Does Brand Marketing Help?

[RaisingWealth]

My girlfriend and I run a very small dog grooming business... Well, to be fair. She runs it and I give suggestions and try to help her find ways to improve it.

I recently found a site which makes customized marketing materials like frisbees, Dog dishes, t-shirts and so on.

What I was thinking is that we could get a bunch printed off with our company logo and sell them to local pet stores. No contact info or anything just as a offshoot of the dog grooming services. Brand and market them as popular pet products from Julia's Pet Paradise (Our companies name).

Any suggestions or comments on whether this is likely to be successful or just a money sink (The only capital we have right now is my savings)

 

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[australianinvestor]

Being a small business, I don't think you'd be in the position to run a brand awareness campaign, which is what this is. I think you need to work at making those promo items turn into sales. Why not have a phone number or website on them? You could make some sales!

Daniel.

 

[rxcknrxll]

Right on, anything you do marketing-wise should be directly tied to an effect on production. What's your plan? Do you WANT more business? Seems like a dumb question, but if you got more clients, do you have the resources to handle the increase in business? Always look at your plan. If you want to increase sales, always look at your existing systems FIRST. There's nearly always a way to improve what you already have. A guy named Gary Keller taught me to always "lead with revenue", which means if you want to add a new system, piece of equipment, marketing campaign, etc...then do it. But FIRST, tweak what you have, work a little harder or something to get the money for it. Then invest in your business as you see fit. And track results. If it doesn't pull weight, cut it loose. That's another way to loose up some money for an idea you want to try: look at your existing systems and see if there's anything you're currently spending money on that's not getting any results for you. Any business that's been around a little while is usually guilty of this.

 

[australianinvestor]

Nice reply, rx. Speed+

 

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[RaisingWealth]

Being a small business, I don't think you'd be in the position to run a brand awareness campaign, which is what this is. I think you need to work at making those promo items turn into sales. Why not have a phone number or website on them? You could make some sales!

Daniel.

We've been doing some brainstorming with friends and what is likely to happen is we're going to run a seperate line of pet products under the name GetFurry by Julia's Pet Paradise. GetFurry.com (already ordered not made yet) will be the website for both the pet products and have information for the grooming services for people who are in our area.

 

[RaisingWealth]

Right on, anything you do marketing-wise should be directly tied to an effect on production. What's your plan? Do you WANT more business? Seems like a dumb question, but if you got more clients, do you have the resources to handle the increase in business? Always look at your plan. If you want to increase sales, always look at your existing systems FIRST. There's nearly always a way to improve what you already have. A guy named Gary Keller taught me to always "lead with revenue", which means if you want to add a new system, piece of equipment, marketing campaign, etc...then do it. But FIRST, tweak what you have, work a little harder or something to get the money for it. Then invest in your business as you see fit. And track results. If it doesn't pull weight, cut it loose. That's another way to loose up some money for an idea you want to try: look at your existing systems and see if there's anything you're currently spending money on that's not getting any results for you. Any business that's been around a little while is usually guilty of this.

I'm gonna add this to my quote book. Although we're too small for now we definitly will be growing to a point where I'll need to remember this

Rep+++

 

[rxcknrxll]

Thanks for the positivity and rep:cheers:

 

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[RaisingWealth]

Update: This is actually taking a bit of a different spin. It was going to be promotional products for the dog grooming services, but now it's growing a little faster then expected and most of the people involved want to build it into a full product line of pet toys.

Like was mentioned, realistically we don't want a lot more business for the pet grooming as that takes quite a bit of time in already packed schedules so we're now looking into getting some higher quality products and branding it as our own in house products line.

Does anyone have any tips on how to get our products into various stores?

 

[Z5 FILMS]

Does anyone have any tips on how to get our products into various stores?

All major retail chains like Pet Co, PetsMart, etc have "buyers" who evaulate your product and tell you yes or no.

You just need to find out who they are and how apply to be a vendor. But you can't apply with just an idea. You need and actual product in production and in your hand for them to look at and discuss points with you.

Here's the ventor application information link for PetCo

https://petco.mysourcingcenter.com/intro.htm


I could not find the one for PetSmart. I bet if you call a corporate office they can help you.

 

[randallg99]

a couple of things in this thread hit home but I will embark on one of them-

- brand awareness is really ideal for service based products that can act as "reminders" for the services as they arise, or even before. Grooming probably falls into that category since the customer is generally a repeat consumer more than a few times a year (? I don't know the biz) .... my initial thoughts in business involve how to keep the customer happy and how to keep them coming back. If the existing client base does not come back, then biz continues to be a costly venture because you are still spending money on stuff like (ahem) promotional products.)

now, will a promotional product like pens or pads drive the customer into the establishment/business?

what if it's a new customer? How are they enticed by a promotional product? I have had dozens if not hundreds of promo products (coffee mugs, t-shirts, pens, pads, key chains etc) in my posession over the years either given to me by the biz or passed along (think about a pen you used to sign a receipt and kept it) and never patronized any of those places and quite frankly, I can't even recall the establishments themselves!

however, a promo product as a form of appreciation for business can have much more powerful and long term impact. I personally like items with longer shelf life (travel mugs, coffee mugs) ... people generally can use them... and the clients even appreciate a surprise.... but this is after the biz has already generated the client base

My real thought on this matter is to drive business using more effective means before engaging in this type of a branded item promotion.

If you are going to create a self promoting product for YOUR biz, then the pet stores and other biz will have no interest in purchasing them (especially if they can get the exact products for the same prices if not cheaper.)

 

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[RaisingWealth]

Oh, I realized that, I wasn't likely to go to a pet shop with a "COME TO OUR PET GROOMING SERVICE" frisbee. Which especially wouldn't work because usually pet stores have grooming services of their own. This has become more of a venture in looking into getting items professionally produced and finding out what the costs would be.

Likely what's going to happen is we're going to get a set of promotional products (I.E. Coffee Mugs / Generic Frisbees) which will be giveaways (thanks randallg99) with groomings. Then a seperate line with no connection to our grooming service other then a brief mention on the website, if even that. The website will have only a small subtext mention on the packaging of the products, so they have to work as a standalone business. The website will initially be a source for a full line of pet products including anything we can get from Kong or other major pet products companies which we will slowly phase out as we build our line of products.

Does this sound like a workable plan, or just fantasy?

 

[randallg99]

From many readings, its much cheaper and easier to carress and cater to an existing happy client base than it is to attract new clients.

 

[kimberland]

Just a thought...

I'm assuming that the dogs/cats are on your mailing list, right?
You send them cute little reminder cards
or anniversary cards?
All mailing (except invoices) are sent to them?

And, of course,
a GOOD card has a photo of a dog/cat on it.
A GREAT card has a photo of THEIR dog/cat on it.
(Thanks to digital cameras and color printers,
a no brainer to do).

 

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[PEERless]

Is your brand unique? Trademarked? Brandable?

 

[Beepers]

If you're a small business you'll go broke building your brand. Wait til you're a milion dollar company.
Use marketing methods which ask for a response from your target market.

You can sell these products to your exisiting customers.
Just ask when the dog's birthday is.
Or the owners birthday.
And send them a sales letter with an irresistible offer.

The dog niche is large.

Get a free trial from Wordtracker and type in dog or dog products.
See what the demand is. You could then build a website and
sell your products from it. But don't forget to build your customer list.

Also ask for referrals from your exisiting customers.

cheers Mark