products.  A quick note re: their web sites – the only one with tracking (Sitemeter) was also the only one claiming to get much  businesss online – cause or effect?  I was also surprised how much people had to share, I thought I could easily get around to all the vendors during my 3 hours of down time, but I wasn’t able to even talk to half of them.  I will admit I might have squeezed a couple more in who were so busy that I didn’t feel comfortable interrupting. The booth selling fleece dog coats on this blustery day was going great guns, not surprising since 4 inches of snow fell during the day and the temperature at my ring time was 9 degrees, but felt like -10!

Just started following Guy Kawasaki (me and 48K+ others) on Twitter; he seems to have more interest in pet issues than I expected, alerting the Twitterverse to an article on Truemors regarding the RSPCA’s intent to prosecute owners who are found “overdressing” their dogs.  This Daily Mail article gives more details on the situation.  I do admit to competing in both dog shows (no dog clothes allowed) and the occasional costume class, but I don’t particularly like the idea of dog as fashion accessory. That said, I think this is well within an owner’s right to enjoy their pet as they see fit and a long way from meeting any reasonable standard of animal cruelty.  Animal rights extremists  . . .

PawLux just started following me on Twitter. The Paw Luxury website is doing a lot of things right; their core business proposition focuses on sustainable, high end dog accessories and treats. Not a large selection, but focused on that proposition, which encompasses the hottest trends in pet marketing today.  They’re announcing specials on Twitter, and rewarding visitors for retweeting and blogging about their site; pretty darn Web 2.0 savvy.  They don’t really explain how it’s sustainable (and I couldn’t find the dimensions, either) but the Bella Bed is adorable!

Having recently been encouraged to use Twitter, I’ve started my usual obsessive learning curve with any new thing of interest. After signing up to follow my friends and some leading lights of the tech world and web analytics, I turned my attention to finding other dog fanciers.  Which led me to the Dog Show Secret site.  This is one of those sites that I can’t quite figure out which probably means it’s a money-making scheme I don’t fully appreciate. There are a number of oddly phrased articles that make me think they were written by someone whose first language is not English, whose real passion is not showing dogs, but who has studied up on search engine marketing.  The advice on dog show outfits isn’t too far off, the one on dog show ribbons is inadvertently hilarious to anyone who’s shown more than one dog to its championship, and the one on show dog shampoo is just plain wrong. That said, the Tweeter dog_supplies which led me to the site has some pretty good tweets on interesting dog products, so I’m a follower . . .