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A Women’s Market Insight: Pet Insurance

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I don’t know what you do with all your extra time, but I’m a dog mom.  If I’m not walking Hilde, my Australian Shepherd who is so-gorgeous-I-could-die, I may well be emailing a photo of her doing something cute (like shredding a toy) to MarketingProfs resident dog-obsesser,  Ann Handley, swapping stories with my mom or one of my sisters about their various doggies (which can outrank tales of grandkids or kids!), or reading books like Marley & Me or Woman’s Best Friend.

Indeed.  I am one of those.

But, here’s my point.  That pooch is extremely important to me, and I want her around as long as possible (thus, the $30/bag food, for one).  And, lest you are giving this an eye-roll, rest assured it isn’t just a single gal thing.  Women love and spend money on their pets.

Now, there are clearly pet "accessories" out there that many of us woudn’t bother with, but, one thing I’ve had my eye on for a while is pet insurance.  Hilde is quite healthy, but I’ve still paid a huge price for even her minor surgeries and prescriptions over the years.  (No ifs ands or buts – of course).

A November 12, 2005 Wall Street Journal article, "More Employers Are Offering Pet-Insurance Benefits," noted these American Pet Products Manufacturers Association numbers:

In 2004 dog owners shelled out an average of $211 for routine vet care, up from $156 in 2000, while cat owners spent $179, up from $117.  The average cost of surgical care visits $574 for dogs (I know this one well) was nearly twice the 2000 cost.  For cats, that type of visit went from $257 in 2000 to $337.

Whew!  Just like human medicine, the technology is there and life extending possibilities exist – but they cost a lot of money.  Whether you get pet insurance via your employer or seek it independently, the companies who can help us better afford caring for our canine, feline (and more) family members will be well-rewarded.

Embrace Pet Insurance is one such company that I’ve been watching, mainly because of the personal friendship I’ve built with one of its co-founders, Laura Bennett.  She knew, early on, that women were the key to the business and so, even as the underwriting process has taken way longer than she and co-founder Alex Kooglick might have hoped – they have finally launched their company.  Interestingly, I remember way back when being part of their survey on possible logos, and then later a survey of web site templates. They have been so-wisely building community and involving their likely customers for years in advance of this launch.

Anyway – as a more recent MediaPost article, "Pet Health Insurance Takes Off," put it:

THE MARKET POTENTIAL IS ENORMOUS: 62 percent of all American households have at least one pet, and yet only 2 percent of these animals have health insurance.

Pet insurance was the original brainchild of someone or some company with their eye on trends in the women’s market, if you ask me.  So, if this pet story does nothing for you in one regard, maybe it will nudge you in another: to dig deeper and come up with your own brilliant product or marketing insight based on changes in the way women live now.

P.S.

- Embrace has a community blog and shares stories on its site, if you are interested.

- If you just can’t get enough of pets, my fellow women’s market expert, Yvonne Divita, recently launched one, as well.

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Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 in Language Translation, Moms, Single women

  • http://profile.typekey.com/andHow/ Tami Anderson

    Andrea, as usual you are right on. The opportunity is huge, the service much needed, and plenty of pet owners who don’t ever want to have to choose between love or money. I was very glad to learn of this company and will check them out. I had a not so satisfying pet insurance experience with a different company, which I blogged about here: http://andhowmarketing.typepad.com/andhow_to_reach_women/2006/07/index.html
    It’s all about the follow through.

  • http://www.flippyodegard.com Flippy

    Beware, this is going to be long.
    Yes, I know this is an old post, but I want to write and say that I also had a horrible pet insurance experience with VPI. It was worthless. I know things are changing now and with more competition comes better choices for consumers. I could’ve used some decent pet insurance over the years – various surgeries my pets have had are luxating patella surgery (both knees), followed a year later by the same dog having ACL surgery on one of her repaired knees, by an orthopedic surgeon from another state, as if the surgery itself wasn’t expensive enough; bladder stone removal; ingrown eyelash surgery; a feeding tube for a foster cat who stopped eating after her owner died…and many more.

    If you only have one big dog (it’s so pricey that we only feed it to our little dogs, our two 100lb dogs would cost $15/day versus $3 for both little dogs), I have a suggestion for some foods that your dog will love, that are great for her, and best of all, will make her poop less often because her body will be using up all the nutrients. I’ve had to do a lot of research because one of our dogs is allergic to corn. We only feed wet food now and the dogs have thrived. We’re feeding either Merrick (www.merrickpetcare.com) canned food and they have lots of variety and the dogs love all of them, although the one with tripe doesn’t agree with them for some reason. And I recently found Dick Van Patten’s (haha!) Eatables at Petco, when I can’t get to the fancy pet food store across town. There are only four varieties right now, I think, but they smell yummy. The Hobo Chili will tempt you to dip your finger in to taste it, it smells that good. So far, I’ve resisted, but I love opening up the can.

    Thus ends my Merrick & Dick Van Patten love letter. Tomorrow, (or later today if you will), I will write about sports. By the way, I’m Nancy, wearing my personal blogging/product/pet loving hat. Our household currently has six parrots, four dogs, eight cats (all are fosters) and one adorable 7 day old foster kitten.