‘‘Pampering your pet is a hot thing to do,” says Tom Mularz, senior vice president for Synovate in Chicago. “It’s very common to spend a lot of money to keep pets well-fed and well-clothed.”

Indeed. Animal enthusiasts spent around US$34 billion last year, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. Vet bills and other healthcare costs represent the largest percentage of this figure, with owners shelling out for everything from traditional rabies and distemper shots to MRI scans and healing touch massage. Pet health insurance has become increasingly common, with some mainstream companies offering it as an employee benefit.

Pets have grown in stature in recent years to the extent that they have nearly acquired the status of a family member – people increasingly refer to them as their “babies” or “grand-dogs”. Mularz speculates that part of the surging popularity of animal companions is linked to people settling down later in life. “Pets have a replacement value,” he says. “Not that they’re the perfect spouse, but people have pets who in the past would have had a spouse and kids. If you don’t have the responsibility of kids, then you have more available time to worry about a pet.”

Pet owners are likely to be emotionally driven when making purchases to enhance their animal’s vitality, entertainment or even fashion sense. “They have big hearts,” Mularz says. “And if a marketer can figure out what the emotional message should be in the advertising, they represent a terrific opportunity to sell pet-related products in new segments.”

His advice for those in the pet product industry is to step up the pace of market research to better understand those emotional drivers. 

“We wanted to know if people were interested, and at what price point,” says Rucker. “We refined it as we started to find out what people were concerned about and what they liked. We didn’t really know little things, like where they would want to use it – in or outdoors – how many toys they would want it to hold, how they felt about collecting toys at the end of the day, and cleaning them. And if they only wanted to pay $20 for it, we knew it would probably not be tenable.”

Entrepreneurs have long been major players in the pet industry – reformulating food and toys to meet specific needs. This more recent trend in the availability of pet services, as well as increased demand for high-tech and high-end products, means that more niches are available than ever before.

“The market keeps growing and expanding,” says Mularz. “Pet supply manufacturers are always looking for new things.” Even that new diamond-studded doggy collar in the window.