Restaurant Marketing: Going Dog Friendly
Any restaurant that can find a way to accommodate smokers these days, you should find a way to accommodate dog lovers.

 A recent study found that 63% of American households have a pet.  There are 74.8m dogs in the USA and their collective spending on pets tops $40b per year.  By comparison, estimates are that only between 10% - 25% of Americans smoke.  The number of dog lovers in the country is going up and the number of smokers is going down.  Surprisingly though, it’s often still tougher to find a place to dine with your pooch than for a smoker to find a place to light-up.

We Americans love to pamper our pets.  As I write this I am in a 1,100 square foot four-star suite that is so pet friendly they allow both of my dogs (a Great Dane and Dachshund) and even bring up pillows and food bowls.  Some new doggie day care services charge as much as $120 per night for a luxury kennel (only my dogs get to stay at that rate, not me too).  Collectively, Americans spend $16.1 billion on pet food.  To help put that number in perspective, consider - all of the restaurants in Florida combined will post just $24 billion this year in revenue.  These numbers paint a picture of the buying power of pets.

There are more than 40,000 “doggie diaries” on Dogster.com and the percentage of dog owners who share their bed is 42%.  Americans love to talk about their pets, spend time with them, and increasingly they are looking for hotels and restaurants that are getting with the pet-friendly movement.  Not a bad community to tap into if you’re looking for solid word-of-mouth promotion.

Given how loyal people are to their pets, wouldn’t it make sense to tap into that strong emotional bond and create not just pet-friendly patio dining but to go further and develop marketing campaigns around this untapped market?

Pet Friendly Ideas for Restaurateurs to Consider:

• Water & Treats – You can tell how dog friendly a restaurant is these days by whether or not they bring a water bowl and treats over with the drink order for the table.  People (and their dogs) love it!  Be sure though to let the owner give the treat to their own dog (it is part of training and bonding as well as correct etiquette on behalf of the restaurant).


• Dog Days – A day guests are invited to bring their dogs for social hour.


• Free name tags – Consider offering to imprint a dog tag with the pets name and owner details on one side and your restaurants logo and phone number on the other.


• Dog Photo Walls – Consider taking pictures of guests who bring their pets and post on a bulletin board or on your Facebook or Twitter accounts.  They love it (plus it helps communicate the message of how your establishment is pet friendly).


• Sanitation – Pets are forbidden inside the restaurant because of strict health codes.  They have even started to crackdown on giving treats.  Starbucks used to offer a doggie treat to drive through customers who had a dog in the car but stopped doing it because of the grouchy heath department.  That said, they are still – at least for the time being – allowed outside on the patio.  Encourage your staff to help the pet and owner feel welcome.  Also remind them though to wash their hands and maintain the same standards of sanitation you encourage in other aspects of food and hygiene.

There are a ton of other ideas on ways to communicate a pet-friendly policy and attract a profitable and untapped market.  Please open up the discussion – looking forward to your comments using the form below!

Restaurant Consultant Aaron Allen