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
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
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
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 … 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
The animal feed industry website All About Feed reports on research published by IBISworld which confirms the continued growth of the pet industry; several of these trends have been noted in the Dog Marketing blog previously. Veterinary services are growing fastest, with a trend toward continued specialization; increased owner awareness of these specialties further drives … Read more
There’s a great interview with Marion Nestle, author of “Pet Food Politics” by Christie Keith on the Pet Connection blog. I loved that book and am very much looking forward to publication of her next one “What Pets Eat.” The interview talks about the 2007 pet food recall, different ways to feed pets, and general … Read more
Today’s Adrants newsletter included a story about what I think is a grossly inappropriate ad for the Columbian dog food brand Nutrecan Senior. From a marketing standpoint, I think it’s telling that most of the items on the first page of a Google search for the brand were about this ad, which featured a blow-up … Read more