 |
No More Homeless Pets Forum
March 17, 2003 Getting the Word Out |
Why can't we get our message out? Julie Castle of No More Homeless Pets in Utah shares the marketing secrets behind the success of the campaign to make Utah a no-kill state and offers tips on how you can succeed at getting the word out where you live.
Introduction from Julie Castle:
We live in a society of massive consumption. Americans see and hear hundreds of advertising images and impressions a day, from bus boards to radio spots to ads in the bathroom! With this constant deluge of marketing for every product and service, you have to constantly think about how you can deliver breakthrough messages to your own community.At No More Homeless Pets in Utah, our first priority in delivering breakthrough messaging is to mainstream the cause of animal welfare in Utah. We recognize that marketing is vital to the success of finding homes for animals and making spay/neuter a cool, politically correct concept. To do this, we have to step into the shoes of "Joe Utah," appeal to the mainstream, and realize that we have products and services just like any other company out there trying to make it.
So, how did we find out what "Joe Utah" liked? Lots of exit surveys, lots of listening to feedback, and lots of eating humble pie after realizing many times we were on the wrong track. We've narrowed down our approach of reaching "Joe Utah" to three basic concepts. First, what we do is not radical, it's mainstream, fun, innovative and worthwhile. Second, at our core we promote the same traditional values many Utahns hold near and dear, one of which is respect for the sanctity of life. Third, even though we deal with life and death decisions daily, we try to have a whole bunch of fun with every promotion and event we produce! Remember, it's hard to sell doom and gloom.
Questions
How do we target our audience with the proper message to educate about spay/neuter?
What is the best way to get our message out? Is it radio, TV, billboards, or mail?
How do we do a Furburbia with no paid staff or existing coalition?
How does NMHP In Utah demographics compare to other regions?
How do we market shelter animals over pet stores?
What surprises did NMHP in Utah demographic research reveal?
Can we get corporate American to incorporate an animal welfare message?
Marketing black dogs and cats and other shelter animals
Promoting spay/neuter programs to those in need
How much should be spent on advertising for a super adoption?
Getting the media to cover our message
Targeting what spay/neuter message works best for our main audience
Are you seeing a decrease in pet store sales in areas of higher shelter adoptions?
Using websites as promotional tools
How do we target our audience with the proper message to educate about spay/neuter?
Question from a member:
We are a small 501c3 that runs a spay/neuter program for the public. We want to target our efforts to the people who need it the most, but don't have the money or expertise to do a big marketing study. How do we find out who our target audience is and what message works best to reach them?Response from Julie:
Your situation describes most non-profit organizations in the animal welfare, small in size and funding. Not to worry, you don't need "a big marketing study" and you don't need a lot of money. Listed below are several suggestions that are relatively easy to accomplish with a little research on your part as well as very inexpensive (or free):Define the boundaries of the community you are serving and stick to it! Remember, stay focused, your funding is limited and the more you target and define your community, the better your results you will be and the bigger impact you will have.
Most of us in animal welfare are completely swamped. I highly recommend that you delegate your spay/neuter market research to a volunteer, or ask a PR/Marketing firm to take you on as a pro bono account, or if you have a college in your area, approach the business department and ask if marketing students can take your organization on as a project (many colleges require their students to do a hands on project in their community).
Once you've decided whom to delegate your project to, sit down and define your objectives with them and define what success will look like to you. Some basic steps you should take are:
a. Get to know your community like the back of your hand. Find out who lives around you. Do some basic research on your defined community. Your research should include population, ethnicity, family size, age categories, and income level. One more important step... folks with similarities such as income, race, etc., tend to live in pockets/neighborhood/zip codes in your community. Get out a map, hang it on the wall and outline who lives where. All of this is public information and you can get it online from your state or local government, census bureau, etc.
b. Once you've determined what your community looks like, take a visit to your animal control facility and let them know what you're doing and what you want to accomplish. Ask for their cooperation. You can learn a huge amount from your animal control friends. Some of the things we've done with our animal control:
Hang out at the AC receiving area on a weekday and weekend and do some exit interviews. If someone brings in an intact animal, find out where they're from and why they didn't get their animal fixed. Take very specific notes; bring the map of your community you worked on, and mark where folks are coming from. Remember, DO NOT become confrontational with people who haven't had their animals fixed... just gather the information so you can analyze and treat why they aren't having it done.
Ask if you can do a ride along for a day with a couple of the AC officers. Again take specific notes and bring your map! Take notice of where you and your AC officers are encountering the neighborhoods with the most intact animals. Ask the AC officers a lot of questions about different neighborhoods in your area and get as much information from them as you can.
Finally, ask your animal control facility if they can give you annual records of where strays and received animals are coming from. Again, this is public information, but don't threaten them with that, just let them know what you want to accomplish and why and most of the time they'll want to help.
c. Soon you will begin to notice very distinct patterns in your community. You'll begin to notice many things, such as neighborhood patterns, income patterns, age patterns, possibly ethnicity patterns and top reasons for not getting animals fixed. Usually (I say this with some reservation because it hasn't been strategically established) you'll find that 5% of the population in your community is causing 95% of the pet overpopulation problem, and usually they live in a low-income area. Do not make this assumption until you have done your homework! In Utah, we have a lot of "bargain" shoppers. They are NOT low income, just cheap and don't see the value in spay/neuter until they're presented with a coupon... then they bite.
d. Once you've identified the basics, you're good to go! Start getting the word out about your spay/neuter program. Get a group of volunteers together and start walking neighborhoods with spay/neuter offers in the form of door hangers, mail box stuffers, telephone pole postings and lawn signs (get permission for these). Ask animal control to help you by passing out your s/n vouchers while they're out in the field. Try a few zip code mailings to the areas with high pockets of intact animals. You can buy mailing lists with targeted zip codes online from list brokers.
e. After you start seeing initial success, make sure you stay on top of your marketing with exit surveys or vouchers that help you find out as much as you can about the customers who are using them. This is a constantly changing process and you have the luxury of focusing/targeting further and further with the new information you collect.
What is the best way to get our message out? Is it radio, TV, billboards, or mail?
Question from a Member:
What have you found is the best way to get your message out in terms of radio, TV, flyers, direct mailings, billboards, etc? We have always used flyers and billboards but haven't done any follow up to know if they are effective or not.Response from Julie:
I appreciate your honesty about your approach to getting your message out. Your tactics are typically referred to as the "shotgun approach," meaning that you hope to hit something, anything by pulling the trigger. If you're spending money on your billboards and flyers, I recommend you stop paying now! Save your money and target your resources. By using a targeted approach, you'll save a ton of money and see a much bigger return on your efforts.If your billboard and flyers are donated, well hey, take what you can get and go with it! However, use your donated advertising wisely as well. Don't just throw up anything because you got free space. I have a few tips listed below that may help you refine your advertising and marketing efforts.
In terms of effectiveness, you need to define what it is you're trying to promote. If it's your organization in general, find out who supports you already and target your advertising based on your average donor. If it's a woman in her early 40's, find out what she reads, where she shops, what radio station she listens to, what TV station she watches and where she lives. You can find out this information immediately by sending out an "ask for help" survey to your current donors/volunteers, or you can begin by contact media outlets to find out the primary demographic they serve.
If its adoptions, start doing surveys of all of your current adopters when they fill out their adoption paperwork and find out where they're coming from, age, gender, where they shop, which stations they watch and listen to, and what they read. Talk to them; get to know them because they are the key to your future success. All of the information you gather is like pure gold! If you find that a lot of your adopters live in a certain area of town, target an adoption event there, or place bag stuffers at the local grocery store, or try to get a billboard donated in that area with an adoption message. If you find that your adopters are a certain age and gender, start matching that up with your local radio stations, etc. We've found that radio and classified ads are tremendous for our adoption promotions at NMHP in Utah and that generally our adopters are more affluent, but that is our market, not yours. Every market develops its own culture and attitude; make sure you're aware of the nuances in your community.
Additionally, expect some trial and error in your advertising and marketing. We really got dinged up trying to promote our mobile spay/neuter clinic, The Big Fix, in the early days. We tried display ads in newspapers, radio spots, flyers, press releases, messages in utility bills and messages on community marquees. We just couldn't get our marketing mix right; some communities did very well, others were hopeless. Finally we discovered direct mail! What a revelation! We purchased a mailing list based on our client exit surveys (this was vital information) fitting a low income profile from a list broker online and started doing cheap, catchy postcards 2 weeks before our mobile clinic arrived. Now we rarely see a day where we don't have a large crowd of people wanting to get their animal fixed. The big lessons here are: keep trying and experimenting; and every community is different - even within the same geographical area.
Finally, find out how effective you are. It sounds like you need to start doing exit surveys to find out who supports your efforts, and if your marketing and advertising is working. If your marketing is not working, you need to alter your approach. Knowledge is power and the more you know about your customers and how to reach them, the more effective you will be for your organization and the animals.
How do we do a Furburbia with no paid staff or existing coalition?
Question from a Member:
We love the idea of Furburbia as a way for multiple groups to work together and get the word out on adopting from shelters. How would you recommend groups start a Furburbia type store if we don't have a coalition already in place or paid staff to oversee it? Do you think that it is possible to run Furburbia with all volunteers? We do have some rescues that work together on small joint adoption events at PETsMART and PETCO.Response from Julie:
It sounds to me like you already have the beginnings of a coalition if you're currently doing joint adoptions at PETsMART and PETCO. Great job! The best advice I can give is to start slow and small and gradually work into a retail location. Here are some simple steps you can take to eventually get to the place where you can establish a Furburbia in your community:Take a moment and download the Furburbia PDF on the Best Friends website, and learn from the many mistakes and the successes we made in starting a Furburbia.
Get to know your fellow rescue groups and shelters that may want to participate. Start organizing monthly "adoption fairs" in your local mall with 5-6 partners. Advertise your adoption fair in the local classifieds, table tents in the mall food court, press release and conference, posters, and radio PSA. You'll quickly get to know the quirks and strengths of the rescue groups/shelters you will eventually partner with in doing a Furburbia. Also your mall will get to know you and will soon see you as a trusted partner which brings a lot of name mention to their facility in the media.
Begin to slowly establish common ground rules. Do this as a group with your fellow partners along with a strong and respected mediator. DO NOT judge shelters or rescue groups on minor adoption policies... there will be many differences. If you can't get past minor differences, you'll never be able to work into a Furburbia. Define your 3-5 major policies and stand by them: spay/neuter before adoption, standard adoption fees, standard shot practices, standard age of animals for adoption, etc.
Once you've established yourself in the community, the community will begin to expect and respect your presence. Volunteers will emerge and you will discover much support. Build on this to start the groundwork for a permanent location.
You would probably have a difficult time running a 7-day a week operation without paid staff, but treat your retail location like a small business. Sell merchandise, charge your partners a percentage of their adoption fee to keep the place running, and find local sponsors.
How does NMHP In Utah demographics compare to other regions?
Question from Julie in LA:
How does the No More Homeless Pets in Utah demographic profile of "Joe Utah" compare to national research (is there any?) or to research from other states or regions? Do you think that the programs developed from your research results could be used in other areas, or would you encourage new research for different areas of the country?Response from Julie:
I'm not sure how the Joe Utah demographic compares to a Joe American demographic or other regional demographics, but it wouldn't be hard to find out with census and market data. However, I do know that every community is different and requires different approaches. I would strongly suggest that you do your own bread and butter market research to get to know your own community in depth. Don't rely entirely on established patterns in other parts of the county, because it will leave you handicapped and could hurt your results.I am quite confident that the programs we've developed for No More Homeless Pets in Utah could be used in other areas of the nation (in fact some are already being used). I am also quite confident that in order to make NMHP in Utah programs work in other parts of the country, they'd have to be modified and tweaked to fit each culture and market.
Take a look around at what the superstar marketers are doing with their products and services. Most of the time, they have different strategies and rollouts for different parts of the nation. They have clearly done their research and it shows in what kind of treatments they use in different regions of the county.
A good example of different markets and cultures is Utah, where 80% of the population belongs to the Mormon Faith. Mormons believe Sunday's are sacred and should be a day of rest and worship, with no commercial activity. If a company wasn't aware of this and tried to hold a major event, or promotion just on Sunday, it would probably fail. Anywhere else in the country, the major event or promotion would probably be well received.
How do we market shelter animals over pet stores?
Question from a Member:
I read in your Furburbia document that nationwide only 20% of animals are adopted from shelters. I was horrified to read this! That means 80% of animals are coming from breeders, pet stores, and other places. What can we do to raise awareness about the benefits of adopting from a shelter vs. a pet store and reverse that number?Response from Julie:
I love this question and I'm grateful every time it's asked because it's yet another chance to fill animal rescuers in on what they can do in their community to compete with pet stores and breeders and let the public know there are healthy, adoptable, loving animals in shelters.First, if you run a rescue group, shelter or volunteer for one, you need to start looking at your organization as a small business. Even though we are part of the non-profit sector, that doesn't mean we shouldn't look at our organization as potentially profitable, savvy and able to enjoy the same benefits of supply and demand that make the profit sector tick.
Start by asking yourself who your business competition is in your community? A very common myth is that your competition consists of your fellow rescue groups or shelters, well it doesn't. Look at them as an extension of your organization, one that's trying to accomplish the same mission you are - that of saving the lives of healthy dogs and cats. Support them fully and remember, the better they do, the better you do, and the better animals in your community do! If you're in a battle with them, put down your sword and target who your real competition is - pet stores and breeders!
So, get on your fatigues, put on your camouflage paint and get out your pad of paper and pen and let's get ready to ambush our competition---pet stores and breeders.
Start by listing all of the pet stores and kennels in your community and where they are located. Put the backyard breeders in a different category since they usually just advertise in the classifieds or online.
Next, stop by and visit each one of the pet stores in your community and take notes on the following: What are their hours of operation, what type of animals do they offer, what type of products do they offer, how many staff do they have on hand at any given time, is their store clean or dirty, do their employees wear name tags or company shirts, how do their employees greet you at check out, do their employees help you with the animals, do they have an answering machine for after hour calls?
Next, do some research about where they advertise and market their store. Find out the following questions: Do they have a yellow page ad---what is it listed under---not animal rescue---probably pets!!! Do they have a website, do they advertise in their local paper, do they send out direct mail campaigns in their neighborhoods, do they offer coupons, do they do promotions in their stores?
Okay, like it or not, this is what your fellow American is used to experiencing when they get a new pet. Naturally, they are going to expect the same or better out of your business. So, everything you listed about your pet store/kennel competition is your beginning measure, and your opportunity to excel! Now you have a wealth of information and your road map for putting your competition out of business. You know where you should advertise, how good your ads need to look, what your level of customer service needs to be, etc. Copy as much as you can from your competition--only make it better. You may be saying right about now that you don't have a store, you don't have employees, you don't have product to sell, and that you don't have any money to do anything, etc., etc. No worries, this is what you do next---
Take a look at what you do have. You probably have volunteers, a typical location where you do your adoptions, and you definitely have animals. On the advertising front, you are probably doing flyers, some ads in the classifieds and ads in the newspapers. So let's start there. Remember, think like a business! You are doing a great service to your community and the animals, but at this juncture, it's a difficult step for a lot of animal rescuers to recognize that most of the people they adopt to are used to a standard of service in their daily lives, and in everything they do. This doesn't mean that you lower you adoption standards or compromise the future of the animal you have in your care, it simply means that you provide a more customer oriented experience.
Get out the notes from your pet store/kennel visits and start comparing what they do, to what you can eventually do, only better. It will probably have some of the following elements:
a. Have all of your volunteers wear the same T-shirt or bib, as well as a nametag.
b. Sit down with some of your key volunteers, board members, and donors and come up with a list of 10 easy customer service tips that you can use time and again when training new volunteers to do adoptions. This is an awesome time to educate the public, not alienate the public. A lot of folks out there will be receptive to basic fundamentals such as spay/neuter, keeping pets indoors, etc., if they are talked to rather than talked at. Compare notes with what you saw at the pet store. Remember, you want to provide a better experience than the pet store did.
c. Make your adoption area look clean and tidy with lots of clear signage. Get your banners and posters done by a graphic designer so they have the same look and feel. We've had a ton of success in finding graphic designers that are willing to do jobs on a pro bono basis. Typically banners, posters and flyers are pretty cheap to do and a lot of places will give you a discount. Make sure you take good care of your banners, signs, and T-shirts. The more tattered they look, the more credibility you'll lose.
d. Groom your animals. Give them a cute bandana so folks know they're up for adoption. Write their stories in a positive way with an easy to read flow. Post adoption prices clearly as well as what that includes (shots, spay/neuter, training certificate, etc.)
e. Don't be afraid to ask you adopter for a donation. After all, they're already opening their wallet, what's another $5, $10, $20 to a cause that's as on the ball as yours?
f. Dedicate a small portion of your budget to advertising and marketing costs. Look at what the pet stores and breeders do and design what's called a "Me Too" strategy. That is, you copy where your competition is and what they've done. Most of these pet stores and breeders have been in business a long time, so they've already done all of the trial and error for you! Use the power of being a non-profit to get ads and services donated or discounted. You need to have your name out in your community and in the right places--right next to your competition. Start placing classifieds if you aren't doing so now---make sure you're listed at the top of the list using the letter A in your wording. Take out a yellow page ad right next to your competition and have someone help you write and design it so it's more appealing than the pet store.
g. If you currently can't afford to do some of the marketing and advertising the pet stores are doing, make a goal and work toward raising funds for it, or ask a company to sponsor it, such as an ad in the newspaper. Trust me, putting an ounce of money into your advertising will save many, many more lives and will start eroding your competition's market share.
What surprises did NMHP in Utah demographic research reveal?
Question from a Member:
What were some of the most surprising results of No More Homeless Pets in Utah's demographic research and can you identify three to five demographic factors that were most influential to yourmarketing strategy?
Response from Julie:
Honestly, there was very little demographic information that surprised us. However, there were several nuggets of behavioral, tactical and strategic marketing information that surprised us andcontinues to surprise and influence our strategy. Because of this, we are huge believers in continuing to do surveys anytime we get a chance. Things continue to change and evolve and we constantly need to be aware of that environment.
Below, I've listed our target demographic as well as the top breath stoppers in strategic and tactical marketing, and behavior:
Primary demographic-Woman aged 35-55/income varies depending upon the service: Utah women drive the majority of household buying decisions and this is no different for both adoptions and spay/neuter. This didn't really surprise us at all and I'm sure it's quite similar around the country. I strongly encourage you to go through the process of finding out what your target demographic is because each market is different.
In-depth spay/neuter focus group: We conducted this in Year 2 of the No More Homeless Pets in Utah program through one of Utah's top pollsters and found that lower income folks in Utah (total household income of below $35K) had more of an attachment to their pets than higher income folks. Adoption myth #1 out the window... low-income folks will be lousy homes.
We conducted an initial phone survey of a couple hundred Utah households before we launched our program. We found out one very surprising fact: Most people that had dogs only had one dog. So, our initial advertising strategy was to create a campaign that touted the benefits of having two or more dogs in your life.
Marketing Super Adoption events: We were surprised from our Super Adoption exit surveys at how many actual adopters found out about the event through just driving by and seeing the tents and activity from the freeway. The power of location! By the way, our return rate was still just less than 10%. Adoption myth #2 out the window---that walk-through/impulse traffic equates to bad adoptions. On another interesting note related to Super Adoptions, we found through our exit surveys that the 1/2 page, 2 color ad in the Salt Lake Tribune promoting the Super Adoption was much, much, much less effective than our simple and much, much, much, cheaper classified ads.
Guerilla marketing seems to be king: Annoying but true. It turns out that during our Home for the Holidays Campaign, our Santa on the corner of a busy intersection holding a dog and a sign pointing in the direction of an adoption event was what attracted most people to our event. Yep, more than radio remotes, radio spots, newspaper ads, and classifieds.
The power of a local hero: In the first year of No More Homeless Pets in Utah, we had a slick TV adoption spot created for us with the help of our advertising agency. It was quite effective for our adoptions and we benefited from the exposure. However, we had the opportunity to do a "call to action" spay/neuter spot with Senator Orrin Hatch. We got the okay to do this at the 11th hour and had to hustle to round up a dog to sit with him in the spot. He was in Washington D.C. and we were in Salt Lake City. We arranged to have a Yorkie from our good friends at Alley Cat Allies be the star in the spot. The spot was shot on the first try for $65. We put the ad on the air and our office was flooded with phone calls from folks asking us where they could get their animals fixed. One woman even called and said, "Senator Hatch told me to get my animal fixed, so I'm calling you to find out how?" Who knew Orrin Hatch would be such a big hit for spay/neuter?
Can we get corporate American to incorporate an animal welfare message?
Question from Kat in TX:
Is any group or coalition working with corporate American to incorporate a pro neuter messages into their current advertising and if not why? So many commercials have dogs and cats in them, dogs and cats SELL.What if Clorox said, on that box of FreshStep litter: "The ONLY litter you want in YOUR house is in THIS box! Please spay/neuter your pets!"
Currently there is a Hyundai commercial of a small wire haired terrier being chased by a Doberman, running down alleys, and a man in a car who sees them and then starts driving around alleys and corners. He comes around a corner, stops and puts the electric passenger window down. In jumps the terrier. To which the man responds: "See, I told you she had a boyfriend!"
I know in my heart that Corporate America can be the key that unlocks the door here. Americans need to hear and SEE spay neuter at least as often as they hear what brand of toilet paper or peanut butter to buy. It's time we stopped begging (PSAs) people to neuter, and started SELLING spay neuter. If companies sold their products like we have sold the idea of spay neuter for the last 150 years, quite frankly, NO one would have been successful!
Response from Julie:
You've touched on one of my favorite subjects, Cause Related Marketing. Frankly, you're right, the animal welfare community should be doing more to push their agenda with corporate America. You're right for two big reasons:Nearly 70% of American households have pets and the pet industry is one that is still standing quite strong during this economic downturn.
Women are the primary demographic for animal welfare and they also drive the sales of most of the products purchased in the home.
So, what's the problem? There are three big hurdles to overcome:
Quid pro quo: Corporate America wants to sell product and build brand loyalty. While you may have a wonderful organization and may be doing an incredible job in your community, if you can't show the corporation you're pitching how you are going to sell a lot of their product, they're not going to listen. I have seen so many great causes try to get money/recognition/in-kind goods from corporations by approaching them with the, "Look at all of the great work we're doing and because of this you should give us money" line.
So incorporating a spay/neuter message into a brand's messaging needs to be accompanied with a plan that's going to actively encourage more people to buy their product, either through a major national public relations effort, national in-store promotion through several retailers, or a national marketing roll-out. Presenting to a company that people will support their brand just by including a message on the packaging won't be easy to sell. Asking them to take on a cause marketing campaign involves numerous components and commitments that can be very expensive for the corporation. For example, when Coca-Cola decides to sponsor an event, or a cause such as the Special Olympics, they put 12 marketing dollars behind every dollar they contribute to the cause or sponsorship. They do this because they see the opportunity in borrowing the image of the cause and they want everyone to know what good guys they are.
Animal welfare lags far behind: Unfortunately animal welfare is at the bottom of the rung on the ladder of non-profits in terms of fundraising and cause marketing. The sophistication, professionalism, and national presence isn't as refined in our movement as it is with some of the highly successful non-profits that excel in cause marketing such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Children's Miracle Network, Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer Awareness, and Reading is Fundamental. Most of all, animal welfare is extremely fragmented. A brand looking for a cause tie in for a national advertising campaign will be looking for a cause that can tout a national presence. They'll be keenly interested in knowing how many people they can activate nationally behind the campaign. They'll be looking for cause assets such as a very large individual membership base, presence in most of the major markets, and a lot of times, chapters in different areas that can help execute promotions on a grassroots level.
It takes a lot of looking to find the right fit: I think you had a wonderful line in your question which went like this: "If companies sold their products like we have sold the idea of spay neuter for the last 150 years, quite frankly, NO one would have been successful!" A lot of these companies have been so successful because they've spent a ton of time, money and resources developing their core brand and primary target market. When you come along as a cause and pitch your idea to them, you have to fit into their core brand and this can be a very difficult task. I chuckle about this because it's kind of like finding a life-long mate. Seriously, usually when a cause and corporation enter into a partnership, the intention is to do it for a long, long period of time. Both parties see the benefits, both share the same primary target market, the mission of the brand fits the mission of the cause, and basically it's a good overall match. If it's not, it won't work and it will end up in divorce.
Unfortunately, I can't think of any organization in the animal welfare movement that is capable of supporting a major cause marketing campaign and living up to the expectations of what a national cause marketing campaign involves. I would love, love, love to see it happen very soon and I do believe it's just a matter of time before it materializes.
On a final note:
You had another very good comment, "Corporate America can be the key that unlocks the door here." I believe corporate America IS THE KEY, the money is there, the influence is there and the resources are there. Now it's all about the timing.
Marketing black dogs and cats and other shelter animals
Question from a Member:
How can we help our local shelter more proactively market black dogs and cats? In addition, how can we help them more proactively market critters (rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, chinchillas, birds)? These animals have the lowest adoption rates.Response from Julie:
Gosh, there are so many ways to market black dogs and cats in shelters. I'd suggest you get together with some volunteers and friends, order some pizza and nice drink and have a completely unabashed brainstorming session.We often do this sort of thing with our staff and with our volunteers and the results are always hugely entertaining---and remember, any suggestion goes, nothing is too wacky.
When considering a promotion, we always cover some basic steps first:
Make sure you have enough promotion. Get a good mix of radio, flyers, community calendars, posters, classified ads, newspaper display ads, press events (you can always have a lot of fun with these if you have a creative catch for the press), and a direct mail post card if you have the mailing list.
Make sure you make it for a limited time only. People really respond to a one or two week offer only. If you make it longer than that, the "special" appeal fades and people feel like they can go down anytime and pick up a black dog.
Make sure people feel like they're getting some sort of premium or added value. Maybe it's free movie tickets, dinner coupons or sporting tickets (all donated of course).
Make sure you add some sort monetary savings. Sometimes we do a special offer such as free a Humane Society membership for a year with a black dog adoption, or we offer free shots or training with the adoption, etc.
Some of the promotions we've done---and you could certainly apply this to black dogs, cats and other critters include:
Black Magic at the Humane Society of Utah (using principles above)
Kit, Kat and Kaboodle (adopt a cat, get a kit with a lot of bootie)
Pot 'O Gold (adopt an animal and be entered into a drawing to win the Pot of Gold--a $500 donated gift certificate)
Labrador Weekend (held over Labor Day Weekend—intended to adopt Labs)
St. Catricks Day Adoption (using principles above)
Basically, you can plug in the above principles to a lot of different promotions to help more black animals (or any animal) find homes.
Promoting spay/neuter programs to those in need
Question from a Member:
We run a spay/neuter program where we give out vouchers to low-income persons. We are looking for new ways to get the word out about our program because it seems that if we publicize it to the general public, we get deluged with calls from people who can afford the surgery and not our target audience. Do you have suggestions on how we can specifically reach out to just the low-income people?Response from Julie:
Great question. We ran into this same problem in Year One of No More Homeless Pets in Utah. We offered a $20 discount spay/neuter coupon and promoted it all over the State of Utah, through a lot of different media outlets. We found that we had a ton of vouchers redeemed through our 88 participating veterinarians (16,444 in just one year), but this resulted in an increase of only about 7,000 new surgeries (discounted surgeries using the voucher and full price surgeries) above the previous year. So basically, we paid for about 9,500 folks to have their pets fixed that would have probably done it anyway without the help of our $20 coupon. Also, the folks that were having the surgery done were at an income level of $36,000.So, we went back to the drawing board and came up with two major changes:
1) We developed an application that folks fill out in order to get a discount coupon for a spay/neuter surgery at participating veterinarians. The voucher includes several flags such as income level, size of family, number of pets, etc. The level of assistance ranges from $10-$50 depending upon the level of need. Trust me, there was a great debate that ensued on our staff and amongst the veterinarian community that this would be a too much of a hassle for people and no one would fill out the application.
Our results:
a) Yes, it's a lot more administrative work, but it turns out that the application was the necessary hurdle that helped us weed out the people that really needed the help from those that didn't. We found and are still finding that people that can afford a spay/neuter surgery don't want to be bothered with filling out paperwork and they feel some amount of guilt asking for assistance when they really don't need it. We know we are getting some people that still abuse the system, but it's not many, and if they go to the lengths of going through our process we figure it's the only way they'll get their animal fixed, and we'll let it slide. You can find this application on our website at www.utahpets.org.
b) We did 4520 surgeries through our application in Year 2 and interestingly enough, the total number of surgeries done over and above the baseline year was 8600, so it really helped there to be more surgeries overall. What happened was that the veterinarians did a lot more surgeries at full price.
c) Finally, the average income of a person redeeming our voucher was $24,000. So this new system really helped us target the low-income market. The average cost that we paid out in the form of a voucher was $26.
We took every opportunity to focus and target on the low-income population through the following methods:
a) We place a lot of classifieds in "trading" publications. In Utah they have such names as the Thrifty Nickel, and the Pioneer Shopper.
b) If we have a spay/neuter PSA, we request that it's placed during daytime TV. Studies show that lower income individuals watch this programming.
c) We partner with specific animal control agencies that service lower income neighborhoods and give the field officers a limited number of pre-approved vouchers to give out to people in need in the field.
d) We have the luxury of operating a mobile spay/neuter clinic called The Big Fix. However, we've developed an extension program that anyone can use anywhere, with or without a mobile clinic. The program is called the County Super Fix and here's some history and how it works:
Veterinarians got really upset when we would roll into town and offer discount surgeries through The Big Fix. They believed it cut into their business. We showed them our survey results, which indicated that folks utilizing our services couldn't afford to get their pets fixed at the average price veterinarians offered and therefore didn't get it done. We went around and around with the veterinarian community on this argument and then the light bulb went on.
We started offering the veterinarians an opportunity to join in the fun and capture some of the business. We offered the veterinarians a subsidy of our average voucher cost ($26) and asked them to lower their prices for the week long Super Fix. In order to participate, they had to match the prices of The Big Fix ($15, $25, $30, $40). They were also permitted to up-sell the clients that came in their door with vaccinations. We also agreed to promote the County Super Fixes and add the list of participating veterinarians to all of our marketing materials. This promotion worked so well (between 300-800 surgeries per community) that we've started doing them without The Big Fix involved. We just sign up participating veterinarians and organize the promotion in different parts of the state each month. We found that this program attracts mostly low-income participants, or as one of our participating veterinarians put it, "These people are destitute." Now, the veterinarians have come to recognize that our mobile spay/neuter clinic really does serve the low-income community and that it doesn't represent what they would consider their regular client base.
A little off the question, but worth mentioning: Not all animals in every shelter in Utah are fixed before they're adopted out. So, we've developed a pre-adoption spay/neuter program partnering with targeted animal control agencies and veterinarians. We can track and monitor the success of our pre-adoption spay/neuter program through lowered euthanasia in that particular community. We figure we'd rather partner with animal control and community veterinarians and give them the subsidy money we would pay in the form of a voucher to stop the problem at its inception.
How much should be spent on advertising for a super adoption?
Question from a Member:
When putting together a super adoption event, how much do you think should be written in the budget to spend on advertising? I have read that you get 10,000 people to come to your Super Adoption events! What forms of advertising do you do to get this kind of response?Response from Julie:
Listed below is our standard advertising/marketing budget for our large Super Adoptions. Attendance is usually between 10,000-13,000. Adoptions are between 525 - 565.15,000 flyers 4 color, these are handed out and used as bag stuffers at PETsMART: $1056
350 Table Tents 2 color, placed at restaurants, mall food courts: $175
4 Radio remotes with 2 weeks of spots leading up to event (2 donated/2 free): $5,600
Classified Ads in Salt Lake Tribune/Desert News: $200
2 Street Banners, 4 color: $1,000
100 Corrugated lawn signs placed in surrounding neighborhoods 1 color: $200
4 Cloud Busters: $400
2 Cat/Dog Costumes for honk and wave traffic: $100
TOTAL BUDGET $ 8,731
Getting the media to cover our message
Question from a Member:
How do you get local TV, radio, and newspaper to cover your events/programs on a regular basis and to get the message that YOU want to get out? Oftentimes we get the media to come out but they end up just showing a cute animal shot with no story or the story covers one small segment, which was not what we hoped to get across.Response from Julie:
I wish we could always get the media to cover every angle we were pitching. Unfortunately, no one can set the agenda for, or dictate the news, especially if there's a major local or national event that happens unexpectedly. There are many levels of "cutting" that producers go through before actually airing the news. Often times, animal stories are the "warm and fuzzy" segments in which newscasters end their broadcast, because viewers like the news to end on a positive note.This is okay to some degree because anytime you can get your name or an animals face in front of numerous people and it makes them feel all warm inside, it's a great thing. However, I do have some simple tips that can help your organization get in front of the community with more serious issues. All of the tips below apply to TV, newsprint and radio.
Start a relationship with media contacts in your area: Have one person (and one person only) who is not nervous on camera, who is articulate, and educated on animal welfare issues spend some time targeting producers, editors and reporters in your community from all different media outlets. Start by asking for what's called a "Table Side Meeting." These meetings are usually designed to educate the media about certain issues or stories in the community. Make sure when you ask for a meeting, and you actually get one, that you have a press kit/press release about your organization or credible issue prepared. Your press release must be formatted to their industry standards; otherwise they won't take you seriously (check out ours on our website www.utahpets.org).
Once you've had your meeting, continue to build a relationship with your contact by asking them to go to lunch or get drinks if you have another issue that comes up. Don't expect your contact to cover everything you put in front of them. They have hundreds of stories/issues in front of them during any given week and sometimes you won't be their priority.
Build credibility with your media contacts. Make sure you have your sources correct. Quote accurate facts and figures that can be documented. If you don't know the answer to a question they ask, don't make something up... tell them you don't know the answer, but you'll check into it and get back to them. Don't be afraid of the media trying to "expose" you or your organization. If your organization botches something up and the news crew shows up, always go on camera, never deny an interview and always, always be straight up. Always return their calls in an immediate fashion and quickly get back to them if they need further information. You will gain a tremendous amount of respect from them if you follow these tips.
Become a resource for your media friends: Once you start establishing yourself as a credible source with the media, they will start calling you on animal related topics. Eventually, you will be recognized as an "expert" in the animal welfare movement and will become a trusted ally and friend. Sometimes, if it's a slow news day, the media may even call you to see if you have a story (of course you have a story, there's always a story when it comes to animal welfare, right?).
Give them serious news, not just photo shoots at events: As you know, the news media will cover your events and will show the cute animals, but in order to get serious topics on the news, you need to have a serious story. Some ideas are: The euthanasia figures in your community and how the public can help reduce those in a community wide effort; or how many collective adoptions took place in your community this year, which resulted in XXX fewer deaths; or a segment on how to volunteer at your local shelter and what it means to the life saving mission of animal welfare. Sometimes, you may even get a feature story if it's compelling enough to the media, and sometimes, they may even do a series on the pet overpopulation problem in your community if it's well presented.
Hold regular press conferences that feature a serious fact/subject which the media will almost certainly mention if they cover your press conference: We hold a regular press conference every month, sometimes more than that. I can't remember a time when we didn't get at least three TV stations to one of our press conferences. A lot of this is due to the fact that we've spent a lot of time building credibility with the media and they know we're going to give them a quality press conference with quality material. We usually make our press conferences a lot of fun with a serious message attached, such as a giant map of Utah with 3,000 plus paw prints on it representing the number of adoptions that took place over the holidays, or a lifesaving theme at Furburbia, with dogs and humans in life jackets and navy wear touting the number of lives we'd saved over the year.
Targeting what spay/neuter message works best for our main audience
Question from a Member:
There are a lot of different reasons to spay/neuter pets. In trying to promote our program, we have found that different people react to different messages. Some react to the fact that spay/neuter creates healthier pets, or that it stops them from going into heat, or from unwanted puppies and kittens. Even if we know that lower income is our target market, this is a very diverse group. How do we know what message will work best?Response from Julie:
This is a very good question because a common pitfall in business is that many try to reach everyone, even everyone in a similar demographic. What ends up happening is that messages are weakened and get diluted, money gets wasted and results are diminished.The very best advice I can give you is to do your own research in your own community. I will take you through what we learned and how we learned it, but it may be different depending upon various factors in your community.
Where to start:
We worked with an advertising agency and top Utah pollster to help us through the very questions you've asked below with a series of focus groups. If you don't have contacts with an agency, I would suggest that you prepare a brief presentation and ask some agencies in your community to sponsor you as a pro bono client. Another good option that we've used in the past is masters level marketing students from the University of Utah who have taken on our projects as a final thesis.
What we found:
Our primary target demographic for spay/neuter is low-income women (34K and lower) aged18-35.
Cost was the biggest single factor for these women to actually get out and get the surgery done. The more assistance, the better, however, free was not good because it displayed a distinct lack of value for the service of spay/neuter.
Convenience was the next biggest factor. These women have a lot going on in their lives and researching the right place to go, how to get there, and how much trouble it would be to organize all of this was another big hurdle in actually making spay/neuter happen. They also complained that in their perception, there was not "one central resource/place" they could access to find out how, where, when and why to get your pet fixed.
None of these women responded to the greater good of what spay/neuter will do for the animal welfare community or our community at large. The numbers of animals that die in shelters everyday and the serious pet overpopulation problem due to lack of spay/neuter didn't really seem to have an impact on whether or not they would personally get their own animal fixed. They only responded to how this would help them personally in their own lives. The fact that in the long run it would save them money and the hassle of dealing with litters of animals seemed to be a decisive factor for them to pursue spay/neuter. However, there were still factors beyond the personal benefits that prevented them from getting it done (see below).
Nearly all the women knew in the back of their minds that this was something that they eventually should do, but the aforementioned factors were major road blocks that prevented them from actually getting out to spay/neuter their pet.
How Did We Translate This Information Into a Campaign:
All of our marketing and advertising features the money/discount issue as the primary messaging.
We work to make the process very convenient for these women. Our advertising suggests that there are many things in their lives that we can't help with, but we can help them get their pets fixed cheap! Tied into the convenience is addressing their complaint that one central location/resource did not exist to help them get through this process. We make clear that they can find out the how, where, why and when all in one easy to find place - No More Homeless Pets in Utah (website, phone).
Finally, we work to make all of our promotions a "call to action," such as "Get Your Pet Fixed for $45, This Week Only!" We added this extra push to try to put this in the front of their minds as something to get done now, rather than sit in the back of their minds as something that they might do down the road if all of the stars happen to be aligned.
That's it! We chose to go with primary messaging (money) and secondary messaging (convenience) with an overlay of an immediate call to action. We deliberately didn't go into the hows and whys because it didn't register as a strong enough point for these women and adding this simply dilutes our messaging.
Are you seeing a decrease in pet store sales in areas of higher shelter adoptions?
Question from a Member:
In areas where adoption of shelter pets has increased, are you seeing a decrease in pet sales (from casual breeders and pet stores)? In other words, are more pet households being found, or is Joe Utah's choice of places to find a new pet changing?Response from Julie:
Really, really great question! I don't know the answer to that, and actually haven't thought of researching that, but it's an obvious one! We have discussed the issue of market saturation before in terms of adoptions, but have always felt that there's still such a huge demand based on the sheer number of animals being advertised in the classifieds from breeders/pet stores, that we're still just nicking the tip of the iceberg.We'll follow up on your suggestion---do you want to come and work for us?!
Using websites as promotional tools
Question from a Member:
I saw that you have are doing a billboard campaign to publicize your website as a place to go to adopt. Has this been effective and were you worried that this might alienate those who don't have web access?Response from Julie:
We revamped our website right before the holidays and rolled out a billboard campaign to support the refined No More Homeless Pets in Utah branding approach now seen on our website, www.utahpets.org. The increase in traffic on our site has been absolutely tremendous! In some months it's nearly a third up from the previous year.We'll be doing more in-depth research regarding the success of this campaign, but anecdotally, we've had an amazing response from our rescue partners. Many of them have told us their website traffic has significantly increased and they are getting many more requests to adopt their on-line animals. In fact, since the billboard campaign, one of our rescue partners has decided to just focus on website adoptions and not participate in physical location adoptions anymore, because they are doing so many adoptions via the Internet.
Interestingly enough, Utah has the highest Internet penetration of any state in the country. An overwhelming number of Utahns have access to the Internet. Also, folks that use the Internet a lot seem to fit quite well with our primary adoption demographic.
Look for us to focus more on adoptions over the web. It's definitely presents the biggest source of adoption growth with minimal cost and impact.
