You may remember my last post about the nature of Iron Man retail politics. I received some interesting emails on the post and want to thank those who read it. For those who didn't (and didn't click the link above) let me state the mission of my particular blog posts--I want to detail the struggles and philosophy behind running a company (i.e. especially a green sustainable one like ours) in this crazy economy we have. Hopefully it will be an entertaining and insightful read for pet owners, pet store owners and anyone interested in small business.
So, there will not be Iron Man references this week.
No, this week we will be discussing a far more serious topic-
Star Trek.
Why Star Trek? It's simple- Teamwork is paramount for successful pet products. Without my team including Gerry Schuetz (our very own Spock although he would prefer CFO -- JK Ger!) I fear that we would not have had the success we've enjoyed in 2009-2010.
I know this because the pet industry is showing declines in several sectors such as pet supplements and the abandonment of pets from families affected by the economic downturn is up 20% in several shelters around the country. Furthermore, pet supplements are down in several retailers (by as much as 10% on year to year trends) while pet veterinarian bills are on the rise and represent 25% of most Americans' pet costs annually.
I'm rather serious about this point despite how trivial this may sound. I've come upon this rationale after spending the last year running Casey Petraceuticals and transitioning us from a pet-specific company sold primarily online to a retail brand that covers pet, people and the planet. The fact remains that if the pet industry is to continue to hold during times of a recession then we will ALL need to have more cooperation both within our own companies as well as amongst our vets, rescues and other pet advocates.
Now what we need is not just cooperation but we need people to do do what they are good at and to know what they are not. What has been brought to my attention by quite a few pet professionals is the amount of pet enthusiasts who lack some very important business skills. Finance, operations and marketing cannot be substituted for good customer service or affection for pets.
I don't mean this as an insult either just an observation.
This happens in every business I might add--I saw it a lot in my previous industry, video games--where people would be better at selling or marketing toilet paper but liked being in video games because it was "cooler".
The pet industry has one of the nicest, most genuine coalition of people I've ever met.
But passion and consideration DO NOT keep the lights on. Trust me, I speak from experience.
I see this when we work with some retailers who worry about a product selling but do not know how to accurately test the product's capability to sell. Or the opposite happens where someone creates a product for pets and cannot understand why the product isn't being carried by more stores.
For example, our business involves creating food grade products that must be tested, marketed, sourced, sold, shipped and promoted online. To that end we have several individuals with great careers who are working to drive Casey Petraceuticals:
- One has 14 yrs experience as a vet tech
- Another has 20 yrs. experience as a financial manager/ accountant
- I have a decade plus experience in retail consumer products.
- And more and more experience from our staff, vendors, associates and Board members continue to help us along.
Likewise, with customers I often hear "is your product a food?" or "why would I pay for a supplement when we have our pet on the best food out there?" The last point is a bit contentious as I'm sure EVERYONE in the industry would have a very subjective answer to this. Some would do so from solid scientific knowledge and others on more personal matters such as testimonials, relationships or the always powerful factor of cost (I'm talking to you Ol' Roy!). We try never to demand of our customers--we use our forums such as this to guide or suggest.
That said, the customer has to be educated to what we as a company are about and while that's my job--we all stand a bit of responsibility in teaching customers, stores and groups to the power of our collective philosophy for better pet care.
Casey Petraceuticals' success is still a work in progress. We're nowhere near where I'd like for our company to be but it's nothing that we can't handle when we work together. This goes the same with retail and customers.
For example, we are sold in several All-Natural grocery stores. We targeted them because their customers are typically more in tune with solid ingredients as opposed to low priced, mass produced product with harmful ingredients. The stores like our product because it has human grade ingredients, easy to merchandise and affordable. They are allies with us and in turn they help us to promote our new line of products to a strong group of customers.
For customers--we do as much as possible to help them with both food choices as well as good customer service. We have very solid methods of getting our product to customers including some for FREE (through our sample program that you can find on our site www.caseypets.com). We always promote the pets of our customers and users who have had strong results. This serves the purpose of educating people to what a holistic and healthy nutritional balance can do for both your body as well as your pet's. Likewise, we always enjoy a very open communication with our customers. Where most companies may fear this we embrace it as we learn not only about pets in need but about how the message of healthy living is thriving or suffering in certain markets. That's not to say we always recommend our product either. Nancy Seymour, company founder, uses Twitter and Facebook, as well as personal appearances, to evangelize all organic, quality products whether they are ours or not.
WE ALL BENEFIT when we help to promote good products, pet rescues, independent retailers/ services and solid pet events in local communities.
By the time you read this we will have launched our 3rd and most exciting redesign yet in the past 18 mo. It will now exist under our new website: www.caseypetraceuticals.com.
Tara Marlowe developed it (as you may not know she is our Marketing Manager and is the person who writes many of our blog posts) and designed it so that it will finally show our 3 labels:
- www.caseypets.com
- www.caseypeople.com
- www.caseyplanet.com
It has taken a great deal of time and support from groups such as our ad agency to retail partners to select customers (not to mention our internal management team) to get the company to this phase and we still have a long way to go. But we will get there. Our goals are just too big to stop where we are.
- We believe in this market and want to help direct the pet biz into new places with new customers coming aboard.
- We believe that we can help to stem the tide of pets with human-born diseases such as cancers through stronger nutritional supplements.
- We believe that we can affect a change with retailers by exposing them to new mainstream customers who want to get involved in premium foods without feeling overwhelmed by the details or the price.
But we cannot do it alone and we will all need to work together so that "we can boldly go where no man has gone before." We'd love to build a federation of support to help us on our mission.
I'm confident we will!
Sincerely,
Frederick Jones
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