Small Business Labs

TV Show on Spoiled Pets

Regular readers know we like pet trends. And in particular, anything related to the trend towards "pet humanization" tends to catch our eye.

This is the trend towards pet owners viewing themselves as "pet parents" and treating their pets as full-fledged family members.  

Spoiled Rotten Pets is a new TV series that covers the world of "outrageous pet pampering and meets some shockingly over indulgent pet owners who wouldn't have it any other way". 

Included in early episodes are a visit to a pig spa, a session with a dog psychic and a story about rats wearing tuxedos.  

And no, I'm not making this up. 

The pig spa is my favorite.  

According to an MSN article, it offers:

"38 swine suites with private pools and lanais, concierge service, exercise facilities, room service, and, of course, maid service (because these guests are total pigs)." 

This raises the question of what does a pig concierge do?  Theater tickets?

That this show exists is a clear signal of the growth of the pet humanization trend.

We expect this trend to increase in importance due to aging boomers looking for companionship and the growth of households without kids.  

I'm somewhat depressed to tell you that National Geographic is the show's producer. One of the world's largest and best known non-profit organizations, their tagline is "Inspiring People to Care About the Planet".

It's good to see they aren't willing to dilute their brand and mission just to make a few bucks of advertising revenue.  

U.S. Pet Population Declining?

The New York Times article High Debt and Falling Demand chronicles the financial problems facing U.S. veterinarians. Key quote:

The problem is a boom in supply (that is, vets) and a decline in demand (namely, veterinary services).

According to article the number of pets in the U.S. has declined over the last 5 years or so.  Here's the data from the article:

• from 2006 to 2011 the number of dogs declined from 72 million to 70 million
• about 36 million households owned at least 1 cat in 2011, down 6% from 2006
• the horse population has declined by over 30% since 2006

I have to say I was surprised at these numbers.

Yes, there was a big recession during this period. And yes, pets and pet care are discretionary budget items. But as we pointed out in our post The Amazing Growth of the Pet Industry, the overall industry's revenue grew substantially from 2006 to 2011.

If all of this data is correct (number of pets is down, pet industry revenue up), this means we're spending a lot more per pet.  

This would not surprise me. Pet humanization is one of our favorite trends and makes it easy to believe we are spending more and more money on our pets.

It will be interesting to see if the pet population bounced back a bit in 2012. We'll track this down and report.

DogVacay - Airbnb for Dogs Raises $6 Million

OK, I have to admit I think this is a great idea. DogVacay is an Airbnb-like service for dogs. The site lets users search for, find and hire dog sitters for the day, overnight or longer stays. According to the site, the sitters:

"range from professional pet sitters with ranches to experienced dog lovers in cozy homes and they can't wait to meet your pup!"

They even provide a doggy concierge to help you pick the right sitter and plan activities for your dog.

               
According to an article in BetaKit, the site recently raised $6 million dollars to expand their business. The article also mentions DogVacay's competitor, Rover, which recently raised $3.5 million.

It's pretty clear that VCs and entrepreneurs believe in the "pet humanization" trend. For more on this trend, see our Pet Trends section. 

Betakit also has a great article on the broader trend of startups going after the $53 billion pet market.  

Halloween Going to the Dogs

Regular readers know we love pet trends, especially when they relate to the humanization of pets.

According to an article in Time Magazine "American consumers are expected to collectively spend $370 million on pet costumes this Halloween.

That’s $70 million more than last year, and a 40% increase compared to 2010.

The article goes on to point out that 62% of American homes have pets.  Only about 34% of American households have children.

Oh, by the way total Halloween expenditures this year are expected to reach $8 billion.

Also BTW, the picture on the right is of Chico, our favorite humanized pet. Always a trend setter, Chico's been dressing up for Halloween for years.

Pet Supply Sales Continue to Grow

Regular readers know we like pet trends here at Smallbizabs, especially the trend towards pet humanization.  This is the growing trend of pet owners seeing their pets as full fledged family members and themselves as "pet parents".

Pet parents treat their children well, which is why pet industry revenues continue to grow.  According to an article in Media Post, U.S. retail sales of non-food pet supplies totaled $11.1 billion in 2011, up 2% over 2010.

Please note these sales numbers do not include pet food.  U.S. pet food sales increased 4.5% to $19.2 billion in 2011.

The final paragraph of the Media Post article covers the pet humanization trend:

"The ultimate blurring, however, is that between humans and pets.  Many of the products entering the U.S pet supplies market are directly reminiscent of human fare, appealing to pet owner as much as pet."

Food Trucks Going to the Dogs - And Big Brands

Regular readers know one of our favorite trends is pet humanization.  This is the trend towards pet owners seeing their pets as full fledged family members - and themselves as "pet parents."  

One big issue for pet parents is dining out with their dogs.  Those pesky health code rules make it hard to bring pets into restaurants.  

So it comes as no surprise that food trucks are starting to serve dog food.

Chef Michael's, a dog food brand owned by Purina, recently debuted it's first food truck for dogs and dog owners in Boston.  

According to their press release:

"While the culinary world has embraced the food truck trend, dogs have largely been left out," said Joe Chatman, Chef Michael's Brand Manager. "Chef Michael's doesn't think that's right. Why shouldn't dogs have food trucks too?"

The press release goes on to cite some survey statistics, including:

"six in 10 (59 percent) dog owners surveyed have patronized food trucks and 48 percent would likely take their dog to lunch or dinner at a food truck that provided food for dogs if there was one in their neighborhood."

Chef Michael's food truck also nicely illustrates the growing trend of big brands using food trucks to promote their products.  This, of course, is not a new idea.  The Oscar Meyer Weinermobile made its first appearance in 1936. 

Offices Going to the Dogs

For the 2nd week in a row, we have story on dogs.  Workforce's Pet Projects (registration required) covers the growing trend of employers letting employees bring pets to work, especially dogs.  

The article says pets in the office reduce stress and increase employee loyalty.  

As proof, the article cites a study showing that "pets in the workplace reduce stress, absenteeism and turnover and improve morale."

In addition to allowing pets in their offices, companies are starting to offer pet benefits. Examples from the article include:

 - Home Depot Inc. offers veterinary pet insurance. It was one of 2,500 companies with such a benefit in 2011, up 4 percent from a year earlier, according to California-based Veterinary Pet Insurance Co.

 - At the State University of New York in Delhi, pets of staff and faculty members receive free medical care and grooming as part of the hands-on learning of veterinary students

The pet industry generates close to $50 billion in revenue, was one of the few industries to grow through the Great Recession, and shows no signs of slowing down.  

No wonder we like pet trends so much.

Pet Humanisation Fueling Opportunities for Pet-preneurs

Regular readers of this blog know that pet trends is one of my favorite topics.  The key reason, beyond the fact that I'm a life long dog owner, is the fascinating trend towards "pet humanisation."

More and more pet owners are seeing their pets as full fledged family members - and themselves as "pet parents."  Because of this, spending on pets is skyrocketing.  Last year, for example, Americans spent almost $50 billion on their pets. 

This is creating opportunities for pet-preneurs - entrepreneurs creating businesses to serve this growing and increasingly diverse goods and services market.  The Intuit Small Business blog article Grooming and Booming has a nice infographic on this topic. 

Of course my favorite humanized pet is Chico, my brother and sister-in-law's dog.  Chico visited recently and for the first time was allowed in the backyard with our dogs.  Chico's parents have always considered our dogs too unruly and "dog like" for Chico to interact with. 

Much to the surprise of his parents, Chico had fun and at times actually acted like a dog - or at least sort of like a dog.  Nature, in this case, won out over nurture. (BTW, I have to be careful what I say about Chico.  His parents warned me his lawyers are bulldogs.) 

For those interested in pet trends, Euromonitor is hosting a free webinar on this topic this week.  Global Pet Care – What is Driving Growth in 2011 and Beyond? is on July 27th at 10:00am eastern. 

The Amazing Growth of the Pet Industry

As a life long dog owner, I love following pet trends.  The Mini Trends blog has a nice post on both pet trends and the "Petrepreneurs" who are building businesses related to pets.

The post has a good "state of the pet nation" description:

"Even though more households have a dog than a cat, cats have the upper paw, with 93.6 million feline pets compared with 77.5 million canines. However, there are more pet fish than cats and dogs combined: 171.7 million of them swimming in American aquariums. Rounding out the menagerie are 15 million birds, 13 million horses, and, yesss, over 13 million reptiles."

We spend a lot of money on our pets, almost $50 billion in 2010.  The chart below shows the amazing growth of in the amount we spend on our pets. 

    
A couple of things hit me about this chart.  First, the pet industry missed the Great Recession.  I can't think of many industries that had close to 20% revenue growth from 2007 to 2010. 

I'm also struck by the total amount we spend on pets and how it continues to grow at a much faster rate than inflation and the overall economy.  This trend will likely continue due to an increasing number of  "pet parents" - mostly aging baby boomers - who dote on their pets. 

For more on pet trends, see Pet Business Trends 2011 by the CEO of pet insurance company Embrace.

(Note to  Mini Trends blog:  I think "Petrepreneurs" sounds like a dinosaur.  How about "Pet-preneurs" with or without the hyphen instead.)

Pet Industry Trends

One of my favorite list of trends is the annual Pet Industry Trends from Laura Bennett and published on SmallBizTrends.

We own 3 dogs, so this topic is near to my heart.

My favorite trends relate to the activities of pet parents.  These are people who treat their pets as children.  Great quote from the trends list:

"Pet parents are including their pets in their own lifestyles so visits to the spa, exercise regimes, and restaurants have become more common in urban areas."

The number of pet parents continues to grow and as baby boomers age, we will see more of them.

My brother and sister-in-law are pet parents.  Their dog, Chico, goes with them everywhere including spas, the gym and restaurants.  Chico has organized "play dates" and they spend more time worrying about his emotional well-being than we do with our human kids. 

I'm not a pet parent, I'm a dog owner.  The big difference is my poor dogs will never visit a spa, or go to the gym with me.  I do take them to a local restaurant on occasion, but they are tied up outside.  Chico sits at the table. 

The article mentions proposed legislation - the Happy Act - that would allow taxpayers to deduct up to $3,500-a-year in pet care expenses, including vet care.

Given the state of human health care in this country and our growing deficit problem, this may be the dumbest way to spend tax money I've heard in a long time.  The article says it is unlikely to pass.  I hope this is true. 

Despite being just a dog owner, I enjoy reading about pet trends.