Marketing at its Best! Portuguese Water Dogs

Portuguese Water Dogs are Hot! The Obama Presidential family selected a breed that has under 1,000 dogs registered in the United States in 1995 according to the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America's website: http://www.pwdca.org/breed/history.html. The website also points out that the dog's history can probably be traced to 1297. Poodles, Kerry Blue Terriers, and Irish Water Spaniels can probably be traced to the "water dog".

Sustaining a breed like this took great care by owners through the centuries. Sustainability beckons to us from many windows of time. Peaking into this window of time shows that Sustainability involves keeping a line of dogs in tack for centuries. Just like plants that need preserved, dogs add quality to our lives and need preserved.

Marketing a breed requires care as well. I would hope the PWDCA has a marketing plan. The SWOT would be something like this:

Strengths - Quality Breed, Established since 1297.
Weakness - Limited numbers of the product (only 919 registered dogs in United States in 1995), not well known.
Opportunities - The President of the United States is looking for a dog.
Threats - All breeds are hoping to take the prize of being the "President's Dog".

The plan would have included strategies I am sure such as:

• Target Market the Presidential Family.
• Use the Kennedy family's recommendation as a method.
• Promote the Sustainability of the breed (centuries of care in the breed's line).
• Promote the breed's ability to be friendly, family oriented with a masculine and feminine appeal.
• Have the Kennedy family make a gift of the breed to the Obama Family.

Now the breed is internationally known instantly. The costs of the marketing plan was minimum. The results phenomenal!

Small business and families can use a SWOT to market themselves. Maybe you need a Marketing Plan!

Here are some great pictures of the dogs. http://www.pwdca.org/slideshow/

Enjoy!

Judy