Marketing Musings of a Dog Enthusiast
Proctor and Gamble recently announced that they had purchased holistic pet food manufacturer Natura Pet Products which describes its products as “The Healthiest Pet Food in the World.” This action gives P&G entry into the fastest growing segment of the pet food industry with a portfolio of well-respected, selectively distributed brands in that space. These … Read more
Walmart is expanding its partnership with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA.) In addition to a line of ASPCA branded products featured in the Walmart pet department in 2008, the companies recently launched a co-branded Facebook page titled Lend A Paw and are sponsoring a Pet Fair in Miami on … Read more
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 … Read more
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 4th in 2008 to 2nd in 2009 in terms of overall FSI pages; Target continues as the #1 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more