Show of hands, who loves pets?
If this actually worked, there would be almost 19 million hands up in Canada. Pets are part of the family and all signs suggest the family is going to keep on growing. And as Canada’s population ages, so do pet owners – in 2014, 75% of pet owners were 45-54 years old, and 21% earned more than $100,000 in annual household income. They’re a demographic willing and able to spend more on quality products with solid claims to back them up.
We take them to dog parks. We eat and shop with them at pet-friendly restaurants and stores. We pamper them with high-end grooming, boarding and veterinary care. We feed them, cuddle them, shower them with gifts and attention. In 2016, we’ll spend an estimated $7 billion on our pets. That, dear marketer, is love! Reaching pet owners—online, and maybe more importantly, where they live (but where is that and why?)—has to be top-of-marketing-mind.
The number of pets will continue to grow. Owners are also becoming more sophisticated shoppers for their pets, learning more before they buy. Together these factors will lead to ever-higher levels of spending. Reaching pet product customers where they live, both physically and online, continues to emerge as a challenge that pet product marketers need to solve.
Another trend, unrelated to pets, is “right message, right time, right place-marketing.” Social media and the proliferation of digital make everything available all the time. While we may think the internet makes physical location considerations in marketing less relevant than ever before, there may actually be significant opportunity for pet product and service companies to focus their efforts on geo-targeted pet-owning communities.
While plenty of information is readily available regarding (licensed) pet ownership rates at a provincial level, breaking down pet ownership by city is far more challenging. It can be tempting to assume that the cities with the largest populations will also have the largest rate of pet ownership, but smart marketers know that it comes down to more than just a numbers game. In that spirit, we selected three Canadian cities and explored the current trends and topics in pet ownership for their residents.
Vancouver
Vancouver’s reputation as a smart, sophisticated and green city carries over to its pet owners. They’re hardworking urbanites who take advantage of pet resorts, pet spas and high-end pet boutiques. In addition, they’re on the forefront of pet-related technology, with startup Go Fetch providing onwers a new way to connect with (and keep track of) pet-sitters and dog walkers, and Sexy Beast, a dating app which will connect pet owners over their mutual love of their animals.
Vancouver pet owners are also receptive to holistic and innovative pet health trends, like the controversial use of medicinal marijuana for pets. Vancouver animal lovers have even extended their love to rallying for policy changes, spurring a recent ban on the retail sale of small animals.
Unfortunately, Vancouver pet owners are faced with more than a few woes. Landlords with anti-pet policies further crunch the already-limited housing marketing and public transportation rules keep pets of the Sky Train, earning Vancouver another reputation: as Canada’s least pet-friendly city.
Calgary
Calgary pet owners don’t want to leave their pets at home, and increasingly, they don’t have to.
Calgary’s first dog-friendly office tower has separate elevators for people with dogs, a planned outdoor dog park and pet spa, and rules to keep poorly behaved pooches in line. A number of restaurant patios and attractions also have pet-friendly policies in place.
Calgary boasts 150 public off-leash areas, totalling more than 1,250 hectares. Widely considered to have the most progressive and humane pet bylaws in the country, Calgary can also claim the lowest euthanasia rate and the lowest bite rate, in spite of rising populations of both pets and people.
Toronto
In Toronto, pet-loving households tend to cluster together, and cluster outside of the downtown core, though an increasing number of pet owners are starting to realize they can happily cohabitate with a pup in a small condo. And developers are responding in kind, incoporating better services for pet owners in their downtown building plans.
Toronto has been home to Woofstock , the largest outdoor festival for dogs, since 2003, as well as a number of other dog-related exposts and festivals.
A 2016 study by Nutram Pet Products found another important factor which affects the way pet owners treat their pets: not just by the city they live in, but where in that city they live. Differing lifestyles drive different behaviours and attitudes towards pets.
Eighty-nine percent of people who live in urban centres include their pets in their daily activities and routines, including running errands, compared to just over 10% of suburban pet parents. They also spend more time being active with their pets – 52% exercise their dogs on sidewalks, while suburban owners prefer to allow their pets to romp in the backyard for exercise.
Urban pet owners are also way more snap happy: 83% take pictures of their pets daily, compared to only 17% of their suburban counterparts.
As marketing and communication experts, it’s our job to deliver the most relevant message to a precisely targeted audience. Take a minute to think about your nationwide audience of pet product and service buyers. Now consider that there are groups of them more heavily concentrated – and probably more open to hearing from you – in specific geographic areas. There may be more possibilities and higher return on investment to targeting them geographically than the digital trends suggest. But how?
Targeted Campaigns
Target your advertising, both traditional and online, in the places where the most people are interested in hearing it. Running print, out-of-home and broadcast in specific cities will maximize your media dollars, and targeting online and social through IP addresses and self-identifying home towns will help you focus on and reach more pet owners. And focus your message specifically to these areas. This will maximize both ROI and the efficacy of what you run.
Physical Presence
Consider holding local events. If you have more potential customers in the area, you can alert them to your presence by attending or even hosting pet-related events. Partner with businesses in the area that align with your product or service. You might even offer exclusives or discounts with retailers in targeted cities and neighbourhoods. There may be sponsorship opportunities to build awareness and goodwill in the specific areas. Find out what’s important to the people in that specific community and make it important to you. If everything goes great, you might even explore brick and mortar retail options and expansion into pet-friendly areas.
Local Learning
A large group of like-minded potential customers in one place makes that place ripe for conducting focus groups and surveys. Once you understand what drives their behaviours, you can align your brand’s position in a way that resonates.
The learning possibilities go beyond audience attitudes and behaviours. Consider this focus of pet-lovers a new product development opportunity. You can create, redesign and market products based on factors specific to the region, like using local ingredients or packaging design that suits demographics and psychographics.
Engage Influencers
The same factors and people that make these cities popular for pets could drive your sales. Build relationships with them to become ambassadors of your brand and spread the word across social media. And in a more grassroots way, you can engage influencers by supporting animal-friendly group relationships and other hubs of pet activity like breeders and shelters.
This may sound like a lot of great ideas, but how do you find the right location to plan these initiatives? And how do you launch them once you’ve decided where? It begins with understanding your analytics. You have to know what your traffic and engagement patterns mean — from all your projections, platforms and activities. Only then can you apply that data to target and fine-tune your communications.
A marketing partner that understands these things will help you gather and analyze the data to make the right decisions, pick the best location and choose the activities that will make the most impact. Consider a partner with geo-targeted media buying expertise — both on and offline. They’ll also have the expertise to help with social media by listening to the conversation, understanding where it’s going and keeping your message relevant. A content and social marketing strategy will help you understand how to engage local audiences and have your voice heard. Finally, you’ll need an experienced public relations and events team to help you make a splash in the city you choose.
Pick your city, pick your partner and watch your pet business grow!
