Marketing Musings of a Dog Enthusiast
Barriers to entry are low in many sectors of the dog-related industry. Which means that there are many small businesses marketing products and services for dogs and other pets. Many dog product entrepreneurs are fueled by their passion to solve a problem they experienced with their own pets which inspired them to launch their business. … Read more
While strictly speaking this post is more about dogs in social media than marketing per se, I just couldn’t resist a post about an article on Mashable which reported on a Lab 42 study and infographic about the number of dogs on Facebook. It seems that about 14% of the people in the Lab 42 … Read more
Packaged Facts announced the publication of a new report analyzing the need for products targeted at senior pets, overweight pets and special needs pets in the US. The report notes that according to American Veterinary Medical Association and Association for Pet Obesity Prevention research, the proportion of American pets in these groups is higher than … Read more
The July issue of Petfood Industry magazine includes an article titled “Business is Barking” which summarizes Packaged Facts presentation from the 2009 Pet Food Forum. Although I have to call Packaged Facts out on their creative cropping of the Y axis on a few charts for dramatic effect, the overall message is positive for the … Read more
I just finished reading Pets in America by historian Katherine C. Grier, published in hard cover in 2006 and paperback in 2007. Although I found it a bit dry in places, overall it is a fascinating account of the subject. The book includes a tremendous amount of information about the marketing of pets, pet products, … Read more
NPR’s Fresh Air this week featured an interview with Michael Schaffer, author of One Nation Under Dog, a book about consumer dog culture seen through the eyes of a journalist and first time dog owner. At this point I’ve listened to the interview and just started reading the book, but it chronicles the decision of … Read more
MediaPost reports that the dollar value of pet food sales actually rose in the wake of the 2007 pet food recalls as owners shifted their purchases to higher end foods which promised more control and transparency regarding manufacturing and food sources. This information was reported in the latest release of the “Pet Food in the … Read more
Hard to believe I hadn’t heard of this vertical ad network until I read this article in MediaPost today. The DogTime Media site claims they have 180 high quality pet site partners; the MediaPost article mentions another 130 bloggers. The network claims to reach more than 10 million visitors a month and enables content sharing … Read more
I’m taking advantage of an unexpected break in employment to get back to posting. Yeah! (for the posting opportunity, not the renewed task of job-seeking) This summer Retailwire published a series of pet department retailing tips from Nestle Purina. I’ll start with the one talking about allocation of space within the pet department. They recommended … Read more