• by Tanya Gazdik , September 5, 2017

Doggy day care and boarding provider Camp Bow Wow is focusing its marketing efforts on the demographic that are currently most dedicated to their pets — Millennials. 

The majority of the company’s customers are under the age of 35. As Millennials are often getting married later, deferring having children and as a result, filling that gap with pets, the brand is witnessing first-hand the consumer patterns, spending behavior and the pet parent concept that is driving the market.

The brand has refined its marketing strategy to focus on digital and has implemented a strong mobile strategy since this is where its largest customer base is searching and interacting with brands. As a result, the company’s mobile website has seen a 90% increase in users since 2015.Julie Turner, vice president of marketing, tells Marketing Daily how the strategy has paid off. 

How did you discover Millennials are such a big part of your audience? 

Millennials are now working professionals with careers, homes, families and dogs. As this generation gets older they naturally start needing our services, but we regularly conduct customer surveys and research to understand our current client demographic in order to reach them most effectively.

How is marketing pet services to Millennials different than the rest of your audience?

Having a strong digital strategy is critical for reaching Millennials since they use the internet and their mobile devices as sources of entertainment, content, and solutions. Because of this, we have a heavy focus in online reviews, SEO, PPC, social media, and a mobile app so we can appeal to this demographic and reach them where they are spending their time. 

How do not alienate the rest of your customer base? Or have you found they respond well to the Millennial-directed efforts? 

Millennials are attracted to brands with personalities, which is something we’ve worked hard to build and maintain from the start. It’s okay to take risks and be a little daring with your marketing campaigns and messages and we’ve found that the rest our customers also respond well to it. Our customers appreciate and are receptive to our various digital efforts, but we continue to incorporate non-digital tactics into our overall strategy as well.

What is your company's biggest marketing challenge? 

Finding ways to automate our marketing tactics to reduce overall time and effort for our Franchise Owners, while still delivering great results. In terms of marketing to millennials; one of the biggest challenges is overcoming the fact that they are able to tune out ads. They grew up with the ability to skip or hide ads. It’s a challenge that a lot of marketers and advertisers are facing. It’s also interesting to see how some companies are using it to their advantage. For instance, some services allow you to pay for a subscription that is ad free, and millennials see the monetary value of that. Millennials are savvy shoppers and rely on reviews more than ever. These challenges are exciting because it pushes us to be more creative and resourceful.

How has marketing changed over the course of your career?

There are more tactics and channels now than ever before, and very sophisticated targeting capabilities to reach your exact audience at the right time. Everything is changing much more quickly which requires brands to be nimble and able adapt to new trends or technologies.