How much is that doggy in the window?

Compared to many retailers Pets at Home, which has 232 stores nationwide, has had a good year posting a 29 percent rise in profits, with sales up 7.5 percent to £39.9m.

But while clearly delighted with the figures, Catriona Marshall, the firm’s commercial director (main picture), is not getting carried away. She knows there are “tough times ahead” and expects things to get harder for customers before letting up. She’s also realistic about the brand’s “relatively low” awareness level, which she plans to raise through marketing channels that the company has previously ignored.

In fact, the firm has only started to brush the surface of marketing in recent years. When it opened its first store in 1991, it didn’t try to grab headlines with a PR drive or an ad campaign; there was actually no marketing budget at all, because that money was instead invested into premium, large scale sites on retail parks that would, it hoped, achieve greater standout than the many smaller pet stores “tucked around a corner somewhere”.

“It was a case of paying over the odds for rental therefore not having to pay for the marketing to tell people where the stores were,” Marshall says.

It stayed that way, relying mainly on word of mouth and grabbing passers by on their way to get DIY tools or do their food shop, until six years ago, when Marshall joined from Asda as trading and marketing director.“Since then it’s been a journey of awareness,” she says. “We focus primarily on local marketing, working largely through PR. We generate activities ourselves, like events in stores every other weekend, and then talk to local journalists about what we’re doing and spend money on local marketing telling customers what we’re doing too.”

Brand values

Marshall says existing customers understand Pets at Home’s brand values, “they exactly get the brand as we’d like it to be perceived – so to them it’s fun, friendly, expert, warm, welcoming and it’s got a sense of humour.” But the business relies on their “fierce loyalty” because, Marshall admits, “customers who don’t shop with us look at us as being a big shed on a retail park.”

In a bid to change that, the retailer has been trying out TV advertising for the first time, with trials in the Yorkshire and Meridian TV regions over the last year.

Marshall has been encouraged by the results. “With the TV advertising trial, we had a really, beautifully unique scenario because it was like a virgin brand. We’d been in the market for 17 years but we hadn’t done any TV advertising. So we had this fabulous case study where we could really work out what impact TV could have to our brand.

“We can look back and say we spent this amount of money and these are the results we got, and there’s no other noise in there – no press advertising, no radio, no baggage, no history…”

Buoyed by what she‘s seen, Marshall says TV will now form the centre of a multimedia campaign this autumn, provided “the business continues to do well”.

Pets At Home’s time on TV hasn’t been confined to advertising. Just last month Marshall featured on The Apprentice as one of the teams pitched their products - Lovers Leads and Cat Box - to her. She placed an order for both products, which are now on sale.

Digital marketing is another new area for Pets at Home. “That’s a big, big opportunity. We’ve done nothing online, we’ve done no PR online, no advertising; we’ve simply worked through the traditional channels of SEO and PPC affiliates.

“We’ve got a decent website, but we want to make it better very quickly and ultimately get into multi-channel retailing – click and collect and order in store.”

Marshall says the aim is to grow online sales from £3m to £15m between now and the end of 2012.

“We’re going to grow our team substantially in order to do that. It’s one of the parts of the business where we’ll be placing our greatest resource.”

The retailer doesn‘t employ a specialist digital agency – yet. It will probably have to bring one on board to meet Marshall’s aims, but she says the firm will assess the digital credentials of the agencies it already works with before bringing on board a specialist.

unbiased

Those agencies are Kro (advertising) and Biss Lancaster (PR), with a combination of EGS and MediaEdge handling media. Media responsibilities have been managed in London since a pitch last summer when Brilliant Media and Manchester’s MediaVest, which had together kept the business in the north west, lost out. But Marshall insists nothing other than ability colours the retailer’s judgement when it looks for agencies – it is “unbiased” she says.

Before we finish, Marshall shows The Drum around the Pets at Home HQ, which, to the uninitiated, appears more like an animal menagerie – there are two reptiles and an impressive fish tank in Marshall’s office alone. Her warmth for animals (she keeps dogs, cats, and a parrot) seems to be shared by the public, which is why sales have held up in the downturn.

“This whole comfort thing is kicking in – holidays at home, people spending more time at home eating in and with the family. The whole pet market is really flourishing. People are prepared to make that commitment to buy a pet and spend time with it, making it part of the family.”

With pet retailing performing strongly, Marshall now has to watch out for competitors. “We’re bucking the trend. Everyone’s looking around to find something recession proof, something that’s working in these difficult times. I’m very conscious that we’ve got people in our stores every day of the week looking for the latest idea of ours and how they can put that into their business. It’s a constant game of cat and mouse.”

Considering the subject of the interview, we asked agency bods to tell us about their pets:

Beverley Tricker, Tricker PR: Max the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel came into my life just before I set up the business seven years ago... Shortly after setting up the company, I found that an idea of mine for a client had been ‘gazumped’ and a new idea was required PDQ. A swift walk a round the block with Max and the ‘Madonna Tartan’ was born... which made front page news across the world. He still comes to the office on occasion.”

Gellan Watt, MD/creative director, Thinking Juice: Does my pet orange tree ‘herbie’ count? It’s named after my first pet, a cat I had when i was three. You see, I am not so good with feeding things (that’s not why herbie is an ex-pet...), and I’ve been told if I can keep my tree alive I can have a new cat. I’ve been a very good tree/pet owner recently and saved it from a severe case of drought (I forgot to water it) and then mould (yes, I over watered it to compensate). It’s now beginning to bear new fruit.”

Richard Benjamin, MD, Uber: Evie is a Miniature Schnauzer. She was a show-dog/breeding dog rescued from the loveless life of puppies and show and given a loving home environment as well as doubling up as ‘Front of House’ at Uber. She is very protective of the 19 staff and always very keen to see who is entering the office – clients are loved and welcomed and print reps are warned off.”

Cat Firman, client services director, Turn Key: Jasper was a bit of a character but not much of a hunter – he once brought home a pigeon that had clearly been run over by a car and tried to pass it off as his own (tyre tracks gave it away). I got him and his sister, Willow, from a rescue centre in 2001. One of my first jobs at Turn Key was for Burgess Diagnostics, a company that offers mobile MRI scanning for pets! Jasper became a star of the brochure. Jasper was put down last year (it broke my heart) but Willow’s still keeping me sane.”

Giles Moffat, marketing consultant: Arguably Scotland’s foremost Ad-Dog, having worked at numerous agencies including Merle, Kommando, The Union and Leith. Kermit has arbitrated over creative work (“Let the dog decide”), charmed people into coming in for creds meetings, and crapped under countless board tables.”