5 Pet Business Killers
Posted In: Pet Marketing by adminAre you killing your pet business? You may be. Over 10 years of experience in the pet industry has taught me that if you are doing the following 5 things you may be squeezing the life out of your pet business. Do any of the following sound like you?
1) Not understanding the Market for Your Pet Product – you need to know what the real potential for your product is. For example, you have a hotspot remedy. Great! Now, how many dogs suffer from hotspots? If you don’t know, you shouldn’t develop a product for it. All product development efforts should start with knowing how many people could potentially purchase your product. You should have a good estimate of units and dollar volume. So in this example, if you find out from a reliable source that 25% of dogs suffer from hot spots in any given year then your potential volume could be 78 million dogs (source: APPA) X 25% = 19MM. So if EVERY dog owner buys your product the total volume potential is 19MM and if you sell your item for a retail of $4.99 the total dollar volume is $97MM. Now not EVERY person is going to buy YOUR product for hotspots. There are a lot of other considerations. How many people will simply do nothing or visit their vet… but I would say you could turn it into a $1MM+ business if you do everything else right.
2) Using Cost Plus Pricing for your Pet Product – This is a common mistake of inventors or first time entrepreneurs. You take your cost, let’s say $3 and double it for a 50% margin, 100% markup for a cost to retail of $6. The retailer doubles it for another 50% margin or 100% markup for a retail price to consumers of $12. Makes perfect sense right? A 50% margin is healthy for a startup – maybe too healthy. Most operate at breakeven or even a negative gross margin for the first year or so. Back to our example… your item is now $12. Problem? Your competition or comparable items are all $9.99 or less. This is a big problem. The retailer WILL NOT CUT HIS MARGIN TO SELL MORE OF YOUR PRODUCT. It is your responsibility to price your item right. Most product companies are based on economies of scale – sell more and your manufacturing costs drop. Keep that in mind. You should use the retail price you believe the ultimate consumer will pay and work backwards to your cost. If you can’t get the product for that price then either work at a loss for awhile to build volume or don’t get into the business. Look for something else to make or go get a regular job.
3) Not doing any Marketing Research for Your Pet Product – I’m sure you think your product is great. If you didn’t you wouldn’t have created it. I’m also sure IT IS great. However, just to be sure ask some people what they think. Ask your neighbor your co-working or friend. Show them the product in its packaging and simply ask would you buy this product for X? X= estimated retail price point. Now if you want to go further use Survey Monkey and create a more formal survey. You can post the link on your Facebook page and Tweet about it. Try to get around 100 people to take the survey. Show a picture of the product with a few sentences explaining what it does and include the suggested retail price point. If you are worried about secrecy just use a text descriptor to give a general overview of your product. Ask some questions about it and see if the responses are as enthusiastic as you expected. Research doesn’t have to be expensive, but it is essential. The best part is if the results are positive you can use them for your retail sales presentation.
4) Not Developing Enough SKUs – This is a recurring theme in my blog posts and pet marketing video lessons. I keep repeating it so it eventually sinks in. I am going to repeat – MOST 1 SKU PRODUCTS WILL FAIL. It’s simply not worth a buyer’s time to do the paperwork for 1 SKU. In addition, the buyer knows it won’t do well. Why? It will get lost on the retail shelf and never be found. It’s not that hard to develop more SKUs. Think large, medium and small size. Different flavors, different scents. A good rule of thumb is to shoot for 10-12 SKUs to create your product line and “brand block” on shelf.
5) Not Getting Help Early Enough – I have many prospects take advantage of my FREE ½ hour consult. What I hear more often than not is that tens of thousands of dollars have been spent with little or no results. Don’t be one of these prospects. I have spent the last 20 years (the last 10+ in the pet industry) making mistakes and doing testing. Take advantage of my mistakes! I know what works and what doesn’t. I am sure you are really smart, but it takes awhile to understand the pet industry and how to successfully introduce a product into the market.
Want help? Contact us for a FREE Half Hour Consult.
Want more FREE Pet Marketing advice? Download my FREE whitepaper, “Confessions of a Pet Product Marketer”.
Pet Business Opportunity Podcast Interview with John Cullen Bulldog Marketing and Sales, Inc.
Posted In: Branding, Marketing, Pet Marketing, Pet Products by adminIs pet marketing dead? Do pet products sell themselves? What are the 5 tips for selling more pet products?
John Cullen of Bulldog Marketing & Sales will answer these questions and more in our interactive podcast interview.
Some of the things John will discuss include:
• What are your top 4 tips for getting a new pet business off the ground?
• How has the economy been affecting pet product sales? Strong areas? Weak?
• How do you get your product into the bog box stores? What’s involved?
• What are the best types of online advertising tactics you recommend and why?
• What are the best and most cost-effective OFF-LINE ad tactics you recommend and why?
Listen to the recorded Podcast here…
5 Pet Marketing Secrets Revealed
Posted In: Marketing, Pet Marketing, Pet Products, sales by adminHi Everyone, here is the latest video in my Pet Marketing & Sales Video Lesson Series.
This Pet marketing video reveals 5 insider secrets as to how the pet business really works.
The video answers the questions…
- Do pet products sell themselves?
- What does it take to get my product into a pet distributor or pet chain?
- Can I be successful with a one SKU pet product line?
- Does a great pet product need marketing?
- Are pet products really price inelastic?
In the video, I’ll walk you through the 5 secrets step by step and offers insights as to how you can answer the questions above for your own business leading to greater success.
Enjoy the video? Would you like to learn more about Bulldog Marketing & Sales and what we can do for your business? Visit us at http://www.bulldogms.com or call us at 718-218-4Pet.
We offer a free consult. To schedule YOUR free consult visit http://www.bulldogms.com/contact
Want more FREE pet marketing advice, tips & tricks? Visit the Pet Marketing Blog http://www.bulldogms.com/blog-page
I hope you will share your feedback and comments here and on the YouTube video page.
See you online soon.
5 FREE Pet Marketing Resources
Posted In: Branding, Marketing, Pet Marketing by adminHere are 5 pet marketing resources that are absolutely FREE. I hope you find them useful to your own business.
1. I put together a Twitter list of the top 10 pet marketing experts. Check it out…Pet Marketing Experts.
2. Here is a quick video covering pr, SEO and blogging for your pet business. 3 Pet Marketing Tactics You Can Use Today To Sell More Tomorrow.
3. Here is my white paper, “Confessions of a Pet Product Marketer” which is chock full of free pet marketing advice.
4. If you liked #3 there is also a fun video of the same name. Sometimes it has problems loading, so if you have an issue just hit reload.
5. Here is a nice sell sheet outline. You need one of these to sell into distributors. Pretty handy.
Well that’s it for now. If you are looking for more free pet marketing advice, checkout my Pet Marketing Blog.
3 Pet Marketing Tactics You Can Use Today to Sell More Tomorrow
Posted In: Branding, Marketing, Pet Marketing, SEO by adminHi Fellow Pet Marketers,
I finally got around to starting my Pet Marketing Video Lesson Series. Glad we are off and running. Here is the first video in the series. I hope you enjoy it. Please feel to leave comments/questions/feedback here on the pet marketing blog or on YouTube. I’ll be checking both. Thanks.
This is a short Pet Marketing how-to video that covers 3 simple marketing tactics to help pet product manufacturers and services sell more. Topics covered include:
1. Public Relations – Write a press release and submit it to petpr.com and reach pet influencers like pet trade magazines, pet bloggers and TV news producers that focus on pet.
2. SEO – Start learning about search engine optimization, do keyword research to figure out what people are searching for when they are looking for your product or service and optimize your website’s title tag to include the keyword.
3. Start a blog – Blogging increases web traffic and inbound links (which helps with SEO). It also helps you become an authority in your product or service category.
Need help? Get a Bulldog.
Pet Marketing Help
