The American Pet Products Association reported $147 billion was spent on pets in 2023, up 7.45% from the $136.8 billion spent in 2022. What’s fueling this growth? In many ways, it’s routed in a dog’s journey. Over the past decades, dogs have gradually transcended from pets to family members. When they are looked at through this lens the paradigm of what a pet parent will spend money on, invest in, and contribute time to begins to change. We see this in the transition from bulk kibble brands to premium foods like The Farmers Dog and from pets staying at traditional kennels to staying at elevated and thought out dog friendly environments.
Dogtopia Understands Dogs Are More Than Pets
When the mind shifts to pets being family members, we start to enter their four legged thought process more. If I was Rubble the bulldog; “what place would I want to play at? Where would I want to sleep? What kind of people would I want to meet?” Then pet parents begin to answer those questions.
One company that has been helping answer those questions is Dogtopia, a national dog wellness franchise offering dog daycare, boarding and spa services. They uniquely blend both the dog experience and the pet parent experience. For dogs, they offer a play area with obstacles and fun, friendly staff, and other pups to hang out with. For the pet parents, they offer ease of service such as a mobile app that offers curbside drop-off and pickup. They also ease the mind of pet parents while they are away or at work by providing webcams for viewing.
Dogtopia Launches New Virtual World
Recently Dogtopia announced the launch of its new virtual world with Obsess. Obsess is an AI powered interactive tool that creates an online shopping interface. For Dogtopia this means pet parents can experience what a Dogtopia facility has to offer without evening leaving their living room. This virtual world is packed with immersive features.
In our tour of the virtual world we started by entering the virtual Dogtopia where we were greeted by a team member who introduced us to the lobby space. In the lobby we found a few posters with information that brought us to an informative video from Mak Cruz who showed us how they do a meet and greet with new dogs entering the daycare system. Then we met Lorraine Rose who spoke about health and safety. Both videos had a friendly and welcoming vibe and detailed information a pet parent would want to know.
We walked over to the front desk and learned about “Dogchella” photo party from a sign at the front desk. Here we also were able to enter to win a free month of daycare, play a trivia game or find our nearest Dogtopia location.
After interacting in the lobby we entered the playroom where we learned some fun facts about exercise and that each room has a Canine Coach. This coach “encourage your pup to learn through play with group activities such as name recall, door control, group sit, obstacle courses, water days, bubble parties, and more!” In the center of the room we accessed a video to learn about the various playrooms including Toybox, Romper and Gym each catered towards a blend of the dogs size and temperament.
Our trip wrapped up with a tour of the the spa. The spa; featuring the words Spa Day! in bubbles showcased their shampoo product line and discussed the services they offer. This ranged from bubblebaths to brush-outs and ear cleaning to nail trimming.
The Obsess environment created a unique experience to explore a topic that pet parents want more knowledge about. It has the ability ease the worry pet parents may have when using a dog daycare or boarding service by building confidence in the people that work there, the protocols they have in place and their philosophy of the dog experience.
Franchise Technology Takeaway
This form of technology seems very promising to build a consumer-to-brand relationship before a first face-to-face interaction or phone call. It also can improve the franchise owners’ and teams ability to deliver a consistent and elevated experience within their communities.
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Brand Information Source: Dogtopia
