Pets in America {infographic}

An interesting infographic courtesy of The Week, outlining pet stats, pet spending and more.

Click to enlarge if needed. Sources: American Kennel Club, American Pet Products Association, DogTime, Infographiclist, International Labradore Association, Pet Care RX, VetSTREET, Woof Report, World Society for the Protection of Animals

A little secret to help you look more photogenic in photos for your pet business

It's all about the jaw!!!

I can't count the number of times I've had to tell a client to have their photo taken for their website and heard the grunts and groans because; a) they hate getting their photo taken; and b) they never like how their photos turn out. And I can't count the number of times that I've worked with executives, and photographers, to get the best shot for these execs to represent their brand.

Well, here's a little secret that I've used over the years with clients and with myself to get a good photo nearly every time. And it's all about the jaw. This video (below) explains everything you need to know to have a great photo taken  to best represent your pet business.

You'll notice in my photo (above) that I have a black turtle neck on. I sometimes have a bad habit of not following my own advice, especially in quick, candid shots. So what do I do? I wear a black turtle neck (weather permitting of course) and then it's even easier to tilt your forehead down just a little to accent your jaw line, better define your face and give you a confident, poised and easy look.

It just so happened that on a very nice day in November last year, I took YoYo and Gracie hiking to a popular trail. After hiking four miles, we gathered with other hikers and swapped hiking stores. During a lull in the conversation, one of the other hikers grabbed my camera and said, 'I have to get a photo of you and your two dogs!' I knelt down, tilted my forehead forward, smiled, and voila, a nice candid shot with my best four legged friends. It was just luck that I had on my black turtle neck that day.

Enjoy the video and info...and if you are in a hurry, just skip through the vid to the 7:00 mark for a quick overview.

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.