What you’ll read:
Petco successfully tapped into the post-pandemic mindset, rebranding from an animal supply store to a health and wellness company.
In the age of e-commerce, there aren’t a lot of reasons to load Lassie in the car and traipse over to a brick-and-mortar store for pet toys anymore. For wellness endeavors, such as trips to the vet, however, in-person visits are as appropriate as ever. In light of a rapidly changing reality, Petco took cues from changing social trends during the pandemic to launch a health and wellness themed rebrand. Here’s what Petco did right:
Refocusing on veterinary services gave Petco an advantage
When 2020 pandemic lockdowns kept people inside their homes for months on end, pet adoptions surged as people sought out companionship and joy. In tandem with the rush to find new furry friends, the pet retail landscape was flooded with players both new and established. Petco, a long-time industry mainstay, suddenly found itself being crowded out by startups, independent brands, and large competitors like Chewy and PetSmart.
Petco knew that staying at the front of the pack (and continuing earning $4.5 billion in annual revenue), necessitated a change. So in 2020, Petco Animal Supplies rebranded as Petco, The Health + Wellness Co. As many as 1,500 retail stores across the nation became “pet care centers,” and the company launched a plan to offer full veterinary services at an increasing number of those locations. Subscription memberships unlock access to unlimited vet visits and grooming services, and even online training programs for pet parents.
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One of the key insights informing Petco’s rebrand was the fact that while consumers once had to visit a Petco location to shop for pet food, toys, and accessories, those products were now widely available and easy to shop for online. Reframing around health and wellness and focusing on veterinary services gives Petco a competitive advantage over major e-commerce competitors like Chewy and Amazon, who don’t offer in-person (or shall we say in-pet) services like vet visits.
Petco rebranded as a health and wellness company
During those same early months of the pandemic, a global conversation about the importance of self-care began to take root. Instead of applying self-care like a band-aid, professionals started taking stock of what was really important and looked for ways to tend to their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. Petco was wise enough to draw a connection between the contribution pets make to their humans’ overall health and the responsibility pet parents carry to nurture and protect the creatures in their charge.
Rebranding as a health and wellness company solidified moves Petco had already started making in the industry; in 2019, the company stopped selling pet food made with artificial ingredients and transitioned to fresh, human-grade food products instead. In 2020, Petco’s “Stop The Shock” campaign announced that the company would no longer sell shock collars. Instead, it would encourage positive reinforcement training to further its mission of “improving pets lives.”
In a 2021 ad campaign called “It’s What We’d Want If We Were Pets,” Petco imagined a conversation pets have about their hot new health and wellness center in the mouths of people socializing at a cocktail party. While the ad successfully makes the case that humans just want the best for their pets, the company’s rebrand also demonstrates an understanding that healthy pets make for happier people, and Petco caters to both.