Boulder is for the dogs. We take them everywhere: to bars, to grocery stores, to work, to public swimming pools. We don't own them — instead, we are pet guardians or pet parents.
Local pet food brand "I and Love and You" knows this. In fact, it embraces it.
Dogs rule the office, many days outnumbering human workers. The four-legged employees frequently interrupt business meetings, have their own profiles on the company's website and even personalized playlists on Spotify.
"We love our pets in this crazy, obsessed way," said Lindsey Rabaut, vice president of marketing. "If you feel that kind of love for your pets, we're the brand for you."
Clearly, plenty of people do. Founded in 2012, "I and Love and You" has put up year after year of double-digit revenue growth, pushing past the specialty pet stores where it got its start and into natural and conventional grocery stores, as well as posting thriving online sales.
The brand is continuing its expansion, and launching a new website and marketing campaign to further fuel growth.
We sat down with Rabaut and CEO Bau Mainous — after a quick visit with Gus, the office security guard dog — to learn more about the efforts.
Advertisement
Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
1. So... playlists for your pets?
Rabaut: That's part of our whole campaign called It's Not Crazy, It's Love. It's all about the crazy things people will do for their pets.
Mainous: We all give our dogs cutesy nicknames and talk stupid to them. My wife turns on the TV for the dog to keep him company.
Rabaut: My family dog, Bear, I FaceTime with him. My son and I call and I'll ask my parents to put Bear on. We talk to a lot of people who have cats and are allergic, and they say, "I don't care, I'm not stopping."
Everybody I talk to has these examples. It's a common bond among all pet lovers. Part of the whole campaign is celebrating people who do really fantastic things with and for their pets.
We launched our new website with the profiles and playlists on April 18. And we're partnering with Chewy (an online pet retail company) to host a Twitter party on May 10, from 4 to 5 p.m. We're going to have a pet communicator so people can ask questions.
2. Like a pet psychic?
Rabaut: She's more like a behavioral specialist. So if your animals are doing weird, quirky things she can get to the root of it. There's no shortage of ways we're thinking out of the box of how can we help people connect with their pets in a deeper way.
3. Back to business: How are the distribution and sales of the brand?
Rabaut: Last we calculated is a little over 10,000 to 12,0000 stores, but some of the natural stores aren't included in that.
Mainous: The e-commerce space is exploding for us. People are realizing pet food is one of those things you order pretty consistently. I'd say roughly 50 percent of our sales come from traditional grocery, 25 percent is natural dealers and 25 percent is online with Amazon and Chewy. It's the fastest-growing by far.
We're setting ourselves up to double the business in the next 18 months. And as part of that we have a lot of new things coming.
Rabaut: We just launched Lovingly Simple, which is a food for pets with allergies. This line is poultry-free, also beef-free, and then no wheat, no soy, no rice, no corn, no dairy, no egg. And we've gotten some really great consumer testimonials about how it's helping.
4. Is the allergen-free a fast-growing part of the brand?
Rabaut: We just launched it, but it will be. A staggering amount of dogs and cats have food allergies. Where we got the notion for looking into poultry-free food was from our customers, who ask us questions about their pets. People have been really excited about it; the email we sent out announcing it was one of our highest conversions to online sales.
5. Where does the company stand on calling people "pet owners" vs. "guardians" or something similar?
Mainous: We tend to say pet parents.
Rabaut: Or pet best friends
Mainous: We always say we make the best food for our best friends.
Rabaut: We could never say that we're pet owners because they own us. We'll do anything for them.
Shay Castle: 303-473-1626, castles@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/shayshinecastle
