PETCO
The Challenge
PETCO was the also-ran behind the much larger PetSmart which has always had lower prices and wider selection. PetSmart's advertising budget was three times larger. And PetSmart consistently beat PETCO on customer awareness and satisfaction research. To grow the business, we had to change pet owners' minds about PETCO.
The Insight
Virtually all pet owners are pet lovers to some degree, so using pet lovers as the target (as most "pet" marketers like PetSmart do) is generic. For PETCO, we pushed past the obvious to find the most committed pet lovers of all, people who see their animals as friends and peers leading interesting, exciting lives of their own. These folks have extraordinary bonds with their pets, and we showed that PETCO gets it.
The Results
For eleven years, our "PETCO, where the pets go" campaign achieved higher awareness than PetSmart's despite much lower spending... and reached levels comparable to retail giants like WalMart and Target. Ongoing research showed PETCO's advertising to be more effective than PetSmart's – even among PetSmart customers.
Combined with the many smart things that PETCO's management was doing, we helped PETCO enjoy 49 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth of 5% or higher vs. previous year – a record we believe is unmatched in American retailing.