When Business Depends on the Kindness of Strangers

Quite simply, if you advertise dog food to non-dog owners, you will lose money. That is putting the marketer’s goofy ego ahead of the well-being of stockholders, employees and dog owners that should know about the brand.

On a national campaign, the number of non-dog owners that will tell dog owners about the wonderful ad they saw for dog food probably can be counted on the fingers of two hands.

Iezzi ends the piece thusly:

The famous Heinlein quote that tells us “specialization is for insects” also tells us that “a human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.”

To that list perhaps we should add: “Watch a dog-food commercial even if she doesn’t currently have a dog.”

On second thought, a market does exist to sell dog food to non-dog owners. It’s called the destitute and the homeless.