BY Drs. Ing. Richard Lamb

E-mail: richard@trendwatcher.com

Fashion and bedding for pets is a hot topic these days. Not only for Pet Shop owners and their suppliers. Chains in other sectors have discovered Pets as well. For them it's an extra opportunity to generate sales: "If you love your pets you only buy what's best for them, don't you?" Similar to generating sales by way of kids marketing to generate sales to their parents.

Which 'trend' can be seen behind these developments in the market?

Beat them with your innovation

Most Pet Shop owners, like the one on the image (Carlton Road, Lowestoft, UK) don't realise in a daily basis that their business is threatened by e.g. Home and Gardening shops. It's happening more and more that these Home and Gardening shops also try to do fashion and bedding for Pets. That is in fact a smart move: when consumers are wandering around for their own bedding they're also in the right mindset to decide about bedding for their pets. The Pet sector can't beat that psychological combination. Since we can't beat that approach we got to look for real innovations.

Suppliers, take the lead!

In a global market the break-through innovations should be provided by the suppliers and pet shop chains. They can compare different business area's with each other and localise their inventions to the needs in the different regions. The small independent pet shop owners will follow. Especially the large global suppliers can make the market.

They do have two serious alternatives to react on the cannibalisation of the pet market by other sectors: (1) dare to specialise and (2) trans-sectoral innovation.

Dare to specialise

The first reaction to changing market circumstances is 'dare to specialise'. For suppliers this could mean creating innovative products for a new niche market. For instance a highly specialised product range with aquariums, rare fishes, related species and books. Supported by an information portal in the internet on this subject as well. The described concept works great in the toy industry. Do check www.astrojax.com to discover how these guys created a hype for their fun toys and even won a 'Toy of the year award' in 2003.

Trans-sectoral innovation

The second opportunity is: 'think trans-sectoral'. I mean: do what the others, like Home and Gardening shops and suppliers do. Think about innovative combinations to broaden the reach of the pet products. As an example one could think about emphasing the educational value for the children owning a dog, cat, mouse or whatever. After picking a focus like this, start looking for related products. In this case educational cd-rom's, books, games and dvd's on pets could be sold.

The core of 'trans-sectoral innovation' is combining the products and services from two(or more) different industries to create new business opportunities. It's also possible to use a business model from another sector and adjust it to the pet sector. What would you think about 'Rent-a-Pet' or ' Lease-a-Pet'? In this business model consumers do not just buy a pet. No, they pay a monthly fee for a full-service package for their beloved pets, including food, bedding, trimming, daycare and so on. 'PetsLease.com' and 'PetsLease.com' seems to be available. Go get them…

PETS International Magazine No.6 – September 2004