Marketing Musings of a Dog Enthusiast
I recently got my first email from Petcentric with a link to their site, which launched in 2006. In a 2008 article in Promo Magazine the site is described as a social network, however most of the content is provided by the site’s owner, Purina and select partners, such as Yahoo! Answers (pet section.) There … Read more
As premium dog food brands which claim to use higher quality and more appealing ingredients grow in market share, some traditional market leaders are pushing back in court. Hill’s Pet Nutrition, which produces Science Diet brand pet foods, has been aggressively pursuing manufacturers which it feels have used deceptive advertising for their products. Blue Buffalo … Read more
Petfood Industry reports that Nutro has partnered with Meetup.com to sponsor 60 Meetup groups. The sponsored groups include a variety of existing dog Meetup groups across across North America, including specific breed groups, rescue groups and the Denver Yappy Hour all-dogs social group. Nutro is hosting a kick-off Meetup on September 16, in New York … Read more
Purina continues to leverage user generated content in its pet food marketing, this time for its venerable Alpo brand dog food. MediaPost describes the contest where dog owners are encouraged to enter the contest with photos and stories of their dogs being Real Dogs. I think they’re trying to promote a bit of backlash to … Read more
Petfood Industry reported on promotional efforts by HBH Pet Products on behalf of their No Grainers dog treats. These include a photo contest co-sponsored by WalMart which is offering a $200 gift card as one of the prizes. They also ran a Twitter contest; consumers who follow HBH pet products and re-tweet (RT) a message … Read more
MediaPost reports that Dogtime Media has just launched the Save A Dog Facebook application with the support of Frontline as its exclusive advertiser through September. The application allows users to check out adoptable dogs by breed and location, and then virtually foster, walk, and send dogs to their friends. Points are earned for downloading the … Read more
MediaPost reports that Purina is launching an interactive screen saver application called the Unforgettable Tail to promote its Chef Michael’s brand of dog food. The food is described as both mass market and upscale, which I interpret as available in mass retailers at a high price point. I did see Chef Michael’s in online and … Read more
I recently encountered an online dog supplies company called Oh My Dog Supplies on Twitter. Since following them, I’ve been impressed by their use of social media. I checked out the website, which features an interesting collection of premium quality dog products with a guarantee that you won’t find any of their items at a … Read more
A friend of mine who pet sits forwarded a copy of a dog tips newsletter from Nanny 911 for dogs, which is distributed to over 2800 subscribers weekly. The author is Victoria Rose, a positively oriented dog trainer who currently lives in the Portland, OR area with her Doberman Pinscher, Jetta. The Nanny 911 e-newsletter … Read more
Petfood Industry News published an article about the increasing use of celebrities in dog food and product marketing. Rachel Ray collaborated with Dad’s to create a pet food line called Nutrish, Cesar Milan has a relationship with Petco, Martha Stewart and Purina and Ellen Degeneres’ relationship with Halo foods are all detailed in the discussion. … Read more