Petco, baseball and California

Petco continues to grow its brand presence and customer base in the important California market.

At a recent Merrill Lynch conference on retailing, the company announced that Petco Park in San Diego has generated 865 million Petco-related impressions nationwide. That's a lot of eyeballs.

In the northern part of the state, Petco has bought radio ads highlighting discounts on specialty dog foods using Pet Pals cards.

The company's presence in California has quickly become strong, and it is on pace to open more stores in the first half of 2005 than Petsmart.

The company also mentioned their slogan "Petco, where the pets go" has three times unaided customer retention than major competitors.

With aggressive moves in one of the strongest pet markets in the U.S., Petco is poised to nip at its rivals heels.

Spectrum Brands

Businessweek on May 24, 2005 writes about Spectrum Brands, Inc. diversification into pet supplies as a wise strategic move. Spectrum, formerly Rayovac, has been acquiring pet supply and lawn & garden companies with leading market share or established distribution routes.

Petco on-leash

Petco got beat up at the dog park and ran, tail between its legs. Earnings, a lawsuit, a potential stock market delisting, and then blaming the economy to top it off. All in one day? Reminds me of the bumper sticker "My Dog is Smarter than Your Honor Student." But don't forget what loyal dogs do. Petco will bounce back.

Petsmart first quarter 2005

Petsmart reported a strong first quarter for 2005. Sales rose 13.4 percent to $903.2 million, beating analysts' estimates by over 1 percent. Same store sales comps grew 5.7 percent.

Executives cited pet services like grooming, training and boarding as important drivers of profitability, with services growing 20.8 percent in the first quarter.

Boarding services, or PETsHOTEL, are currently inside 17 stores, or only 2.3 percent of existing PETsMART stores. Doggie Daycamp is currently a concept test in one store in California.

The company will continue to expand in the key markets of the Northeast and California. Fifteen new stores opened in the first quarter.

The company is expanding in the premium dog food sector, announcing that it offers Hill's Science Diet, a popular and pricey food often recommended by vets. Hill's will be sold only in PETsMART's with in-store Banfield Pet Hospitals, which amounts to 450 of the 740 currently open stores.

The fact that pet health trends are following human ones was mentioned on the conference call.

The PetPerks programs seems to be picking up steam, with 8 million customers worth of data to run through the pricing optimization software.

Capitalizing simultaneously on the strengths, both short and long-term, of pet health, premium dog food, and pet services trends followed by the pet owner, it seems PETsMART continues to stay ahead of the curve.

Pets in advertising

Is it just me, or has there been a noticeable increase in television ads appealing to the pet owner?

I've recently seen ads from Disney, Volkswagen, Pedigree, Castrol, Motel 6, Ameritrade, and Scottrade that feature dogs. Volkswagen and Ameritrade highlight a young single woman with her dog, while Scottrade and Castrol target the male dog owner.

Then, of course, there's the Aflac duck, which is not really a pet, more like an independent thinker. But the talking duck, like Disney's anthropomorphized dogs, taps directly into the trend of the humanisation of companion animals.

Let me know what ads you see featuring pets.

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