Easy, Affordable, Effective Co-Op Advertising Program

UPP introduced its Easy, Affordable, Effective Co-Op Advertising Program at SuperZoo 2008. This program comes at a time when retailers are very concerned about their foot traffic. We know that consumers will continue to feed their pets high quality foods in tough times. What we can't be sure of is where they will buy that food.

UPP came across a program that will increase the probability that the consumer will choose to go to the independent pet shop.

UPP has partnered with Valassis, an international advertising and marketing company that sends mailers to targeted households based upon very specific proprietary demographic data. They have a record of successfully bringing new customers into retail stores.

The objective of the program is to make it easy, affordable and effective for both the retailers and the manufacturers.

"UPP is not in the advertising business," said Maureen Costello, President. "This is not a profit center for us. We are providing this service to our retailers and manufacturers so that we can all be successful. We are charging just enough above the actual cost of the ads to cover our costs to administer the program. We are fully disclosing the economics of this program to our manufacturers and our retailers."

The company has leveraged the combined buying power of the independent retailers in Southern California and Las Vegas in order to negotiate favorable rates from Valassis for their programs. By doing this, the independent retailer can compete with the big box stores who are able to advertise at favorable rates.

UPP is also able to create high quality professional advertisements that will enhance the image of the Neighborhood Pet Shop. If each retailer had to develop these ads on their own, it would be very time consuming and it would be more difficult to get the same level of service.

At first many retailers are skeptical of any co-op ad program due to past experiences with other programs that were either very expensive or forced them to bring inventory into their stores that they really didn't want to carry. Once they understand how this program works, almost every retailer expresses an interest in participating.

The key to the success of the program is that it has to work for the manufacturers. They pay for the majority of the costs. They have to see increases in sales in order to be able to continue to fund this kind of program. Retailers understand this and are willing to comply with the supplier's requirements to participate.

Working together to get through these tough times and bring more consumers into the independent stores will reap big rewards for all participants for years to come.

Interested retailers should contact their UPP field sales reps.