Interaction between veterinarians and pet owners is at a tipping point. We’re seeing a major shift in how, where and when audiences gather information and make decisions. Somewhat shockingly, 37% of US pet owners say they’ve visited the veterinarian but declined one or more care recommendations in the past year. While vets are still at the heart of pet care, other influences - and influencers - are rapidly changing the landscape.
Pet owners are empowered. In-clinic dynamics are shifting. New technologies are maturing. And just like Airbnb becoming the biggest real estate company without owning a single home, or Netflix moving into streaming and original content; when shifting consumer behavior meets enabling, intuitive technology at just the right moment, sales cycles change forever.
Let’s look at a couple of trends that have brought us to this moment.
The consumerization of veterinary medicine
DTC pet care brands have exploded into the veterinary market. Brands like Chewy have grown to be the heavyweights that are now moving to bricks and mortar, products can be bought quickly and more affordably on Amazon, and all in all - the UX of veterinary medicine is transforming. Pet parents expect the same levels of service and convenience they experience in their ‘consumer lives’, with the added pressure and importance of a much loved animal - and their personalized care - at the center of it all.
Added to that, the shift towards ecommerce and online shopping for pets. A recent Morgan Stanley survey reported that online buying of pet food and other supplies continues to rise, with nearly 70% of respondents reporting buying via the internet in the past six months. And while the vet remains a key influencer in making recommendations on things like food and treats, ‘fewer respondents said they counted on a vet’s referral compared with the previous survey as the younger generation increasingly turns to social media and personal networks for information’.
The digitalization of clinical practice
From onboarding new patients, to taking their history, to diagnosing and treating illness, to follow up, educational comms - clinical practice has an increasingly embedded digital thread running across both the logistics of visits and the quality of pets’ lives. And pet owners have come to expect this. They’re ready and willing to take prescriptions and fill them elsewhere, they can chat to front office staff in real time; the convenience and ease of service they’re accustomed to in their consumer lives has spilled irretrievably over into their own and their pets’ healthcare experiences.
The productization of the patient
We’ve all heard the phrase ‘If something is free, you're the product’, usually meant to refer to services that make their money from your data, time or attention. In animal (and human) health, the ethical implications are even more pronounced. The productization of the patient refers to situations where patients and their care journeys are treated as standardized units, rather than unique individuals.
And this creates a dilemma. For AI-leaning animal health companies, the need to draw data and insight from the patient advances the product. This (theoretically) means only good things: the more data available, the better the insights drawn and the better the clinical outcomes. But. Veterinarians themselves are scientific, compassionate people - and have real concerns about the need to maintain strong clinical reasoning and patient-centered practice.
How can animal health companies balance these competing sentiments?
As always, with new opportunities come new challenges; and animal health companies increasingly need to shift or share focus towards pet care more holistically. As such, the go to market strategies of the past can’t quite cut it.
Many brands and marketing teams have a tendency to fall back on ways of working that have worked for years. But the buyer's journey isn’t linear. It’s user-led. Scattered. Less funnel and more free for all. People search for advice, products and recommendations from peer forums and AI platforms. It’s a huge opportunity for animal health brands that can meet users where they are, and provide wraparound, CX-led experiences beyond veterinary practice.
Animal health brands need to lean into this transformation or face risk being left behind.
But how do they get started?
Having a point of view outside specific products or clinical areas is key. Animal health has long leaned into educational content focused around areas like disease management - and that’s valuable, credible and essential. But the dissemination of this information must evolve.
Seeking out placements on high authority media platforms, proactively offering guest blogs to influencers, and engaging in conversations on peer to peer forums like Reddit will help surface that information as users start their research journeys. Discoverability across diverse platforms will only become more important, as Gen Z (and its preference for TikTok as a search engine) become more established and move into more decision making roles.
Fortunately, many of the principles and tactics of traditional SEO still hold true; building strong backlinks and long tail brand equity. A sensible first step is to consider the educational content you already have, and explore how it can be repurposed and reengineered to have a more editorial narrative that lends itself to media platforms, and angles that lean into conversations customers are having online.
Other tactics to consider include the formatting of online content to encourage it to show up within AI platforms like ChatGPT. Here, context is critical - long form content must be accessible through self contained sections and tied to question based queries, to really capitalize on existing high authority sites. Consider the development of content so it’s easily served in answers to questions your audiences may ask. This means spending more time in research-mode, truly understanding those queries and determining where existing - and new - content can be created to respond authentically.
Why are newer brands getting there first?
The lack of legacy baggage and unwieldy approval processes newer brands enjoy mean they can act faster. They’re born of a world of microservices, not monolithic operations. Starting up and growing up within the modern customer cycle means they’re naturally digital-first, and can build ecommerce infrastructure quickly, from scratch, rather than reverse engineering complex portfolios and practices into an online shopfront.
And what they may lack in front-of-mind brand equity and awareness, they more than make up for in the speed at which they can react to changing market dynamics. They don’t have to constantly keep in mind long standing brand voices that can tend towards the very scientific and - dare we say it - sometimes a little dry. Their messaging is deliberately emotional, accessible and often personalized, to the extent that Chewy is known to send flowers to pet owners that have lost pets. And while traditional animal health brands are less focused on DTC, there’s a lot we can learn from these emotive, highly responsive strategies.
Are legacy organizations struggling to keep up?
In short, yes. Because of the sheer amount of brand and technical debt that inevitably and organically piles up over years of successful business.
But we believe it doesn’t have to be this way. Evolving legacy brands in a way that’s meaningful and consistent, and builds on the trust and credibility they already have, can be achieved through simplification, proactive engagement and a more ‘of the moment' tone of voice. But brands need to be bolder in embracing more ‘scrappy’ marketing tactics: sharing and sparking conversations, making smarter use of data to personalize experiences, and putting dedicated resources towards finding the places where audiences engage organically. It’s not a case of inbound vs outbound anymore, it’s genuine dialogue with the people that can most benefit from your product.
Key takeaways
- Consider the ultimate consumer: pet owners expect veterinary care to match the convenience and personalization of omnichannel consumer experiences, driving a major shift in how pet care is delivered and who influences the buying journey.
- Learn how audiences are searching for your products: pet owners are looking for advice and recommendations across a scattered landscape of peer forums, AI platforms and social media. Animal health brands must deeply research and understand these evolving behaviors, and create and optimize content that directly responds to the real questions and needs of their audience.
- Show up where they are: to reach modern pet owners, brands must expand beyond traditional marketing - and ideally in as many places as possible. They should repurpose educational content, engage with influencers, post on peer-to-peer platforms, and ensure material is discoverable across a broad spectrum of platforms.
- Consider the evolving role of the vet: veterinarians are navigating a shift where technology offers powerful data and insights, but risks overly standardizing care. Animal health companies must support them by balancing tech innovation with personalized, patient-centered practice; respecting their scientific and compassionate roles, involving them meaningfully, and engaging them as authentic, clinical influencers.
If you’re struggling to evolve your marketing to meet this moment in tech acceleration and consumer behaviors, we’d love to chat. Get in touch to discuss how we can support you with a collaborative, results-driven strategy that will help to move your outreach forward.