If your store is in a small market or if you have more than one store, radio may be a great way to advertise your business. The trick is which station to buy, when should you run the spots and how often should those spots run. One more small detail: how to make a good radio ad.

Which station gets the most women listeners in your market? You want the most women since they are most likely the bulk of your customers. Radio stations can show you demographics of who is listening to them and when folks are listening.

How much can you afford to spend? The newer the business, the more you need to spend. The better the location, the less you need to spend. Are you the only game in town or, like most of us, do you have too many competitors? Do you have something new and of interest to a broad base of customers? A pretty standard rule of thumb is to spend about 2 percent of sales on marketing. Again, if your business is new, you need to spend more.

So, you picked the station. Now, let’s get the best deal. Do buy packages from the sales reps. Remember that your sales rep is not a marketing expert; he or she is a sales rep.

Here is what I do. I buy a bunch of spots on one day and I avoid drive-time spots since they are the most expensive spots. So I don’t have two spots a day, five days a week, I have 10 spots on Tuesday. Plus I run them whenever the times are cheapest to run.

You may be thinking, “Don’t you get way more people hearing the ad if you spend more to run in prime time?” Yes, but there is too much clutter and your ads will get lost since you can’t afford to run too many in prime time. Plus, wouldn’t you rather have 100 percent of the smaller audience versus 0 percent of the larger audience? Remember, I am in western Massachusetts so rates are very reasonable. Prime drive time spots on the leading station that women listen to are $60 per spot. I am buying Sunday night thru Monday night at $15 per spot.

I contracted out for a year, which makes it easier for the rep to get your deal accepted by management. When buying the spots, you want to own the day even if it’s two days a month.

I do all my advertising on the same days of the month so no matter what media folks are tuned into they will probably see or hear me. As you probably guessed, I do the radio ads myself. It is so important to connect personally with customers. Doing the spots myself lets the listeners know there is a real Dave. They know they are dealing with a real human being, not a corporation. A word of caution however. If you are not really comfortable or good at doing ads, don’t do them. They will be awful and you will bring shame on your family.

What to advertise? I like to solve customer problems. The object is to get as many folks as possible out of competitors’ stores and into your store. What customer problems do you solve most often? Here’s one idea: “Is your dog or cat overweight? We’ve had great results feeding Food X. Here’s why.”
I have been running the following ad for close to 20 years: “Dog got gas? For immediate relief come to Dave’s Soda and Pet City and pick up a bag of Dave’s Simply the Best Dog Food.” That’s the whole ad. Guess what is the best selling dog food sku in my stores?

Are you having a big promotion or sale at the store? Buy your spots right before the promotion. As I’m writing this in October, we are about to hold a Catoberfest event in conjunction with a rescue in one of our stores. Along with emails, Facebook, press releases, etc., I will buy some radio spots promoting it. I will point out the benefits of coming to the store that day, which are discounts, coupons, free food and all the money and supplies the rescue will get.

The question to ask yourself after you script the ad is “Would that make me come to the store?” If you are not sure, make a new ad.

Article Featured in Pet Age: http://www.petage.com/pet-stores-on-the-radio/

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AGAWAM – All Dave’s Soda & Pet City locations , Agawam, Hadley, Ludlow Northampton, Springfield, Stafford Springs and Ware.

Dave’s Soda & Pet City and Natura Pet Foods, is proud to introduce the Pounds for Pounds Program created to partner with four area shelters.

For the month of April, every customer purchase of Natura Brand (Innova, Evo or California Natural) dry cat or dog food product will be matched pound for pound by Dave’s and donated back to your favorite local shelter in the form of the same brand. Simply tell the cashier you would like your purchase to be matched and donated to one of the participating shelters:
Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society

Dave’s Pounds for Pounds program is an easy way to give back to our local shelters, who provide shelter, training, love and hope to animals in need.

Local recipients are: Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society, Feline Friends, Kane’s Krusade and Second Chance Animal Shelter.
All of these facilities provide shelter, education, advocacy, and assistance for animals and people in need. They are private, non-profit organizations serving our local communities who rely solely on contributions from individuals who care about animals to bring their services to everyone who needs them.
Dave’s Pounds for Pounds program is an easy way to give back to our local shelters, who provide shelter, training, love and hope to animals in need.

Article Featured in MassLive: http://www.masslive.com/business-news/index.ssf/2014/04/daves_soda_pet_city_introduces_pounds_fo.html

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I was in a store when my phone rang. It was a friend who runs some stores on the East Coast. I will summarize the conversation. A customer called his store asking for a particular sku of Innova. My friend was still out of stock, he called the distributor who was also not yet in stock. He called the customer to explain the situation and was told “no problem, I got it at Petco.” He ran over to the Petco and sure enough, they were in full stock.

I obviously could hear and feel the anger, disappointment and sense of betrayal in my friend’s voice. To be honest, I feel exactly the same way. Truth be told, I expected nothing different from P&G, but hope springs eternal. The sales rep I was riding with in California told me the same thing was going on in her part of the country.

As I expected there were two reactions from retailers. One was throwing the food out, this was the last straw. I cringed when I heard that. With all due respect, that is a dumb way to react. It will absolutely cost you customers. You cannot convince all your customers to switch to the food you want them to use. You will only convince some of them. You will lose the customers you didn’t convince and guess where they will start shopping.

The better way to handle this, and the way most of the folks I know are doing is to let the customer decide. By all means try to switch them if that is your plan, but have the Natura products in your store. Your customers are very savvy, let them decide if they should continue to buy the food. At the risk of getting a retailer we visited angry, I heard him telling a customer how awful Innova was. First, it is unprofessional to do that, never knock a brand. Second, if the customer still wants to buy it, she ain’t coming back to your store. Sell on the merits of the brand you like.

Natura will end up spending a ton of money to get back as many customers as possible. Why wouldn’t you want to participate in that? Take advantage of every nickel your rep or distributor offers, make sure your deals are every bit as good as the big boys.

Do you think your customers won’t go back to Innova due to the recall? Ask any East Coast retailer if their Taste of the Wild business has fallen since Taste had a recall. Nope. My guess is the same thing will happen with Natura.

In a sense, the only way I can get back at P&G is to take every penny I can from them. I will gladly promote Natura products and do whatever I can to get new customers into my store. If Natura can figure out a way to get those customers to buy their product, great. As we speak, we are sending a postcard to all our Natura customers with a pretty good coupon to come back and buy a bag.\

If I had thrown them out, I wouldn’t have been able to do that.

As far as the filling Petco and PetSmart first, really, what did you expect? What would have been a really good move on P&G’s part would have been to fill us (by us, I mean all us indies) first. Then the Natura reps could walk into our stores and rightfully claim “we do value your business.” You probably would be way more receptive to anything in the future they proposed since they would have backed up their “we won’t screw the independent” claim.

And oh, by the way, did you hear from any of the higher ups at Natura during this whole fiasco? Nope, didn’t think so. They just let the street reps take the brunt of it. I beg you, don’t take this out on your rep.

The more stores I visit, the more I realize that many owners are in for a severe shock when sophisticated chains or mini chains start opening in their markets. The big box stores call these operations ankle biters, I am proud to be in that club. I am stunned at the lack of marketing, promotion, and even competitive pricing.

I hope I convinced any readers not to throw Natura out. If I didn’t convince you, email me, let’s talk.

A successful retailer, Dave Ratner is the owner of Dave’s Soda & Pet City, an award-winning seven store mini-chain. Dave sits on the Board of the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association and the National Retail Federation.

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With locations in Agawam, Springfield, Hadley, Northampton, Ware and Stafford Springs, CT., I opened the store in Ludlow at the beginning of April. Big Y is my landord and we are now in five of their shopping centers. It works out well for both of us. We are both interested in attracting shoppers to a location.

The bulk of our business is dog food. We sell our own brand of food for dogs and cats. If you have a 40-pound dog you need to buy a lot of dog food. We sell every brand, but we also sell our own brand.

In Agawam we also do pet adoptions on Saturdays run by Feline Friends Inc. If you adopt a pet we give you a $5 gift card per month for a year which you can use to help pay for food. The pet industry is growing for people with kids and without kids, but there is a lot of competition with other area businesses and with the Internet.

At the Agawam store, we do birthday parties for people with young kids. We take out our birds, hamsters and fish and the kids get to play with them. You just bring the cake. I only ask that you leave me a piece.

We also offer Do it Yourself Dog Washes. You pay us $12 to use our equipment instead of giving your dog a bath in your home and we clean up the mess.

I had three stores for years, and now I have seven stores. The pet industry keeps growing.

For my employees, working at Dave’s Soda & Pet Food City is a labor of love. They don’t make a lot of money, but they love animals.

I opened my first store in Hadley in 1975 and my second store in Agawam in 1976. I opened Carew Street, Springfield, in 1990. Ludlow will be a good location for us. If you don’t go to the Big Y Shopping Center you have to go all the way to Boston Road, Springfield, to buy food.

One way we have coped with the economy is by doing things to build customer loyalty such as the pet adoptions and gift cards, the birthday parties for children and the dog washes. If you want to bring your cat you can give your cat a bath too.

The pet industry is growing, but you have to be competitive with other businesses and the Internet.

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By The Republican Newsroom

David A. Ratner – There is no such thing as a free lunch, unless perhaps it’s kibble. Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno gave a plug to David A. Ratner, the owner of the Dave’s Soda and Pet City stores, during a recent ceremony welcoming a new dog to the Springfield Fire Department, “Does your dog have gas?” Sarno asked, invoking the chain’s well-known dog food commercial. Ratner deserves the credit. He has volunteered to supply the dog, a Dalmatian-retriever mix known as Tiller, with free dog food for life. Ratner has been doing the same for Dakota, the Springfield Fire Department’s fire sniffing Labrador. Tiller, rescued from the T.J. O’Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center, is being trained to help teach schoolchildren and others about fire safety and prevention. Ratner provides food for a number of working dogs in other Western Massachusetts communities as well. That’s a lot of kibble.

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AGAWAM – Although Dave A. Ratner has dropped his bid to open a veterinary clinic in his store on Springfield Street, he said that he may reconsider in the future.

Ratner, the owner of Dave’s Soda & Pet City, told the City Council last week that the veterinarian slated for the clinic lost his financing. The Longmeadow man said he no longer wanted to pursue amending the zoning bylaw in order to open a clinic in his store at 151 Springfield St.

Ratner told councilors he had learned a few days earlier that the veterinarian was unable to go forward, and said he did not have time to withdraw the petition to amend the zoning bylaw.

He declined to name the veterinarian when asked after the meeting.

Ratner told a reporter he would not rule out revisiting the issue in the future, but said he did not have plans to do so anytime soon.

“Not in the near future,” he said.

Ratner said he has received many telephone calls and e-mails in support of his plan. The city’s only two veterinarians had opposed the plan, citing public health and the safety risks of putting a veterinary clinic inside a retail store.

The Planning Board voted on March 5 to send a negative recommendation to the City Council.

Ratner’s petition, which bore 16 residents’ signatures, asked to change the wording of a bylaw that allows animal hospitals in certain business districts to include all non-residential districts. It also sought to drop a requirement that calls for the clinic to be in a separate building.

Ratner said he had many customers who want a vet clinic at the store. He said the opposition from the Planning Board and the veterinarians had no bearing on his decision to withdraw.

“There is a market for it, with the MSPCA (Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) closing, and not all of our customers are from Agawam,” he said. “And the real fact of the matter was that as we refined our plans, the vet clinic would not be inside the store. It would be in the empty part of the store.”

Three people spoke out in opposition of the plan during the public hearing, including John E. Guntly, of Chicopee, a veterinarian from the Agawam Animal Hospital.

Resident Helen F. Chester, of Feeding Hills, said she opposed the petition because Ratner’s plans were too vague.

No one spoke to the council in favor of the petition, but some people sitting in the audience said they would welcome a clinic at Dave’s.

Katherine M. Ayers, of 298 North Westfield St., Feeding Hills, said she has two cats, and purchases supplies from Dave’s. She said she would possibly take her pets for veterinarian services.

“It would be a convenient space,” she said.

Albert P. Ricco, of 104 Mallard Circle, also supported the proposal.

“It’s convenient for pet owners,” he said. “It’s like one-stop shopping . … I didn’t see what the problem is.”

Article Featured in MassLive: http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/daves_soda_pet_city_drops_bid.html

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AGAWAM – The new Dave’s Soda & Pet City at 151 Springfield St. is home to hundreds of birds, rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, snakes and fish, but perhaps its special habitat is an adoption center for homeless cats.

“No one else in Western Massachusetts does this,” owner David A. Ratner said Thursday, standing outside the spacious and comfortably furnished cage that houses the felines at the back of his store. “There’s only one other store in all of Massachusetts that does this. They’re in Natick.”

“Now we have thousands of customers who are through here every week who can see these animals that are up for adoption,” Ratner said. “We thought it was the perfect tie-in.”

Susan M. Plourde, founder and president of Feline Friends Inc., which runs the adoption center, said, “This is wonderful. We’ve very grateful for the opportunity to do this (here). It gives the public the opportunity to see what animals are available for adoption.”

Ratner’s new store is big enough to allow him to offer other new options for animal lovers as well. These will include obedience classes for dogs taught by carefully selected trainers and a bathing area where owners can wash, dry and groom their pets.

The size of the store – at 25,000 square feet, it nearly doubles the size of his former quarters on Ramah Circle – has also allowed Ratner to become a full-fledged Agway distributor, featuring lawn, garden and related products, and to lease space to C&B Redemption Co., which recycles bottles and cans.

Ratner bought the former Ames building and parking lot on Springfield Street in 2006. The purchase price plus the cost of renovating and upgrading the facility and site has totaled approximately $3.5 million, he said.

In addition to the main store, the property includes about 12,000 square feet of warehouse and office space, plus another 30,000 square feet Ratner plans to divide into commercial spaces of 10,000 and 20,000 square feet. He already has a likely tenant for the larger storefront, he said.

Ratner has added about five or six employees to his local staff. He now has about 20 employees at the Agawam store.

He opened up his first outlet on Route 9 in Hadley in 1975, following that a year later with a store in Agawam on the Walnut Street Extension, which he eventually moved to Ramah Circle and now to Springfield Street. He also has stores on Carew Street in Springfield and on Route 5 in Northampton.

Asked how he came up with “Dave’s Soda and Pet City,” Ratner, 56, who was brought up in Springfield and now lives in Longmeadow, said, “When I opened up the first store, I was only selling soda. And then I bought a dog.”

Looking for dog food for his beagle Bentley one day in the former Food Mart here, he said, “I noticed that there was more pet food there than soda, and a lightbulb went off.”

Mayor Susan R. Dawson applauded Ratner’s move to Springfield Street.

“Anything that we can do to revitalize that part of our town, which is really the gateway to Agawam, is positive,” she said.

His customers seem to approve, as well.

“Some of the aisles were narrow (in the old store). Here you’ve got more space,” said Donna of West Springfield, who declined to give a last name. Wheeling her terrier-mix dog Noel around in a shopping cart, she added, “And too, I can bring my dog in here.”

“It looks like he’s got a lot more stuff (here),” said John R. Winters of Feeding Hills, buying pet food.

Agawam High School students are painting a series of murals for the store’s walls, and Ratner commended their work. “We’re a local business,” he said, “so we try to get the community involved.”

The new store opened Aug. 4, but as of this week was “only about 70 percent done,” Ratner said. A grand opening ceremony with participation from state and local officials is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Sept. 22, he said.

Article Featured in MassLive: http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/pet_products_store_includes_a.html

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