This was absolutely one of the most fun companies I have ever been involved in – helped along by the fact that pets can be the world’s most satisfied and appreciative customers when you’re offering them a really good product. It was certainly a wild ride, originating with a group of family farmers and ranchers who were looking for a way to make selling high-quality meats in the organic and natural market a more viable proposition.
My partners Dave Carter and Myron Lyskanycz and I where intrigued by the fact that no pet-food company had shown interest in obtaining premium ingredients, such as hearts and livers, from such operations. It was with that in mind that we formed Natural Pet Nutrition, whose brand, Pet Promise, has rapidly advanced to first place in its category within only four short years (and only two with a full-fledged presence in the marketplace) with a mission to change the way farm animals are raised and companion animals are fed. It was also a company that broke all the accepted marketing rules and substituted new and crazy strategies (as described below).
Here are some ‘insiders’ insights’ into the key elements that lay behind that success – courses of action I would like to put forth as recommendations to other pioneering enterprises.
Formula for Success Insights:
1) Build on a cause-driven, future-oriented foundation. People become passionate when they can relate in a personal way to “doing good.” It makes for stronger team morale and pride in one’s job, and a kind of electricity that’s positively contagious. That same sense of enthusiasm is conveyed to consumers, who will respond by becoming customers.So find a way to associate your company with a socially responsible cause, if it isn’t already linked to one, and find enthusiastic people to tell your story at all levels from consumers to retailers.
2) Differentiate the product from its competition. Pet Promise had multiple things that set it apart from its competitors in the natural channel, such as its role in helping save family farms and the environment – claims made by no other brand. Another aspect of its uniqueness was the fact it contained protein without antibiotics or hormones – a claim that took all of Dave Carter’s skill to make sure we could continue to back up by procuring the right products. Part of the way we emphasized these differences was to put a stop sign design with a hand being held up and the word “No” on the front of the bag — an unorthodox marketing device conceived by our maverick ad business veteran Myron Lyskanycz. The brand’s unique aspects were also communicated to the consumer by such methods as including a “power of the promise” flier that shows the amounts of antibiotics and hormones that Pet Promise purchasers have managed to eliminate.
3) Establish the product’s authenticity. By supporting the honesty and authenticity of all claims, we were able to establish ourselves as a brand consumers could trust. This was done both by affiliating our company with organizations like the Organic Center and Farm Aid and by getting endorsements from such highly influential figures as Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Andrew Weil. A key technique was to accord recognition to established brands whose products are used in pet promise ingredients, such as Petaluma Poultry and Coleman Beef, giving further credence to the claims of having no factory farmed beef or chicken.
1) Stay on top of all the retail details. When you are pioneering a category, there are many little things you have to closely monitor, from store personnel not remembering to order the product to merchants thinking they can satisfy that one inquisitive consumer by ordering just a couple of bags. You have to look at all the aspects of execution and promotion. At Pet Promise, utilizing a tool box that had not been previously employed in the Natural Channel, we established a carefully crafted set of standards for retailers to follow. For instance, we would only sell to the ones who agreed to display our signage package and stock a minimum of a four-linear-foot set consisting of 23 SKUs. This was a big demand, but a critical one to the success of Pet Promise. To help us get retailers to accept it, we hired a group of retired CPG sales people to go into the stores every week and work with their personnel to help them understand the thinking behind it. Besides being great to have the “70- somethings” back in the game, it was a unique way to save our planogram’s integrity. Another useful tactic was to have a cause and unique selling point to rally all the employees around.
5) Scrupulously lay the groundwork for a product launch. At Natural Pet Nutrition, we had sales people in the field six months before we even had a product talking about the virtues of establishing a pet category in the natural channel. Then we used every communication tool imaginable to tell our story, from signage to a set of four brochures to an e-mail blast to blogging. We even came out with a book on “How Dog Food Saved the Earth,” then did a nationwide book tour promoting the fact that even purchasing pet food can make a difference in helping our planet remain livable. But perhaps the greatest impact was made by our “Green Team” of grass-roots marketing people that visited cities around the country, going to dog parks, coffee shops and other gathering places with the Pet Promise message.
6) If you product is a trailblazer, take whatever steps your resources permit to build a corresponding category. Prior to the entry of Pet Promise, pet food was not being marketed in a meaningful way by such natural-food specialty outlets as Whole Foods and Wild Oats, reducing the entire category to a mere sixteenth of its $400 million potential. Our approach to these chains was to emphasize that if they sold as much pet food as did their conventional counterparts, they would increase their sales and profits by so much, which proved to be a key selling point. It’s also important to make sure the retailer carries the assortment of products necessary to build the category adequately and, whenever possible, to exploit categories in cross channels that are under-indexed.
