Food Technology

If you watch television or read or use the internet, you know very well how important the internet and social media have become in today’s world. Messages are spread quickly through chat rooms, blogs, Facebook and Twitter. If you have a business, it is important that you monitor what is being said about the business in these forums, as well as provide factual information to your customers so that they get the facts, instead of the fiction or partially correct information that might be out there.

After the 2007 pet food recalls affected a large portion of the industry, a strong distrust of pet food manufacturers developed. While some pet food companies have a powerful internet presence with extensive websites including veterinary information and pet care tips, others do not. This invites pet parents to turn elsewhere for their information.  Unfortunately, many of the sites that pet parents find are chat rooms that are run by individuals with little or no knowledge of the pet food industry, pet nutrition or pet health in general, outside of their own personal experience as a pet parent.

Providing consistent and accessible information to the pet parents who are purchasing or considering purchasing your products will enhance your credibility and their perception of your quality.

Just recently I was involved in a situation where a store owner chose to send out an email to the store’s private email list. The information in the email was alarming and blamed the food for something that it certainly did not do. This author of this email acted quite incredulous when I phoned to let them know that although the store was located in the eastern seaboard, there were stores as far away as Texas and Arizona that were pulling the product from their shelves in response to the completely inaccurate accusation. While this is potentially a legal matter, prevention is the best medicine for a case like this. Protect your company from this type of situation by proactively providing all of your customers and consumers with the same information, and make it truthful and accurate.

Ramping up your web presence with a pet health section of your website or an “Ask the Vet” feature is a great first step to building credibility with the inquiring minds of pet parents. Start a Twitter page or a Facebook page (only if you will be monitoring the postings and posting frequently) to drive traffic back to your site. Start a blog site or find a site that you like and request to link to it.

Communicating your message clearly and in locations where today’s pet parents will find it is critical to protecting and growing your brand.

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