Creative Marketing Solutions – Building a Business for Your Best Friends

In this day and age, extreme conditions call for extreme and creative solutions, and the airline industry has stepped up to the plate with an excellent example of how to make lemonade out of lemons.

I’m a pet lover and have been for many years. My husband and I have owned dogs for most of our 34 years of marriage. I’m sure many of you know what it’s like to live with these companions day and and day out. They are like our children, and sometimes they even feel closer because they are with us all the time, after our children are grown and living their own lives. According to Answers.com, Americans spent over $39 billion dollars on pet food alone in 2006. This is no small chunk of change and represents a large and growing market for anyone serving the pet industry.

Into this growing market segment has entered Pet Airways, a brand new company whose mission is to transport pets around the country in twin-engine Beech 1900 turboprops. It caters to pets, giving their owners peace of mind as they send their pets off to their destinations.

Its aircraft fly at 25,000 feet without passenger seats, giving lots of room to up to 50 dog and cat carriers that are checked every 15 minutes by an attendant.  This frees them from riding in cargo holds with extreme temperatures and poor ventilation and less than ideal handling by cargo personnel.

We all know airlines have been hit hard by the recession, but Pet Airways has found a creative and much needed solution. It will be interesting and educational to watch their progress over the years. Check them out at www.petairways.com.

“Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!”

- Theophile Gautier, (August 30, 1811 – October 23, 1872)  French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and literary critic.