Snapping up pet products

Drug Store News, Sept 8, 1997

Pet owners are desirable repeat-visit customers, and many drug chains drool for their pet product dollars.

This past spring, Longs Drug Stores decided to raise the visibility of its pet product offering with "Picture Your Pet a Winner" sweepstakes with promotion partners FujiFilm and Nestle, the corporate parent of Friskies and Alpo.

The hook was an ad with an entry form for a drawing, to be submitted with a pet photo, thus reinforcing Longs as a photo destination.

A winner was drawn from each store and a grand prize winner was drawn from each of the chain's 15 districts. The store prize was a Fuji QuickSnap one-time-use camera and a $20 Longs gift certificate. The grand prize was a Fuji camera outfit, including a 35mm camera with case and film, and a year's supply of Friskies or Alpo pet food products.

The ad launching the contest, in May 16 newspaper inserts, packed in a lot of pet assortment information and provided an entry form inviting pet owners to submit a photo of their cat or dog.

The promotion also offered consumers a free roll of Fuji film with the purchase of 24 cans of Friskies cat food and either a 3 lb. bag of Chef s Blend or Friskie's dry cat food, or with the purchase of 24 cans of Alpo dog food.

The ad show showed an array of pet products offered at Longs, including PetMate Pet Feeder and PetMate Self Waterer, Pup Corn Low Fat Dog Snacks, Scoop Away Scoopable Cat Sand, and Raid products, including Flea Killer Plus and Carpet and Room Spray -- it also promoted Longs Bite Sized Chunky Dog Food.

Although the contest didn't quite meet Cheryl Gherlone's expectations for dollar sales increases, "it brought awareness to the fact that we have the pet category," said Gherlone. She noted that some stores had good results, some had minimal results, and this had a lot to do with store level involvement and how they created their displays.

Above all, she said, "The customers who participated were very excited. If more customers become aware that they can stop off at Longs for pet products, we can boost sales. We know a lot of business is going to category killers, such as Petco. We want to let our shoppers know that we have all the pet items they need."

The rules of the contest stated that entries became the property of Longs, so, after the contest, Longs selected some photos the chain may use in future Long's ads. Said Gherlone, "We call the entrants, not necessarily just the winners, and let them know that we would like to print their pet photo in an ad. It's a good way to involve customers. I know if it was my dog, I'd be excited about seeing his photo in print."