Marketing to Pet Owners

Pet owners spend an estimated $66 billion+ spent every year on foods, treats, toys, and other goods and services for their pampered pets. Most of that money goes toward pet food, with pet supplies and vet services the next-biggest category of spending within the industry.

It's a ginormous marketing opportunity: More than 60 million US households have a dog, nearly 50 million households have a cat, and 15 million households have fish. Nestle Purina, one of the market leaders, is expanding production and distribution of products like Friskies and Dog Chow, to keep up with higher demand by the growing ranks of pet owners.

http://nulo.com/

Now, as Millennials become a driving force in buying for pets, marketing is more critical than ever. Given this target market's focus on healthy eating, it makes sense that pet-food marketers are emphasizing healthy ingredients like quinoa--yes, quinoa, the grain.

No wonder celebrity chefs like Rachel Ray have their own pet food brands now. And Olympic star Michael Phelps is appearing in ads for Nulo pet food, which promotes its low-carb nutritional benefits.

Nulo, by the way, has more than 141k likes on Facebook, compared with 1.1m likes for Purina Dog Chow on FB. Everyone's going social to connect with this major market.