Pet Franchises, Bow Wow Wow WOW!!

“A boy can learn a lot from a dog: obedience, loyalty, and the importance of turning around three times before lying down.” -- Robert Benchley

I love my dog and I certainly do pamper it. The busier I get the more I seem to pamper her when I am home. And apparently, there are more and more people like me who downright pamper their dog. I mean, our dogs can even sleep in bed with us. Sociologists can comment about why we continue to take to our pets the way we do but what is of interest is how many out there are just like me. The business fundamentals of a booming pet franchise industry sounds like money to me.

PET FRANCHISORS, WANT MORE BUYERS? TALK BUSINESS THEN.

I don’t know what it is about most small pet chains but they do not really like to talk business. Their version of talking shop seems to be to talk about dogs. Their franchise web pages are without much marketing information, which is a shame considering the dynamism and growth of their market. Talk about market analysis such as five forces model, a simple SWOT analysis, BCG product development model, or demographics and they will likely change the subject. If you’re not speaking with the marketing department of the big guys, the PetSmart or Petco’s, that’s the feeling I have about the franchise culture in this lucrative pet business. It's about the warm fuzzy pets that franchises want to hang out with. But there's more than the warm fuzzies. Much more.

WHAT’S EXCITING ABOUT THIS SECTOR?

There’s much to be energized about the pet business though because several market phenomenon are converging to heat things up.

Trend #1. “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” -- Roger Caras

Like the quote above shows, our love affair with pets has fueled one of our healthiest industries, with sales over $31 billion, outpacing the candy ($24 billion) and toy industry ($20.3) in 2003. Pet spending is now over $35 billion in 2005. As the chart shows, pet spending has cumulatively grown faster than the economy by some 14%. Not only do the majority of home owners have pets but that rate is increasing. In 1998 56% of all households had pets compared to 61% in 2001.

And what is the largest sector of the pet market? Dogs, of course. In 2001 some 39% of American households have dogs compared to 34% for cats. It’s even higher at 43.5% in 2004. So, we are more likely to have pets and are more likely to spend lavishly on them.

Trend #2. “There is never enough time, unless you're serving it.” -- Malcolm Forbes

There may never be enough time, but for Americans this is particularly more and more the case. Pet owners along with everyone else in this country are more pressed for time as their work over the past three decades has eaten up more of their leisure time. So, we increasingly want to pamper our pets and yet we have less time with them, which makes us feel guilty.

Yet pet franchises are surprisingly a relatively new trend within the last five years or so. It has many opportunities to catch up on and take advantage of. So, in buying a pet franchise I would be concerned about sustainability of the market sector and long-term prospects. For the reasons given and much more, I’m bullish on pet franchising because there will be more and more guilty dog and pet owners who will spend increasingly on their pets to make up for less time with them. And pampering pets is in -- way in.

Hot spots in the pet sector. I do not have any ties to the pet industry, other than I do own a dog and I post my thoughts on this website about what I personally consider are hot trends in franchising. Still, you can see that it is easy to extrapolate from the data that pet or dog day care centers will do well as we have less time to spend with our pets.

Frankly, I’m surprised it took so long for business to take advantage of these trends through franchising. There’s money to be made. Last time I looked, Camp Bowwow had 3 franchise centers in 2003 and now they have passed the 100 center mark not even two years later. Their sales person at the Expo even mentioned 200 centers as if it had already been accomplished. And with each passing news, there are others on their way, some with premium services. It is the premium service and premium supplies part of the industry that is the real growth hot spots. Pamper! In other words, 1 out of 10 dog owners may have birthday parties for their pets but that number will grow. Large non-franchise chains are pursuing these areas; however, franchisors have been slow to catch on.

If leisure time is more scarce than services such as poop scooping will be important. Dog baths and manicures, homeopathic, alternative veterinarian services, specialized dog training and more pooch primping services are there for the taking for the right concept. The industry needs to think premium. You know, pamper!

Entrepreneur lists their hot 10 pet businesses by name. It’s an interesting read.

Dog photo by Iza Oblak via stock.xchng