Reprinted from The Kauai Business Report, February 2009
Kauai Business Report
Reprinted from The Kauai Business Report,
February 2009
The saying goes something like “Dogs are a man’s best friend.” Well,
as you may have discovered with each commercial you watch on TV, dogs are also a marketer's
best friend.
In 2005, the pet industry was a $35.9 billion business, up from $34.4
billion in 2004 and a meager $21 billion a decade ago, according to the
American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. An estimated 4.2
million American households have horses, 37.7 million have cats, and
43.5 million have dogs.
These four-legged friends have become more than animals - they are treasured
members of our families. Therefore, it's not surprising, given consumers'
affection for them, that they're often seen splashed across the ads in
magazines, newspapers, online and on TV.
The World of Dogs' Web site explained the phenomena this way, “The growing number of ads featuring dogs are designed to use their appeal to increase the favorable attitude toward the product or service featured. Such ads use the power of association to cast the featured product in a more favorable light, much in the way an advertiser might use a celebrity endorsement to draw on the power of that celebrity.” Source: www.worldofdogs.com
Turn on your TV and you’re bound
to see dogs and/or cats in many commercials that have nothing to do with dog food
or other pet products. They have to do with lifestyle and targeting a
product/service to an appropriate audience who relates to that.
Given the popularity of dogs and other pets - over 50 million households own
dogs alone according to The World of Dogs - it is no wonder that the
media has responded with programming about dogs. And the advertising
industry has increasingly not only mounted big ad campaigns for
products and services for dog owners, but has featured dogs in ads for
products.
It's a way of helping to characterize the target market and create a
warm, receptive consumer audience, because of the appeal of dogs.
Sahalie, a camp & cabin supplies catalog and Web site, responded to their
shoppers’ needs by featuring dogs in many product photos. “From surveys, we know
that a large percentage of our customers have dogs,” said Creative Director Rich Lorimor. “We use other animals once in a
while, but people don’t respond as much. Dogs hit the widest array of
pet lovers.”
So, consider surveying your customers to see if they are pet lovers.
Then, perhaps man’s best friend can bring you the “fetching” results
you’ve been hoping to retrieve with your marketing efforts. Give it
some thought when developing your marketing plan.
Debra Jason is a former president of the Rocky Mountain Direct Marketing Association and currently President of the Kauai North Shore Business Council. She operates her business, The Write Direction, from the north shore of Kauai, Hawaii. She may be reached at (808) 826 1846 or visit her online at www.writedirection.com.
©Copyright 2006-7, 2009 Debra Jason dba The Write Direction. All rights reserved. No portion of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or using any information storage/retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the author.
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