According to a recent Harris poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans have a pet. Seven in 10 pet owners have a dog. Furthermore, 93% of dog owners consider their pet to be a part of the family.
Take a minute to think about what that means. It means that those 93% of dog owners consider their pets to be a major part of their lives. How major? Again, according to the Harris poll, nearly 70% of pet owners let their pets sleep in their bed. Another 65% buy their pets a gift for Christmas. In essence, many dogs enjoy the type of lifestyle afforded to the humans in their family.
How can you benefit from these findings? You can set yourself apart from much of your competition, if you or your business makes a point to embrace dog owners.
Run a grocery store or market? Consider letting dog owners bring in their pets while they shop, and promote the heck out of it.
Own a business? Let your employees bring their dogs to work or provide an onsite dog-sitting service, and promote the heck out of it.
There are many possibilities.
Dog owners, like their pets, are faithful. If your market let’s them bring in their pet, they’ll start shopping at your store versus the one down the street. If your business lets employees bring in their dogs, that a great way to increase employee happiness – thus reducing turnover and snagging better employees than your competition.
Now I’m fully aware that there are limitations and you have to work out the details. But imagine the new market you open up to yourself – a large (two-thirds) and faithful market. It might be worth the effort!
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i am senior citizen, so new at this. i have my blog, webpage,
mostly about my dog. need help on how to get people to my page.
any suggestions? KISS thanks
TeeRose,
You’ve already discovered one way:
Comment on other people’s blogs!
Nice idea. Talking form experience
of having a dog for 17 years, who
is going to clean up all the mess?
and how many owners want their dogs
savaged by aggressive dogs whilst
shopping, that could really raise
the stress factors, alienate non-dog
owner shoppers, and leave all your
food or your new 3 piece suite or
carpet with a funny smell.? Why do
all this when ‘Life outside marketing
is much more attractive’. Leave it to
Asda to deliver. If I was a dog I’d
rather go to the beach.
Thanks for commenting on my post! We score major points with our professor when we bring in outside traffic.
Coming from a long line of dog lovers, I couldn’t agree more with your suggestion to target this group. I know my mom and aunt always prefer stores that are dog-friendly (esp. Starbucks, as they serve free dog biscuits at their drive-through locations).
-Caitlin