Coach pet accessories in 2005

Coach, Inc. (NYSE:COH) is gearing up for another holiday season full of innovative marketing strategies by once again taking advantage of the $35 billion pet industry. While not currently available, Coach pet accessories will be re-introduced during the critical holiday shopping season in 2005.

"For the holiday period, Coach's popular core assortment of collars and leashes will be back again, both online and in-store through the company's Coach by Special Request gift guide," said Andrea Shaw Resnick, vice president of investor relations at Coach, in an interview with Dillon Media.

Visitors to the website and the store will have 24 hour shipping options available, no doubt in order to quickly raise their pet up to their own fashion standards.

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Neopets or real pets?

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning on Viacom's acquisition of Neopets, a highly popular website for children and teens.

Visitors to neopets.com adopt an animated, made-up pet on the internet and visit the website to play games and engage in other online activities.

With 25 million registered users, "eight figure" annual revenues, and in the top ten "stickiest" website, according to the newspaper, Neopets was sold for $160 million.

Viacom, the cable and film company, plans to bring Neopets into the real world, planning a feature film and a line of toys to be sold by Target Corp.

Source: "Viacom to Acquire Children's Web Company Neopets," by Joe Flint and Nick Wingfield, Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2005.

Airline pet law goes into effect

Today airlines begin reporting how many of the estimated 2 million pets that travel each year are injured, killed or lost during flights.

The new law, enacted by Congress, continues the legislative trend across the country seen over the last few years changing laws governing pets from property rights to guardianship.

Fido is not a watchdog anymore, but a child. That said, since when has Fido been cargo?

This law makes sense, but these legislative trends will continue to create new regulatory issues affecting some pet businesses, especially services like pet sitters and daycare, dog walking and grooming, which already can follow different laws in different states.

A good resource for pet laws is the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC), a trade organization that monitor regulations and legislation at the state, federal, and international levels.

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Target pets tv ad campaign

Less than two months after launching a new pet website, Target Corp is bringing its pet products into your living room.

CNBC just aired a television commercial by Target featuring nothing but pet products, the first pet-only ad I've seen from the company.

Focusing on mid to high-end dog products with traditionally high margins, as well as multiple pet owner demographics, the catchy ad campaign should drive some valuable customers (the pet parents) into the stores.

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Polo Ralph Lauren dog apparel

See The Update From April 2008: Ralph Lauren Dog Accessories

In 2003 Ralph Lauren had a successful holiday season selling Polo dog shirts. The company has since added a $95.00 cashmere dog sweater to the dog line, which at three times the cost of the shirt suggests continuing popularity with the products.

Appealing to the pet owner who shops in-store, the company notes on its website that all Polo Ralph Lauren retail stores are pet-friendly, offering a gourmet pet treat or a walk while you shop.

The website, however, is not quite so dog-friendly. The dog apparel is not emphasized on the site, to be found only after the visitor clicks on the 'Gifts' link, and then a sub category link.

The inability to instantly find dog apparel from the homepage and other categories seems to this industry watcher to be a missed opportunity in the thriving pet market.

But perhaps this is simply another example of a retail website playing catch up to its own stores and its competitors. Polo displays this symptom by lacking any search functionality on a large e-commerce website, putting it at a strategic disadvantage to its online peers.

Source: www.polo.com

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Do dogs get insomnia?

Royal treatment mint tea spa treatment, honey-kissed banana and oatmeal shampoo...what I get for not being able to sleep is a one hour tv special on pampered pet products on the Home Shopping Network (HSN, owned by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp).

But the demographics are impressive, reaching into 85 million households, with 75 percent female viewers making on average $61,000 per year should make this one hour special a highly profitable one, perfectly illustrated this moment by Joan, the latest caller who set her alarm to wake up at 2am, call HSN, and talk about how much she likes the hip and joint duo for dogs.

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PetMed Express 2005 results

The largest pharmacy in America for dogs, cats and horses, PetMed Express, Inc. offers prescription and non-prescription pet medications and health products via website, phone and catalog.

The company reported net income in fiscal 2005 up 38 percent to $8 million, and net sales up 15 percent to $108.4 million, compared to 2004.

The company acquired 510,000 new customers in 2005, down slightly from 2004, but showed increases in gross margins, retail reorders and internet sales, with 53 percent of sales completed online compared to 50 percent last year.

source: www.1800petmeds.com
 

Central Garden & Pet

Central Garden & Pet Co. is also playing ball, today announcing a marketing partnership with the Texas Rangers. This marks the company's second deal with major league baseball this year. The first one was announced in February with the Oakland A's.

The exposure provided by this latest deal should be significantly better than the first. With the Oakland A's, the only season long sponsorship is with the grounds crew, while the Texas deal sponsors a season long retail sweepstakes aimed at the family.

The new deal also features a one day promotion using the big video board at Ameriquest Field, which improves the chances at national TV coverage, especially considering it will show someone's pet dressed in Rangers gear.