Infographic: The Growing Impact of Social Media

Interesting info from Morrison Foerster's Socially Aware blog outlining general online/offline behavior of Americans with annual changes from 2006-2011.

Trends include Americans trading watching TV offline to watching online, choosing less personal socialization in favor of increased online socializing, increasing usage of social media over time, and more.

Infographic courtesy of Morrison Foerster.

A little history of advertising and marketing in the pet industry.

I've always been fascinated by advertisements.

Ever since I was a little girl and saw a TV commercial featuring a free toy in a cereal box, (that, of course, I just had to have), advertising has captivated me.

It was only when my Mom made sure I understood at age six that nothing is free, not even that toy advertised as free on the television, because you had to buy the cereal to get it.

So as I surf the Internet, I sometimes run across vintage advertising - from pet food and pet product companies, and from other companies that utilize pets in their marketing campaigns and advertisements.

Pinterest was the perfect place to put all those great finds all in one place. So over the past months, I've put together two Pinterest Boards you won't want to miss:

Vintage Advertising - Pet Product Marketing
Vintage Advertising - Pets in Marketing

Surprisingly, advertising in the 30, 40's, 50's and 60's wasn't a lot different than it is now:

• Cute puppies (and children) reigned
• Dogs talked.
• Ads targeted women (and children).
• Dogs did tricks.
• Cats were picky.
• Dogs sent letters to their owners.
• Dog were called children.
• Health and happiness of pets prevailed.

Pet food and product companies had free gifts with purchase, sign ups for free trials, and movie tie ins. Celebrities and celebrity dogs were featured, and companies utilized original content information to help consumers understand how best to use their product.

And there wasn't a shortage of pets helping to market other products and services:

• Greyhounds promoted traveling by bus.
• Two terriers (Blackie and Whitie) hocked Black & White Scotch.
• Celebrities like Don Knotts talked to a dog about his feelings to promote dog food.
• During the war companies took advantage and added a military slant to their ads, even promoting contributing your dog to the war movement to become military working dogs.
• After the war reflection, remembrance and the good life reigned.

Trends in pet products and pet product advertising were dictated by the times:

• When meat rationing occurred during the war, dog food companies turned to meal as an important ingredient..
• In the mid to late 40's with the availability of the television, pet companies turned to TV advertisements to promote their wares.
• Flea products added DDT after the war effort determined it's effectiveness.
• In the 40's to early 60's horse meat was touted as a top ingredient in pet food, and thankfully stopped following government laws banning the practice in the 70's.
• Following the war prosperity kicked in and ads targeting pet owners, and ads utilizing pets, became more luxurious, relaxed and 'good living' in nature.

What is to be learned from our past? 

Marketing is marketing...There may be new vehicles for marketing, but there may not be any new ideas. It's how you utilize your great marketing ideas, tactics and vehicles to their maximum effectiveness that will help your pet business, product and/or service stand out among the sea of competition.

Cyber Monday online sales results are in. What does it mean for your pet business?

Cyber Monday online sales results are in.

'Holiday shoppers turned Cyber Monday into the biggest spending day ever with online sales growing 30.3% over the same period last year', according to cloud-based analytics findings by IBM.

The report also states some powerful information relating to Cyber Monday 2012 as compared to Cyber Monday 2011:

• Consumer Spending Increases: Online sales increased 30.3 percent over 2011. 
• Shopping Peaks at 11:25am EST: Consumers flocked online, with shopping momentum hitting its highest peak at 11:25am EST. As in 2011, consumer shopping also maintained strong momentum after commuting hours on both the east and west coast. 
• Mobile Shopping and Mobile Traffic Increase: On Cyber Monday more than 18 percent of consumers used a mobile device to visit a retailer's site, an increase of more than 70 percent over 2011. Mobile sales reached close to 13 percent, an increase of more than 96 percent over 2011. 
• The iPad Factor: The iPad continued to generate more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, driving more than 7 percent of online shopping. This was followed by iPhone at 6.9 percent and Android 4.5 percent. The iPad also continued to dominate tablet traffic reaching a holiday high of 90.5 percent. Amazon Kindle leapt into second at 2.6 percent followed by the Samsung Galaxy at 2 percent and the Barnes and Noble Nook at 0.6 percent. 
• Multiscreen Shopping: Consumers shopped in store, online and on mobile devices simultaneously to get the best bargains. Overall 58.1 percent of consumers used smartphones compared to 41.9 percent who used tablets to surf for bargains on Cyber Monday. 
• The Savvy Shopper: While consumers continued to spend more, they once again shopped with greater frequency to take advantage of retailer deals as well as free shipping.This led to a drop in average order value by 6.6 percent to $185.12. However, the average number of items per order increased 14.1 percent to 8.34 compared to Black Friday. 
• Social Sales: Shoppers referred from Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube generated 0.41 percent of all online sales on Cyber Monday, a decrease of more than 26 percent from 2011.

All of this information will help you in marketing your pet business throughout the rest of the holiday season and into 1213. 

Consumer trends in the increased use of online, mobile and tablet shopping behaviors, along with the use of social media as a means of getting 'in the know,' show that consumers are more and more becoming savvy online shoppers that demand a consistent customer experience across multiple channels.

To compete it's important for your pet business to adapt to the changing wants and needs of your customer and prospective customer.

Graphic courtesy of IBM Smarter Commerce. Photo courtesy of Derek Garvey on Flickr.

Sales and marketing strategy shifts for your pet business this holiday season.

Happy Cyber Monday! The preliminary numbers are in for the past three to four days - the official kick off of the holiday shopping season.

Online sales this year increased by 17.4% on Thanksgiving Day and by 20.7% on Black Friday compared to last year, according to IBM’s Digital Analytics Benchmark Trends Report.

Saturday's report from retail technology company ShopperTrak finds consumers spent '$11.2 billion at stores across the U.S, down 1.8% from last year's total, while Black Friday foot traffic this year rose 3.5 percent to 307.7 million store visits.'

In addition, Bloomberg reports info from ShopperTrak and ComScore that indicates 'sales on the day after the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. fell 1.8 percent from last year to $11.2 billion, compared to a 6.6 percent gain a year earlier, while online shopping on Black Friday rose 26 percent to exceed $1 billion for the first time.

In summary, to date research indicates during the holiday shopping kick off that:

• Online and mobile shopping is up.
• Black Friday foot traffic is up.
• Brick and mortar sales are slightly down.  

Today we will see what CyberMonday brings for retailers. So what's trending here...

Retailers have begun to shift their marketing focus for the beginning of the holiday shopping season and consumers are following suit.

The official start of the holiday shopping season previously launched the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday), is shifting. Retailers are now turning the holiday shopping kick off season into a week long, or five day event, running from the day before Thanksgiving, on Thanksgiving, all the way through Cyber Monday.

And the focus is not only on driving consumers to brick and mortar stores, but encouraging online and mobile shopping as well.

Retailers are providing a wide variety of levels of deals and promotions, changing them throughout the five days to keep consumer interest focused, and consumers are grabbing up the deals in the most convenient ways possible to them, by visiting stores, or shopping online, or via mobile devices.

While Black Friday is still an important day in retail, you can help your pet business compete during this busy season by providing a wide variety of deals throughout the launch and five week long holiday shopping season this year.

By promoting profusely all the different types of deals you are offering through a wide variety of marketing avenues, you will keep in front of customers and prospective customers to help you stand out from the crowd.

If you are a retailer, promote, promote, promote - deals in your store and deals online. And if you are a manufacturer, share information about how your retailers are promoting your products.

Be creative, think out of the box, stand out the best and most effective way possible to keep the interest of your customers and potential customers.

There is still time to get your marketing strategy, tactics and plan together for the holidays. Contact us for more information about how Pawsible Marketing can help improve your holiday sales and marketing.

Media email contact list for your pet business news, information and announcements.

If you're a pet business and you aren't doing public and media relations, you should be!

Public relations is defined as the practice of managing the flow of information between an individual or an organization and the public.

One way to practice public and media relations for your pet business is by providing individuals that manage a wide variety of pet related publications and media with information about your product, service or retail outlet through press announcements relating to your business - whether it be launching a new product, providing a new service, announcing a new partnership and much more.

The most difficult part of this process is knowing who to send your pet business news and information to so that the right person will receive your information and potentially feature it in an upcoming article or segment.

But now it's easy with the Pet Business Press/Media Email Contact List. Our Pet Business Press/Media Email List consists of nearly 200 contact emails for:

- Pet Business Consumer Publications
- Pet Business Trade Publications
- Major Women's Lifestyle Magazines
- Top 15 Newspapers through the US
- Top Influential Pet Bloggers
- Pet Related Radio Programs
- Most Popular Pet Lifestylists
- And more!

The list includes such notable publications and media contacts for Modern Dog, Dog Fancy, Martha Stewart Living, LA Times, Good Housekeeping, USA Today, Parade Magazine, Chicago Tribune, individual pet lifestylists who highlight pet products on the major morning shows, and much more.

When you purchase this list you will receive an email that includes and outlines nearly 200 contacts with the press/media category; publication, radio station, newspaper name; appropriate contact name and their title (if applicable); along with the appropriate contact email address.

While most PR firms charge anywhere from $200 to $500.00 to send out just one press announcement on your behalf, and up to a $3000 per month retainer to handle your PR, now you can do it yourself for only the cost of the list - $125.00 USD. And the best part is that you can keep the list to continue to communicate important information about your pet business on a regular basis.

Once your payment is completed, you will be sent the press/media list to the email address you provide via your preferred payment method via PayPal. (Please allow up to 12-24 hours for your email list to be received in your inbox; and please don't forget to check your spam box, just in case.).

For your security, we process payments via PayPal, which takes major credit cards for your convenience.

In addition, if you are unsure about how to present and provide information about your pet business, new products, services and more to this audience of media and press, and would like Pawsible Marketing to help you in formulating your press release and/or message, feel free to contact us for more information!

When purchasing the Pet Business Press/Media Email Contact List you agree to abide by these terms and conditions. Please read these terms and conditions careful as they explicitly state: You may not republish the content provided on any Internet, Intranet or Extranet site or incorporate the content in any database, compilation, archive or cache. You may not distribute any of the content to others, whether or not for payment or other consideration, and you may not modify, copy, frame, reproduce, sell, publish, transmit, display or otherwise use any portion of the content. 

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What my dogs taught me about being an entrepreneur.

A weekend ago, I took some extra time to spend with my dogs, enjoying a little hiking, dog agility practice, fetching, learning a few new tricks and just spending time in the sun, listening to and watching the nature around us here on our Mountain.

As I sat there watching YoYo (Johann) and Gracie take in the nice weather, I was struck by how much they have taught me and reminded me about what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

Work hard, play hard and force yourself to take a break - for you!

Like many dogs Johann and Gracie are always ready to take on what's before them, whether it be a little stick fetching, dog agility, an adventure hike, or learning a new trick.

Both of them are herding breeds and are hard wired with a strong work ethic. With that type of work ethic and focus there are times when they won't stop until I tell them it's time.

All that work can really tax the brain. When they've been working hard on a new trick or new agility move, I'll give them a break and what do they do? Zoom around the yard working off the brain stress with physical activity.

Watching them, I've learned a lot about when to work hard, when to play hard, when to exercise, and to make myself take a break - just for me.

Listening can take you further than talking.

Johann and Gracie are very active listeners. With Johann, however, there comes a time when listening turns to talking, or barking, barking and barking...he's a sheltie, they do that sometimes.

Gracie on the other hand talks very little. When she does talk (bark), you know it's about something very, very important - most probably something relating to a squirrel.

Gracie is on to something. Taking the time to really listen can provide you with a lot more information; much more information than talking.

Communications and understanding can make it or break it.

Gracie and Johann learn very differently. I found this out early when I started teaching them tricks and dog agility.

Johann wants to know exactly what he's supposed to do very quickly or else he gets frustrated and starts barking. I can see him telling me when teaching him a new trick...'just tell me what you want and I'll do it!'.

Gracie on the other hand likes to think about and understand what she's supposed to do before doing it.

Many in the dog training world would understand when I say that Johann can't stand shaping, but Gracie loves it. Shaping is a training technique that allows the dog to learn individual steps as they progress to an end result, providing them with feedback through the steps and the process.

How I communicate with each individual dog varies greatly. And their process for understanding what I would like them to do over the long term is very different as well.

Learning this helps me better understand how to communicate with a wide variety of individuals I work with each and every day. Communicating the way prospects, customers, vendors and more, like to communicate can really improve the understanding of what information you are sharing, and can make or break your relationships and your success.

Wake up every day, ready to take on the World.

This one is really a no-brainer for a dog, but sometimes can be challenging for human beings.

I can't help but be enthusiastic every morning as Johann starts running around the cabin, looking forward to that first breath of fresh air in the morning, along with his enthusiasm for his breakfast.

With every molecule of his being, he is ready every morning to take on the World. It's infectious and I can't help but be right there beside him in his enthusiasm

Overcoming obstacles is just part of getting to the goal.

I could write a book on obstacles. When you are an entrepreneur there are no shortages of them.

Teaching Johann and Gracie how to run dog agility has opened my eyes and given me a new perspective about obstacles. Dog agility courses are full of them - dog walks, a frames, teeters, jumps, tunnels - some of them are Johann's favorites, some are Gracie's. But one thing is certain, you have to go through all of them to get to your end goal.

When Johann started agility the jumps were his favorite obstacle. But the a frame was a bit of a challenge for us.

Many dog agility trainers suggest that dogs stop at the end of the a frame to ensure that they touch the required 'contact zone' at the end of the frame. Every time I tried to get him to stop, his little Sheltie bum would keep it's momentum and he'd end up flipping his bum over his head. I thought a lot about how to handle this and one day decided to allow him to run through the frame and contact zone and not make him stop to see what would happened. He was amazing...ran right over the a frame and ran right through the required contact zone and on to the next jump, quickly and naturally.

I allowed him to handle the obstacle the best way he saw fit and it worked! Now the a frame is his favorite obstacle on the agility course and he still gets ooh and ahhhs as he runs through it quickly and accurately.

What that taught me is that everyone works through their challenges differently. And it also taught me that there are sometimes unusual and unique ways to work through whatever obstacle that is before you, you just have to find what works best for you.

Celebrate your wins, learn from your mistakes and move on.

Johann and Gracie are dogs and one of the best traits of a dog is that they live in the moment. When we have a win in agility, they know they did a good job and we celebrate! When we make a mistake or two on the course (most always because I made an error) Johann and Gracie really don't really know they made a mistake and are very happy to move on.

What this has taught me is that there isn't a need to over analyze your mistakes or missteps, review them, take note of how to improve the next time, and then move on! Life is much too short.

See opportunity where others may not.

Opportunity - Johann and Gracie see it everywhere; an opportunity to chase a squirrel, an opportunity to sniff where another animal has left their mark, an opportunity to grab some cheese that I may have dropped on the floor, just to name a few. And if they don't see opportunity at that given moment, they'll go off seeking it elsewhere.

Being an entrepreneur means that you must constantly watch for opportunity, understand if it is or isn't an opportunity; and if it is, act on it quickly.

Seek information when you're in over your head.

A very nice trait of both Johann and Gracie is that when they are in over their head or find something that's foreign to them, they immediately look to me for information, guidance and reassurance.

They dip their toes before jumping into the deep end, they sniff a snake and look at me before trying to paw at it - thank goodness - if they don't know where to go next on the agility course and I'm late in providing them with information, they will look to me for direction.

They aren't ones to dive in and ask questions later. They take a lot of risks, but are sure to understand what they are getting into before proceeding.

If you are in over your head with any aspect of running your business - whether it be accounting, marketing, sales, or service - seek out an expert in your field to help you with that aspect that you don't have the knowledge and experience that you need to be successful.

Take risks, but understand where you're headed.

Risk taking. It's risky, but it doesn't have to be. I often watch Gracie as she encounters something that's very foreign to her, something to her that may be a risk, but she isn't sure.

I'll never forget the first time she saw a turtle. She wanted to get close and investigate so badly, but she took her time to investigate, smell (from a distance), bob her head, trying to figure out if the frog was safe or was going to be a danger. Turns out that while she was investigating the turtle retracted it's little head and feet and was just a shell of a turtle. That's when Gracie moved in to investigate further..

Risks are risks, but with the proper investigation and knowledge you can take them with much more confidence.


Incentives can and will improve performance.

When I was training Gracie how to do her weave poles in agility, she wasn't performing them quiet as well as I thought she was able; she was a little slow. So what did I do? I put treats out about four feet from the end of the weave poles and watched with my mouth open as she sped through the weaves on to get that treat. Now her weave pole performance is one to be envied time and time again.

This is one of the biggest lessons I've learned and one I pass on to my clients on a regular basis. Incentives can and will improve performance. Set goals and treat yourself when you reach them and look at incentives for customers and prospects too.

Persistence pays off. 

Johann is my persistent one. Despite all of the challenges, obstacles, injuries, age and more; he still won't give up doing his favorite thing in the world - dog agility.

He may have to run slower some days, but on the days when he's feeling really good, he is a force to be reckoned with, winning and beating some of the top dogs in the world.

That's what I've learned from my dogs - never give up on what you want and need, be persistent and what you need will come to you.

Life, and work, should be fun!

Johann and Gracie are always ready to have fun. Many times throughout the day I get up from my computer and take a little break; and they are right there ready to participate in whatever I plan to do next.

They have an enthusiasm for life that no matter what is going on at any given moment spills over into mine, bringing me back to what's important; having fun with whatever you do.

When I take their lead it always makes the day more fun, more interesting and much more productive.

When you're out there on your own, it's good to have a pal that supports you.

Johann and Gracie and I are a great pack of three. We go everywhere together...we work together, we hike together, we compete and train in agility together. Besides having these two amazing herding dogs by my side, I also have and have had over the years a great group of people who have supported and mentored me over the years. Their help and assistance is, has been and will always be, invaluable.

Whether canine or human; good friends and mentors are very hard to come by. So when you find them, nurture them, care for them, develop them, and appreciate them!