Question

Topic: Taglines/Names

Tagline For A Dog Gym - Focused Or Broad?

Posted by Anonymous on 5/17/2013 at 12:11 PM ET 125 Points
We're not open yet, but we're designing our website, marketing plan etc. Facility will be in a multicultural suburban area (46% families with children,) with much higher income demographics nearby. We will be the only dog training facility in the area. Due to the format and flexibility of our services, and concentration on being active with your dog, we are framing our marketing message around the concept of a dog gym.

The focus of the facility is to get people to be more active with their dogs, whether hiking, walking or participation in competitive dog sports like agility.

Facility provides group class dog training services through circuit training - moving between skill stations over the course of an hour. Class times, schedules and facility design give the dog owner an incredible amount of flexibility to work on what they want, when they want. Class size is limited to 6 participants.

Classes give both humans and dogs core / foundation skills to succeed in basic obedience and help set goals to encourage incorporating dogs into family / owner activities or giving dogs activities the family / owner can become involved in. Advanced skill classes will follow the same circuit format.

Without using specific industry terms, this facility uses "nice" or "force free" dog training techniques that sets dogs and owners up for success without punishing incorrect choices.

Instructors are certified through various industry professional organizations.

Since so much of this is a new concept, we're having difficulty focusing a succinct tagline. This isn't your parents dog training (no choke chains,) or the typical pet store class (watered down, cookie cutter training.)


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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Moriarty on 5/17/2013 at 12:26 PM Accepted
    The key to your problem is when you say "the focus of the facility is to get people to be more active with their dogs". WHO are they, and why would they want to do this. Answer that and half your problems evaporate in a flash.

    As to focus, focus on the people who will benefit most from what you offer. After all, they'll benefit most and have most need of you. Concentrate all your energies on them, tagline and copy wise. Nobody else will notice much as they're not as interested anyway.

    Does this help any? Would you like some exploratory taglines?

    Small sizes lets us train your mutt gently
    Gentle training in small groups
    Training pets and their owners together.

    What do you think?
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 5/17/2013 at 1:15 PM Accepted
    regarding ... "we're designing our website, marketing plan etc.". I suggest you complete your (marketing) planning first, then execute your plan by developing the website. Also, include a creative brief in your planning process to strategically guide the name (and tagline) development. Sounds like you're not quite there yet.
  • Posted on 5/17/2013 at 1:16 PM Author
    @Moriarty, thank you. You said, "WHO are they, and why would they want to do this."

    That's the problem of every dog trainer. People only seek a trainer when there is "problem," much like going to the gym when their pants get tight. Proactive training prevents behavior problems, which puts dog training in the health & fitness category. How do you convince people to go to the gym before they get overweight? Entire government departments are working on this question and people are still overweight.

    Training a dog before there is a problem prevents the problem, or at least gives people the tools to fix it quickly. If you train it, you have to maintain it, which is were goal setting for activities comes in. Instead of focusing on fixing problems (which is needed, I know,) I'd like to concentrate on preventing problems without sending the message that it's too late to start.

    I get your point. Marketing to every dog owner is too broad. I guess I'm looking for the person that has stuck their dog in the backyard and needs to rethink that. Their dog is an opportunity to get off the sofa and out of the house, which benefits both the dog and the human.



  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 5/17/2013 at 1:52 PM Accepted
    What's the name of your business (Romping Dogs?)? Where will you be located?
    Assume that people that are looking for agility training will find you naturally, and that this isn't likely your target audience. My guess is your audience is people who want better behaved & happier dogs (or an easier time with newly adopted dogs), since people who want to walk/hike with their dog likely already do so.
  • Posted by Moriarty on 5/17/2013 at 2:08 PM Accepted
    I presume you have plenty of puppy training - that fixes one end of the problem at least.

    Have you thought of using Google's display network? Find out what your best customers like - apart from just dogs that is - they may like hiking, various kinds of sports and certain kinds of TV program. The point is that if you know these things about your best customers you can advertise online and target those interests by way of magazines and blogs. That way the message can be spread before there's an actual problem - and you're targeting the kind of people who'll respond well to a nudge to do something about their dog's training.

    After all, the dogs won't come by themselves will they? Well the trained ones might ... ;-)
  • Posted on 5/21/2013 at 9:30 PM Accepted
    I agree with Steve, you don't seem like you are at the point where a tagline should be your main focus, there are other things that you should probably focus on. As for your creating your marketing message around the concept of a "dog gym," it doesn't seem like much of what you are offering in terms of classes (other than the circuit training) meshes with the idea of a ‘dog gym’. The two things that come to mind when one refers to a dog gym: 1) A place for canine health and fitness (which doesn’t necessarily correspond to getting people to be more active with their dog, the dog is being active) 2) places that do things like doggie boot camp, where the owner and dog are working out.

    If your focus of the facility is to get people to be more active with their dogs, than offer classes that inspire that (not just training classes). If your facility is going to be more of a sporty place to play with your dog, along with offering obedience training and some agility classes, than target a consumer who is already active (or at least somewhat), as people who are lazy and not that active most likely still won’t be motivated to get off their butt.

    There are a lot of places that offer the same or similar services that you are offering, look at what they have done, and how they marketed their facility, it’s not always necessary to reinvent the wheel. Check out a place called the Zoom Room, they are nationwide, and in only a few short years have become very successful.

    Also, what is the name of your company, is it Romping Dogs?

    Maybe one of these may help spark some creative juices.

    Get Fit. Don't Sit
    Paws in Motion
    Fitness for Your Four Legged Friend
    Don't be a Lazy Dog


  • Posted on 5/21/2013 at 10:00 PM Author
    Thanks for the clarification that the question itself was too broad. There wasn't enough time to include the entire marketing plan and class / workshop schedule in the original post. The question will be closed.
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