Direct marketer of pet supplies and medicines Drs. Foster & Smith Inc. is becoming an ambitious user of video to make a bigger impact with its web and catalog customers.
Last fall the company introduced Drs. Foster & Smith’s Faithful Friends, a cable TV show that educates pet owners about proper pet care and do it in a fun way. The show, which includes various segments archived on DrsFosterSmith.com, is seen in four regional cable markets with more markets scheduled for later this year, says Internet marketing and analysis manager Gordon Magee.
By the middle of the year, Drs. Foster & Smith will also be producing more videos for its various e-commerce sites. Though the company will produce some product videos, most of the videos, which Drs. Foster & Smith will shoot and edit internally, will focus on pet education topics. “We aren’t shooting and posting infomercials,” Magee says. "When used correctly, video provides a better way to communicate information that customers both want and need.”
Drs. Foster & Smith, No. 85 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, is also producing more conventional education content for its various e-commerce sites, including LiveAquaria.com, eTropicals.com and PetEducation.com.
Beginning in late February, the company will introduce new pet education centers that contain “how to” articles, select links to its existing library of 3,000 articles and other education content. “The videos and the education centers reinforce our brand message that we are a provider of quality information and products and not just a supplier,” Magee says.
Web sales for Drs. Foster & Smith rose by around 10% in 2007 to $146 million. “The web sales wound up according to our forecast,” Magee says. “Last year was a year of controlled growth.”
Magee is speaking at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition, June 9-12 in Chicago in a session titled Tapping into the promise of self-serve customer service.
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