What is the best way to monetize this highly perishable niche pet product?

[Ernie McCracken]

Product background: If you aren't aware, there are many dogs out there with IBS or inflammatory bowel disease, just like people. Sometimes it's so severe that they become totally emaciated, stop eating, stop drinking, and eventually die. Years back, my very ill IBD dog had one foot in the grave and I was frantically trying everything to keep her alive. I paid the vet $20k and all they can do is prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs and prescription dog food. There's no real comprehensive way to treat it, unfortunately.

To make a very long story short, I used a combination of roughly 30 exotic ingredients to create a food product that essentially cured my dog (yes you are right to be skeptical, but no BS I have before/afters and many testimonials). Via word of mouth, other similarly sick dogs keep finding their way to me. Dozens of them over the past few years and the vast majority get better immediately. Even though I often give them the recipe for free, I still have desperate people calling/texting literally every day, asking to buy it. One woman even found my house and knocked on my door after her initial supply ran out, in tears.

IF I start selling this, I need to make it in a USDA permitted facility and to invest $$$ in equipment. It is a frozen food product that weighs a ton, so not ideal for e-commerce. My raw material cost is also enormous (meat and seafood prices omg, even raw lamb stomachs are $5/lb), so pricing is a real issue and likely the reason this product doesn't already exist in the market. Retail price will need to be $10-$15/lb, at least.

Options I'm thinking about:

1. Sell locally on my own, direct to customers through word of mouth only. Simple made to order model.

2. Try to partner with local vet offices, get referrals through them. They see IBS/IBD dogs every day. How much would I have to kick back?

3. E-commerce. Largest market, but shipping would be $$$$$. Are people even going to believe that my product even works?

4. Sell just the recipe online for a nominal fee

 

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[chazwazzer]

Is there a way to try and bundle your knowledge into a course and market it that way? Like a natural dog health course or how to make highly nutritious homemade dog food. Then use your story about what you were able to accomplish with your dog as a marketing message. That way you are not selling something that has potential health claims and also avoid the need to manufacture anything / overhead associated with manufacturing.

 

[biophase]

Product background: If you aren't aware, there are many dogs out there with IBS or inflammatory bowel disease, just like people. Sometimes it's so severe that they become totally emaciated, stop eating, stop drinking, and eventually die. Years back, my very ill IBD dog had one foot in the grave and I was frantically trying everything to keep her alive. I paid the vet $20k and all they can do is prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs and prescription dog food. There's no real comprehensive way to treat it, unfortunately.

To make a very long story short, I used a combination of roughly 30 exotic ingredients to create a food product that essentially cured my dog (yes you are right to be skeptical, but no BS I have before/afters and many testimonials). Via word of mouth, other similarly sick dogs keep finding their way to me. Dozens of them over the past few years and the vast majority get better immediately. Even though I often give them the recipe for free, I still have desperate people calling/texting literally every day, asking to buy it. One woman even found my house and knocked on my door after her initial supply ran out, in tears.

IF I start selling this, I need to make it in a USDA permitted facility and to invest $$$ in equipment. It is a frozen food product that weighs a ton, so not ideal for e-commerce. My raw material cost is also enormous (meat and seafood prices omg, even raw lamb stomachs are $5/lb), so pricing is a real issue and likely the reason this product doesn't already exist in the market. Retail price will need to be $10-$15/lb, at least.

Options I'm thinking about:

1. Sell locally on my own, direct to customers through word of mouth only. Simple made to order model.

2. Try to partner with local vet offices, get referrals through them. They see IBS/IBD dogs every day. How much would I have to kick back?

3. E-commerce. Largest market, but shipping would be $$$$$. Are people even going to believe that my product even works?

4. Sell just the recipe online for a nominal fee

Do number 1.

Then if people want it, many will be from out of state. Then figure out number 3.

 

[woken]

Do number 1.

Then if people want it, many will be from out of state. Then figure out number 3.

This is how this type of business should start.

frozen food product that weighs a ton

Does it really, or is it just an expression? lol.


I guess I’d start with finding customers.
Figure out how much you need to buy for a batch for 4-5 dogs. If it’s frozen then you can keep it that way for a while.

Also, I understand this is a one-time treatment but likely it won’t solve the problem, but rather alleviate the symptoms. This means you can suggest the product to be given to the dogs every 6 months( or whatever your data says).

You won’t have major packaging costs in the beginning, you don’t really need much but customers. If you can make it work with products bought at supermarket price then you’ll know the margin will increase once you can order in bulk.

Basically, you can assume that most customer s you get now will still buy from you once you have it nicely packaged( convenience, etc) so you can assume revenue. (Recurring revenue, subscription)

This brought back memories from TRRE.

Ps: if the product works like you says it does, the laws of productocracy will take care if the rest

 

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[Slipshod]

Product background: If you aren't aware, there are many dogs out there with IBS or inflammatory bowel disease, just like people. Sometimes it's so severe that they become totally emaciated, stop eating, stop drinking, and eventually die. Years back, my very ill IBD dog had one foot in the grave and I was frantically trying everything to keep her alive. I paid the vet $20k and all they can do is prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs and prescription dog food. There's no real comprehensive way to treat it, unfortunately.

To make a very long story short, I used a combination of roughly 30 exotic ingredients to create a food product that essentially cured my dog (yes you are right to be skeptical, but no BS I have before/afters and many testimonials). Via word of mouth, other similarly sick dogs keep finding their way to me. Dozens of them over the past few years and the vast majority get better immediately. Even though I often give them the recipe for free, I still have desperate people calling/texting literally every day, asking to buy it. One woman even found my house and knocked on my door after her initial supply ran out, in tears.

IF I start selling this, I need to make it in a USDA permitted facility and to invest $$$ in equipment. It is a frozen food product that weighs a ton, so not ideal for e-commerce. My raw material cost is also enormous (meat and seafood prices omg, even raw lamb stomachs are $5/lb), so pricing is a real issue and likely the reason this product doesn't already exist in the market. Retail price will need to be $10-$15/lb, at least.

Options I'm thinking about:

1. Sell locally on my own, direct to customers through word of mouth only. Simple made to order model.

2. Try to partner with local vet offices, get referrals through them. They see IBS/IBD dogs every day. How much would I have to kick back?

3. E-commerce. Largest market, but shipping would be $$$$$. Are people even going to believe that my product even works?

4. Sell just the recipe online for a nominal fee

People who own a pet are people who care for their pet like their child. If my child is sick I won't be hesitating to save some extra money especially when vets are costing me 20k for no results.
Here are a key few things you can do to start:

Get an estimate on how much raw material you would need to make let's say a month's worth of meal for a dog.
for product you should also keep essential things directly related to this in mind:
1. cost of making a month of meal for a single dog.
2. shelf life of single meal (does it need to be served fresh or can be kept in storage for a good amount of time) More shelf life is better, find a healthy preservative to add to mix if you can
3. Look for manufacturers who can provide you with raw materials for a wholesale price.

Scaling comes later demand comes first:
Register a company, figure out the permissions you'll need to sell this product, and get license and permissions from authorities.
1. start making your presence on the internet Social Media is a great tool.
2. Start small (You can build a custom website and start selling in just your state or in certain pincodes where you can make the deliveries happen ASAP).
3. Get traffic and reviews on your website, this can be easy since you already have people looking for your product (Help people out and ask them to check out your website and leave a review/testimonial best way of getting the most out of this would be to ask them to make a short testimonial and put that on your Social media)
4. Now there is demand, people know your product offers value because there is social proof, Now it's time to figure out how much profit you want per sale of the product.
5. Once you have enough social media presence and testimonials you can go to vets in your area and offer them your product on a wholesale rate (less than the Printed MRP so that they can make money too), but don't forget your profits.

This I think will be enough for you to get money enough to start production and figure out your delivery method for a wider region.

Note: You are providing something of great value. You can charge a really high amount for this product and you should (Value you are providing is saving a life, it's convenient and more pocket friendly if they know that their dog can be saved and believe it because of your testimonials, they don't have to do much more than they regularly do which is giving the dog food and care.) The challenge here will really be two things (delivery and management of stock).

My tip is execute this idea as fast as you can.

 

[BizyDad]

Sell just the recipe online for a nominal fee

When my dog had liver issues, my ex paid over $1500 for a vet to create a custom dog diet. That was on top of testing costs etc.

Just thought I'd mention it...

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

When my dog had liver issues, my ex paid over $1500 for a vet to create a custom dog diet. That was on top of testing costs etc.

Just thought I'd mention it...

A lot of pet owners are insane, to the point at which people buy beer specifically made for dogs

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

https://www.rover.com/blog/beer-for-dogs/

There is also perfume for dogs. Ice cream for dogs. Designer clothing for dogs

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there is a fortune to be made by helping wealthy people waste their money

 

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[REV5028]

There are a bunch of frozen dog foods out there: Just Food For Dogs, Darwin's, We Feed Raw, The Farmer's Dog, Nom Nom, etc. There are also a lot of freeze dried/dehydrated options: Little Hunter, Badlands Ranch, Sundays, etc. I think they all are somewhere around $10 - $20 /lb. So, I imagine that if you start local you will have no issue with scaling (in terms of price).

Also, you might consider something like Dr. Harvey's: it's a mix of the lighter dehydrated veggies and vitamins, then the customer just adds water, oil, and protein of choice.

And, of course you could definitely go the route of a vitamin/mineral/herb/etc. mix sold with the recipe. Customers would then be responsible for all their own larger/heavier items (fresh fruits/veggies, oils, protein).

You might also be able to do a combination of all of these at some point. Have a price tier. For $ you get the recipe and base mix. For $$ you get the mostly prepared meal, just add three more ingredients. For $$$ you just thaw and serve.