Client overview
Chuck & Don’s is a national pet retailer that was founded in 1990 by Charles (Chuck) Anderson and Don Tauer in Minnesota. The store was created to provide high-quality pet products and exceptional customer service to pet owners. Their customers include individuals with a wide variety of pets, including dogs, cats, birds, small animals, and reptiles. Chuck & Don’s stands out through its commitment to personalized service, a comprehensive range of high-quality products, and active community engagement. The company aims to create a one-stop shopping experience for pet owners, ensuring their pets receive the best care possible.
Challenge
The consumer pet market is a hyper competitive one with several large, “big box” retailers and aggressive e-commerce players trying to capture the pet owners share of wallet. Succeeding in this landscape requires a unique formula to win and ability to cut through the high-spending competition to find a way to break through. Chuck & Don’s has a perfect blend of local access and an abundance of products and services combined with very personalized service and care that stands out from others. The company is also known for its active involvement in the local community, including hosting pet adoption events, supporting local shelters, and organizing pet-related activities and workshops.
Their challenge, like others in the category, is three pronged — actively attract and convert new customers, engage frequently with existing customers and reactive lapsed customers to bring them back to the brand.
Insights
Deciding on a pet store is a blend of functional and emotional factors. Functionally, consumers want to get what they want when they want it at the best price possible. Emotionally, they want to be confident in the care of their pets and they respond positively to considered and tailored recommendations from trained and experienced staff members. While Chuck & Don’s has to deliver on the functional aspects for pet parents, their calling card is highly personalized service rooted in the founding principles from Chuck and Don themselves. To be successful, any marketing program would need to incorporate these complimentary dimensions for pet consumers.
Solution
For new customers, we have deployed a full funnel campaign with a blend of product and service-focused marketing and brand storytelling to highlight what makes Chuck & Don’s special. For existing customers, we keep them regularly engaged through seasonal updates, events, extended services like grooming and “surprise and delight” moments. For lapsed customers, we focus on “come back” opportunities and helpful tips and reminders. Across the board, we take a priority brand approach knowing that pet owners gain affinity to specific product brands and Chuck & Don’s wants to be associated with those brands in the minds of consumers.
Our audience-specific campaigns leverage a full canvas of media choices including Meta, CTV, Pinterest and search/shopping. This is all backed by a detailed data and analytics strategy that includes real-time, integrated dashboarding mixed with deep-dive insights and optimizations.
Services Provided
Marketing Strategy
Campaign Strategy
Channel Strategies
Paid Media Activation and Management
Creative Testing
Data Collection Infrastructure
Performance Reporting and Analysis
Results
Increase
in YOY revenue
Increase
in YOY return on ad spend
Increase
in YOY impressions
"Our collaboration with Parallel Path has catalyzed full-funnel performance improvements that have directly led to purchase enhancements online and in-store for our pet care brands. Integrating their data-driven insights into our creative process along with their understanding of our audience has significantly improved our business performance. We love working with their team and we are enthusiastic about the future innovations and continued success this partnership is poised to deliver."