InfoStream newsmakers of 2014!

2014 was an exciting year for the urban animal industry. Success and expansion of the Urban Animal program; mergers and acquisitions that changed the face of the services and retail sector; and inspiring stories of innovation all played a part in collective achievements celebrated by Urban Animal associates this past year. 

Here are a few InfoStream highlights (in order of top page views) from 2014:

The Top Dog Store™ re-invents retail for dogs: Calgary's Robert Church opened the doors to a new store offering a redesigned look at the retail sale of pets. The Top Dog Store™ produces a unique dog-centric experience directed at property homing the animals. Measures include certified and inspected sources of animals; mandatory vet visits, animal warranties and national identification and return-to-owner services; and follow-up services for clients that support behavior and ongoing health. 

Career networking in the Urban Animal Industry: During the Backers Total Pet Expo in September, pet industry veteran Jamie Damato Migdal launched a new online platform to help pet industry professionals find qualified and dedicated employees. FetchFind.com, which is in Beta form, will offer the opportunity for aspiring pet industry professionals to increase expertise through online learning modules as well as locate job opportunities by browsing job postings on the site. 

2014 Social Media Trends: An article on Business 2 Community (B2C) forecast that in 2014, Twitter would surpass Facebook, marketing would transition from monologue to dialogue and that images would outrank content for user engagement. Hashtags were also predicted to become the leading online search tool as every social media channel accepted and encouraged its use. 

Atlantic Innovation Showcase Spotlight Paws Fur Thought - Service dogs for veterans battling PTSD: Since being paired with his service dog, Thai, in 2012, retired Canadian Armed Forces Captain Medric Cousineau has been working to raise awareness and funds to help other veterans achieve success and peace through their own service dog pairings. Cousineau was introduced to the Urban Animal program thorough the Innovation Showcase and received the 2014 Innovator of the Year as well as the 2014 Health and Wellness Summit Awards. 

Mars to buy most of P&G's pet food business for $2.9 billion: In April, Mars, Incorporated and the Procter & Gamble Company announced that Mars agreed to buy the IAMS®, EUKANUBA® and NATURA® brands in major markets for $2.9 billion U.S. This was a strategic move for Mars Petcare to complement its large and growing global Petcare business. 

iAdopt unveiled - An interview with OSPCA's Tanya Firmage: Introduced in 2013 as iAdopt for the Holidays, the campaign was quickly refactored to offer several sub-campaigns throughout the year for various national holidays. This avant-garde campaign shows promise as an industry-wide and international initiative as it caters to all sectors of the industry and is available to everyone. More than 3,000 pets were adopted as part of the 2014 Christmas campaign. iAdopt was featured at the 2014 Regional Conferences as well as the 2014 Summit for Urban Animal Strategies in the Innovation Showcase program. 

An interview with Cheryl Herperger, City of Calgary's Off-Leash Ambassador Program: This pilot program launched in 2013 with ambassadors frequenting two Calgary off-leash parks to help spread educational messages and park etiquette to dog owners and walkers. The program experienced tremendous success and grew to 70 volunteers covering 12 of the city's parks in 2014. The Off-Leash Ambassador program was also featured in the Urban Animal Innovation Showcase. 

InfoStream Guest Author Program welcomes Patricia Cameron: Saskatoon SPCA Executive Director Patricia Cameron joined the Guest Author program in March with her "SWOT" series (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). Patricia's extensive background in the urban animal industry as well as in creating a sustainable environment have given her a unique perspective to create healthy communities for pets and people. 

Thank you to everyone who made this a successful year. Your collaborative efforts, forward thinking and commitment to the industry will undoubtedly lead to an even more successful 2015. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Summit Conversations: The Key to Designing Exceptional Customer Experiences

Patricia Cameron 
InfoStream Guest Author 

The quality of experience your customers have with your business has a huge impact on whether it thrives, scrapes by, or fails. If a person has a confusing, frustrating, or really bad experience when frequenting your business, there is a very good chance they will never come back.  In today’s connected world, there is also a good chance they will share their negative experience not only with the 11 people they traditionally shared complaints with, but with hundreds, thousands, or even millions of other people.  Ask United Airlines. 

So whether your business is an animal shelter, a veterinary office, a pet supply store, a pet insurance provider, or animal boarding facility, or a groomer, you can start today to design a customer experience that is clear and understandable, convenient, helpful, honest, high quality, and even fun.   The key to successfully designed customer experiences is a rare and precious resource — the resource of empathy. 

Often confused with sympathy or compassion, empathy is defined in a variety of ways, but basically, empathy is “understanding of another’s situation, feelings, and motives.”  Developing and growing organizational empathy is key to delighting customers, and delighting customers is key to a successful business. 

Every day, lack of corporate empathy creates huge numbers of dissatisfied customers. Below are a few examples of experiences designed WITHOUT empathy — that is without “understanding [your customer’s] situation, feelings, and motives.”

1.  Talking AT people (about yourself).  Many corporate brochures and websites start something like this:  “Founded in 1986, RuffnReady Pets has sold more than 2.5 million pet beds. Our factory is gleaming and modern, and our designers are educated in the latest computer-assisted design processes.”  RuffnReady (fictional) focuses on itself — its history, its sales, its  factory, its designers.  Customers are focused on their own needs (like getting a great bed for their pet) and you should be too. 

2.  Processes that put up barriers to satisfying a customer’s needs and desires.  Many people come to animal shelters hoping to adopt, and excited to help both homeless animals and the organization.  After more than an hour of paper work and what feels to them like interrogation, many go away with hearts and minds filled with confusion, hurt, and anger, rather than arms filled with a new furry friend.  Empathy would help shelters avoid this unfortunate ending.  For example, people are generally eager if not impatient to directly connect with animals, so let them.  Finding out hands-on they have no control of a dog will be more persuasive than engaging them in an argument about whether they have the experience and skill to work with a rambunctious pup. After such a lesson, being directed to animals more suited to their homes will be experienced as helpful rather than interfering or controlling.  

3.  Communication that isn’t. You get a new purchase home hoping to put it to good use, only to be frustrated by the “instructions.”  Since so many products are now made overseas, the use of diagrams rather than text has become commonplace.  Often these diagrams are rudimentary and unhelpful because they were designed on the cheap with little or no concern for the customer’s needs.  If your company sells a product with such horrible instructions, they have a bad experience not with the manufacturer but with YOU. Check for these sorts of problems and provide customers with support — “Hey, the instructions are not great.  Here is an example we assembled.”  Or, “The first few times you use this product can be tricky. Here is our card; give us a call if you have any difficulty.”  

4.  Lying.   There are many examples of companies lying.  Lying really annoys some people who then go on social media and tell everyone about it.   Ask Kashi. Here’s a personal example.   As a consumer interested in personal and environmental health, I choose not to support Genetically Modified (GMO) foods and unless specifically labelled organic, canola is all GMO.  I was looking for a canola-free, Non-GMO mayonnaise at my local grocery store. After much searching, I was excited to see Hellman’s had a mayonnaise boldly labelled “With Olive Oil.” As Yogi Berra memorably said, “You can see a lot just by looking.”  With that in mind, I looked at the label.  The first ingredient was canola oil; olive oil was way down the list.  Now the people at Hellman’s are no dummies — they know the label “With Olive Oil” will be a beacon to consumers seeking Non-GMO mayonnaise — they just lack empathy. If they had empathy, they would know that being lied to results in bad feelings and motivates people to never buy their products again. 

Having empathy, that is truly understanding the people you hope to attract and retain as customers, is a simple path to designing amazing, satisfying, high-trust, loyalty-building customer experiences.  Simple, but not easy.  You will have to talk WITH customers not TO them.  You will need to stop focusing on your needs, your interests, and your agenda.  You will have to let their agenda dictate how, when, where, and what services and products you deliver.  You will have to take the time to really look and to observe how people interact with your organization and its products.    And finally, you will have to be honest and authentic.  

The ninth annual Summit for Urban Animal Strategies is days away. Throughout the year, leaders in the industry have identified dilemmas and developed conversations to recast dilemmas into opportunities. 

The 2014 Urban Animal Forum™ on Friday, October 24th, develops industry conversations into strategies and tactics. InfoStream articles by recognized industry experts, are presented to prepare delegates for this activity.

Get the facts, have YourSAY, move the industry.

Patricia Cameron begins new role with Saskatoon SPCA

The Saskatoon SPCA welcomed Patricia Cameron as its new Executive Director Monday. 


With graduate degrees in both English literature and business administration,  Cameron has had a varied career, including success as an entrepreneur, more than a decade in post-secondary education (where she taught public relations, media studies, interpersonal and technical communications); 6 years in animal welfare (during which she was executive director of the Calgary Humane Society), and a role as executive director of Green Calgary.   

READ MORE: New Saskatoon Executive Director 

Cameron was chosen after a regional search and selection process. 

"The Board of Directors is pleased to announce this appointment," said Kevin Hovdestad, Saskatoon SPCA Board Chair. "Ms. Cameron will bring leadership and experience to the shelter. She has extensive not-for-profit and Humane Society experience." 

During her time at Calgary Humane, Cameron significantly increased revenues, expanded the organization's services and led CHS to national recognition for sheltering, humane education and animal protection. 

“I am delighted to be back in my home town, Saskatoon, and working with the great team at the Saskatoon SPCA.  It is an exciting time for the organization, and a wonderful time to connect again with the many amazing people I know from across Canada who have dedicated their careers and talents to the pet industry and animal welfare.”

Doing and making the right things in a super-connected world - GAP

Patricia Cameron 
InfoStream Guest Author

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." 

Albert Einstein 

Recent media articles on the (un)sustainability of pet ownership, and closing of more big box pet stores in Canada are just two indications of changing times.  While many businesses are sleep walking toward a future that looks identical to the past, some businesses are seeing the opportunities in realities that others may ignore or deny. 

As it is currently configured, the pet retail sector is no different than other industries in our consumer society - that is, heavily reliant on a global system of production and consumption that is unsustainable, and in many cases toxic and wasteful, both in the products produced and to the environment. Indeed, the current industrial model is based on a "cradle-to-grave" process - raw materials are sourced using an enormous amount of energy, producing large amounts of emissions, and often using toxic chemicals and leaving devasted landscapes in the wake. The materials are processed using yet more energy and chemicals, shipped using even more energy, sold, used and then as “waste” are disposed of - leaving society to deal with massive, toxic landfills. 

While grim, this reality presents a huge opportunity to businesses that want to start now on what will be inevitable - creating products that from sourcing and processing of materials to disposal are neutral or nurturing to the earth and all life forms. 

In their book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, a Manifesto, Michael Braungart and William McDonough discuss how designing products such that all elements of a product nourish life while the product is in use and when disposed of (e.g. through composting or “upcycling" to new products), and the production process is free of toxic and dangerous ingredients.  

In food industries, we see some positive, if reluctant, movement toward animal welfare and humane practices, largely in response to animal welfare campaigns and growing consumer awareness of and concern about low animal welfare standards in global food industries. When finally acting in response to campaigns and concerns, the PR glow shed on the company is less warm than it would be if the company had pro-actively done the right (humane and environmentally friendly) thing.  

For example, in Aug 2014, Big Food giant Nestle announced it was adopting much stronger animals welfare standards. Nestle’s Chief Procurement Officer, Kevin Petrie was quoted as saying,  “In the digital world, everyone has a smartphone and they want to know where things come from and share that information. [people want to know] 'Is it good for me? Is the quality good? Has it been responsibly sourced?'”  

As Mr. Petrie of Nestle’s suggests, it’s never been harder to cover up bad products and practices, and people are increasingly concerned with issues of health, well-being, environmental damage, and animal welfare. There is huge opportunity for pet industry companies that actively embrace this reality and pro-actively do and make the right things. 

What is your company doing to protect the planet?  Have you looked at a cradle-to-cradle strategy to eliminate toxic waste and nurture the earth?  Are you afraid of having people film anything in your operations?  Does your business have animal practices, the best defence you have for is “It’s tradition”? The answers to these and other questions should tell you whether your business is ready to take advantage of today’s emerging opportunities.

Creating a sustainable pet population

Are pets bad for the environment? 

With the world's resources under increasing pressure, Erik Assadourian argues that pet ownership needs a drastic rethink

An article emerging last week about the sustainability of the pet industry and pet ownership ruffled some feathers among pet communities and organizations.

In his Guardian story, Erik Assadourian questioned the carbon footprint of pets and the many products they consume or require. He writes that, "as our pets increasingly adopt the consumer habits of their owners, it's clear that no matter how "green" the industry becomes, it will never be sustainable." Assadourian argues that unnecessary pet products like toys, clothes and even burial caskets are putting a strain on the already stressed climate.

"Fast forward to a climate disrupted future. . . Where do pets fit in? When climate change disrupts grain supplies, shoots food prices through the roof and also eviscerates the global consumer economy, pets may be abandoned in droves as families suddenly can no longer afford their upkeep," he said.

And while Assadourian's suggestions (satirical or not) to slaughter the abandoned cat and dog population for meat or adopt 'time-share' relationships with animals garnered knee-jerk and emotional reactions in the comments section of the article, his message is simple: Consumers need to be mindful of the products they purchase for their pets.

Green Calgary Executive Director and former Calgary Humane Society Executive Director, Patricia Cameron noted that Assadourian's article may have sent the wrong message. Rather than promoting mindful consumerism and sustainability, it appealed to a reader's emotional ties to his/her pets.

"It is true that, currently, the pet industry is unsustainable, just like all the other industries. It is not an exception but rather part of the overall way that we produce, consume and dispose of things," she said.

"It is no different than any other industry. We're all in this together and we need to start buying for durability, trying to stay local, thinking about whether the products we purchase are necessary and are contributing to well-being. If we love our dogs, and we love owning dogs, then people should be looking at more sustainable ways of feeding their pets and meeting their recreational needs."  

READ THE ARTICLE

Gaining trust among pet families

Patricia Cameron
InfoStream Guest Author

“Elvis said it best: "We can't go on together with suspicious minds." – The Cluetrain Manifesto  

In my last SWOT blog, I talked about a variety of strengths enjoyed by pet industry businesses.  The focus in this post is on weakness. Each unique pet business is going to have its unique weaknesses – for some a key weakness may be the ability to attract and retain skilled employees;  for others, it may a poorly conceived business plan; for still others a founding CEO who can’t let go of trying to control everything themselves. In the big picture, though, the entire pet sector suffers from a core weakness: potential or actual loss of trust among pet families. 

A major driver for the growth of the pet industry has been that people see their pets as family members and are buying products and services that reflect this perspective. As such, pet families have zero tolerance for products or services they view as dangerous or substandard. Yet, at the same time, the pet industry has been rocked by dozens of examples of shoddy, dangerous, and wasteful wares; unskilled and incompetent services. The examples I give below may raise some hackles, but they are all drawn from actual experiences and, if you are in the pet industry, the distrust occasioned by these stories could be impacting your business.

Trust is damaged or destroyed any time a customer:

• Buys vet prescribed medications at the clinic only to find the medication over the counter at a human pharmacy for much less.  
• Reads headlines on toxic pet food or pet treats or worse has their own pet sickened or killed by such faulty products.  
• Is told this diet and only this diet is good for their pet, who then does poorly on the kibble, or patties, or canned dinners.
• Learns that pet toys are made of toxic materials or that pet beds are sprayed with chemicals that damage the pet’s thyroid.  
• Trusts their pet to a grooming service only to have the animal harmed while in care and the groomer charged with animal cruelty.
• Boards their pet with a facility that allows the pet to escape.
• Works with an unskilled pet “trainer” who is so harsh pet that a once merely shy animal now has major fear-based aggression towards strangers.
• Goes to a pet store and sees suffering, dying, or dead animals in cages or aquariums, or water bowls overgrown with algae or moldy food in food bowls.
• Acquires a pet from a “breeder” and finding the pet has congenital health and temperament issues.
• Is sold a pet only to find that they cannot really care for the pet appropriately.
• Find that “bio-degradable” plastic poo bags or other pet products are an environmental disaster.

All of these examples are pulled from headlines and each has seriously eroded trust in the pet industry. Still more horror stories may have been made up – but in the absence of trustworthy voices to weigh in on truth, the doubt occasioned by corporate irresponsibility and greed have created fertile soil for these fictions to be believed and to spread.

The future of the industry depends on pet businesses truly engaging in deserving trust, building trust, and retaining trust.

For you, the business owner, that means being absolutely clear on where your products come from and the quality of these products. That means establishing,  publicizing, and adhering to your product sourcing and quality standards. To gain and keep customer trust and loyalty, you need to ensure your focus is on delivering only those services or selling only those products that provide pet families with real value and real benefit.

Greening the Paw Print: Surfing the Tides of Change in the Pet Industry

In the urban animal industry, only one thing is certain: change. Technology, values and environment have evolved over the years and to remain successful and involved, organizations must also adapt. 

Patricia Cameron, executive director at Green Calgary, and former Executive Director at the Calgary Humane Society, understands the need to adapt and has the experience to help you get there. In her InfoStream Guest Author series, Patricia will evaluate the tools and thought processes necessary to strive in an ever-changing world.

“There is a tide in the affairs of men.Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” – William Shakespeare

Back in 2001, the Ipsos-Reid study of Canadian pet ownership “Paws and Claws”  zeroed in on a pivotal change in the our relationship with pets:  the majority of pet owners saw their pet as a family member and treated them accordingly. 

Decades in the making, this historic shift has massive implications for pet owner behaviour, and by extension, for the pet industry.  Over the same time period  leading to this pivotal change, there was a rising concern about the interconnected issues of environmental well-being and personal/family health.   This concern continues to rise and to shape consumer choices.

Coupled together, perceptions of pets as family members and environmental concerns have created a “tide in the affairs of men” that is creating change  in all sectors of the pet industry.  

Change is always a two-edged phenomenon, with some loss and some gain.   The key question a business owner needs to answer is “How can I minimize losses and maximize gains?”   

I hope in these blog postings to help you ponder and formulate your own answers to  this  question, and surf the tides of change.   But heads-up – as former successful entrepreneur, former CEO of an animal welfare organization, and current CEO of a leading urban environmental charity,  I am not going to sugar-coat my perceptions.  There is too much at stake: the health and well-being not only of our businesses, but of our pets and other family members, of our communities, and of our planet.  These are all tied to what we produce and what we and our pets consume. So here goes.

Most of us are familiar with the SWOT analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.  Analyzing the pet “space” through SWOT offers a number of actionable insights and I am going to start the series on a positive note with Strengths.   

• COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE: Many pet retailers have done a great job of creating a friendly, pet-positive client experience. Like coffee merchants Starbucks or West Jet, savvy pet retailers and service providers create business environments  that offer up not only purchasing opportunities, but an entire consumer experience: for example, with bins of tasty treats, warm earth toned walls, flooring and fixtures, engaging toys, their own “in-house” pets, imagery of happy families and pets, friendly and caring staff.  The best of these environments foster comfort, pleasure, and trust, precious qualities for business sustainability.  It is amazing what tuning into the esthetics of your business can do to engage your community and have them coming back for more.
• COMMUNITY EMPATHY: Connection with the local community.   Impersonal national or international companies are less and less appealing to the high-income, well-informed consumer.   Savvy businesses in all sectors ensure they are visibly active in investing in and supporting the communities in which they operate.  Pet industry players have done so by hosting adopt-a-thons or on-site adoptions with local animal welfare groups.  Funding spay-neuter efforts is another positive step. The winning combination is partnering with a highly professional local group on a high visibility/ high impact initiative that engages both the community’s interest and heart.  With emphasis on the heart.   There is an art to engaging with non-profit partners, and some players in the pet industry have mastered this art.  
• COMMUNITY EDUCATION:  Pet industry organizations have a wealth of information to share with consumers. Best-of-breeder education efforts focus on meeting pet owners where and how they are rather than on how the pet owner “should” be.   Their materials are illustrated with compelling imagery of pets and people, content that is written in plain language, and offer actionable advice pet owners can put to immediate use.   Becoming a trusted source of information and guidance is a huge strength to those that achieve it because the pet world is awash in competing views, ideology, fear, and misinformation.  The formula for success is as follows:  Education that is simple and clear, actionable, absolutely trust-worthy, focused on the pet owner’s needs and interests, and are either compelling or FUN or both.

There is a flip-side to all three of these areas of potential strength: stores or offices that are cold, ugly, and unpleasant;  businesses that do nothing to “give back” to the community, or whose community is unaware of the great work they do; education efforts focused on an ideological agenda, selling products, full of inaccuracies or opinion portrayed as fact, or are text-heavy, boring, or difficult to understand.

What strengths does your business exhibit in these three areas?  What could you do to build on these areas of potential strength?

InfoStream Guest Author Program welcomes Green Calgary's Patricia Cameron

InfoStream is pleased to introduce Patricia Cameron, Green Calgary Executive Director,  entrepreneur and visionary, as a contributing Guest Author. 

Patricia comes to InfoStream with nearly a decade of urban animal expertise, five years as executive director at the Calgary Humane Society. Her experiences in both the urban animal industry and creating a sustainable environment give Patricia a unique perspective and passion to create healthy communities for pets and people. 

With graduate degrees in both English literature and business administration, Patricia Cameron has had a varied career, including success as an entrepreneur, more than a decade in post-secondary education (where she taught public relations, media studies, interpersonal and technical communications);  6 years in animal welfare (during which she was executive director of one of Canada’s leading animal welfare organization), and her current role as executive director of Green Calgary, an awarding urban environmental charity focused on supporting Calgarians  in developing  resilience and increasing sustainability in their homes, communities, schools and businesses, through education, services, products, and hands-on support.  

She is particularly experienced and skilled in business development and marketing / communications. “I have had unique opportunities to study, to consult with,  and to develop collaborative relationships with a wide variety of industries: information technologies, health care, energy, trades, non-profits, and the pet industry.  I have a deep appreciation for pets and the pet industry and hope my insights into communications, public relations, collaboration, corporate social responsibility, and business development will be of interest to the great  people working in this vibrant sector,” says Cameron.

She values time with her family, which includes rescue pups Suzie and Zach and 5 grandchildren, and pursues interests  in music, organic gardening, and writing.

Stay tuned to InfoStream for Guest Author posts by Patricia Cameron! 

Patricia Cameron moves to Green Calgary

Patricia Cameron, former executive director of Calgary Humane Society announced today that she is taking up a new role as Executive Director for Green Calgary.

Green Calgary is a dynamic, non-profit urban environmental organization working to empower Calgarians to create healthy homes and communities through environmental education, products and services. 

Since 1978 Green Calgary has sought to address a range of pressing urban environmental issues including pollution, waste management and resource conservation.

As the nature and understanding of environmental issues has evolved over the years, Green Calgary’s focus has shifted  to providing information and raising awareness.  Green Calgary provides specific tools and resources that empower individuals and groups to make positive environmental changes.

VISIT Green Calgary