The Dog Marketing Blog

Iams ProActive dog food

Brandweek featured an article discussing Iam’s integrated campaign for its ProActive pet foods containing prebiotics.  The food has specific ingredients that stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut, and should be distinguished from probiotic compounds like yogurt which contain beneficial bacteria, which would not live through the processing required to manufacture dry dog food.

Iams enlisted two spokes animals, one canine, one feline to promote their prebiotic foods. The dog, a Bulldog named Munch, has a Facebook page which has attracted over 1200 fans. All of the ProActive health products carry a distinctive swirled symbol on the packaging, which is carried over into point of purchase and print displays.  ProActive’s marketing uses he theme line  “I am beautiful inside” which was used across online, point of purchase, and television advertising.

These products show the increasing interest in nutraceuticals in human nutrition, which has spilled over into the nutritional interests for our pets.  I found the Iams website very carefully worded in its description of the benefits of  these products, avoiding any outright health claims.

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.

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.

Petco Logo

DMNews reported on Petco’s use of email marketing, including the recent addition of  content promoting organic pet foods.  These emails are supported by in-store seminars about organic foods as well as the Petco-sponsored Facebook page, Generation Natural Pet.  The article goes on to describe more details of the Petco e-communications strategy including species targeting, pet birthday greetings, and product reviews.

Bull Terrier in Poodle Costume

Pet Style News reports on pet clothing and encourages pet retailers to prepare for Halloween by stocking pet costumes.  Some pet owners like to dress their pets all year around while others will purchase pet clothing only for Halloween.  Shop owners interviewed for the article note that dressing pets is increasing in popularity and that the clothes available have improved dramatically in both quality and fit over the years.  This trend is one that sometimes hits a nerve among people supporting animal rights; but many pets seem to enjoy the attention that wearing a costume attracts.

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.

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.

More evidence of the resiliency of pet food and products in the recession appeared in a MediaPost article reporting on a study of grocery shopping behavior conducted by Digital Research and ThinkVine.   Many respondents reported changes in their shopping behavior such as stocking up on sale items, using coupons and switching to store brands.

Pet products were one of the categories most resistant to change. While 57% of respondents said they had made changes to save money on cookies, only 40% said the same for pet food.  Eleven percent had changed to buying a generic or store brand of cereal, for pet food the figure was 7%.

A similar finding was reported by Petfood Industry from a  survey described on the U.K. website Retail Bulletin.  Over half the people survey (59%) said they switched from national to private label brands for food and healthcare products, while less than one quarter (23%) switched to private label  pet food or supplies.

Pedigree Adoption Drive poster

CMD Global profiles a campaign by Pedigree in Germany which launched in 2008 to raise brand awareness and sales when Pedigree found its products trapped in a stagnant mid-market position.  Growth areas in the industry were in value priced store brands and at the premium end of the market.   Pedigree’s strategy leveraged the dog-owning public’s love of dogs and sympathy for homeless animals to improve brand imagery and preference rather than focusing on a product-centric message.

The Pedigree Adoption Drive campaign encouraged consumers to adopt shelter dogs and donate to the drive that benefited local shelters. Photos and stories about shelter dogs were featured in the campaign which included television, newspaper, outdoor and point of sale media.

The campaign exceeded its donation target, increased shelter adoptions, and helped Pedigree register an increase in both sales and share during the Adoption Drive period.