[ SHOWGSD-L ] Marketing 101
- From: "Kathaleen Strong" <inflight2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 11:43:35 -0800
Of the few of the recent topics being bantered around on the list a couple
had a general theme that sparked my interest.
One of them in particular was the "Eukanuba" thread that transcended into a
discussion concerning what "John Q" thought of the breed. I literally
amazes me how many times I've said those very same words and been lambasted
as a nut, yet now it's valid.
In any event, as I read through the posts, I noticed something that seemed
to keep coming up - Marketing. As a group of breeders and ultimately as a
Membership, we have not been diligent in maintaining and controlling
marketing attempts to improve the breed. What people hear and read is what
they will believe, and this is true of John Q public and veterinarians
alike, provided the material given to them is of a nature that will allow
them to assimilate the information readily.
Case in point - the AVMA has an annual convention. Good marketing $$'s
could be spent in getting on the speakers panel and providing an educational
seminar on the breed, where the speakers were Veterinarians with good strong
knowledge of the breed having bred and owned several of them, (I believe we
have several DVM's in the membership) and able to talk turkey with
veterinarians who would be their "audience". A program outlining the
structure and purpose of the breed, and then deal with specific problems
that crop up in the breed that the audience may see in their own practice.
Further, pictures, slides, clinical evidence showing that dogs with correct
angulation, in fact often do not have bad hips, what growing pains puppies
go through including down pasterns, loose ligmentation, etc., so that we
educate at what is in our breed - I think would be a grand way to start. It
may cost us some money to develop meeting materials that would be necessary,
and there would be the cost of having the chosen speaker be there, but I
think it would be money well spent. 2008 Call for Speakers is presently
underway. The 2008 event will be held in New Orleans.
Another way attract attention to the breed - would be as exhibitors at their
convention. A 10x10 booth is $2,000.00 and includes 4 exhibitors passes
which allows for the people manning the booth to gain entrance into the
exhibit hall. My experience with tradeshows such as this (albeit the
International Builders' Show is a lot larger - attendance over 100,000), is
that they are a great opportunity to market your message to an audience.
This year's AVMA Trade show had over 10,000 people in attendance, and of
that number, over 4,000 were veterinarians. Of those veterinarians, more
than 43% were companion animal veterinarians. The development of the
materials necessary to attract people's attention and keep it long enough to
swipe their cards to send them more information after the event would be a
lot more expensive than getting on as a speaker - but it would reach a lot
more people since mostly these larger conventions tend to have several
educational sessions going on at the same time so it's optional as to
whether or not they attend the session.
A final way to educate the veterinarian - would be to get an article or two
published in the JAVMA. Of course not just any writer would be able to
write the article in the fashion that would be conducive to being accepted
for publication; but when it's all said and done, the development of such an
article that would be worthy of contracting a professional writer to write.
In any event, marketing is the key to the success of getting better
educational opportunities out in the hands of those that need to be
educated.
Kathaleen
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Kathaleen Strong - Inflight Kennels Reg'd - Breeders of:
1995 US GV, AOE-1996 US GVx, Jubilee ROM
http://inflight.cnc.net
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