Variety Is the Spice of Life

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We spoke to Jason Hart, brand director at PetSafe about ideation and development, customer service and popular products.

Rebekah: How did PetSafe brand get its start?

Jason: The PetSafe brand is part of the Radio System Corporation’s (RSC) family of brand which includes SportDOG Brand products and Invisible Fence Brand. RSC was founded in 1991 by Randy Boyd and initially provided containment systems for dogs. Traditionally, these systems had only been sold through professional installers and Randy saw an opportunity to sell them through retail stores. He had been selling cattle fencing to farm and seed stores in the Southeast and the retailers kept asking for the product so it was a perfect opportunity to meet a need.

We developed the PetSafe brand in the mid-1990s as it spoke better to our product offering and over time have expanded into a broad range of categories. We continue to be the leader in pet electronics providing products which provide freedom for pets and peace of mind for pet owners. This includes containment products, trainers and bark collars. We have expanded into other training products, water and feed solutions, pet doors, treats and toys over the years. More recently, we have expanded out cat offering significantly with waste management products as well as toys and nylon products for this market.

Rebekah: What should retailers know about PetSafe products?

Jason: All the PetSafe products are created with pets and their owners in mind. As a team, we have a passion for pets which drives our product development. While PetSafe products cover a broad range as detailed above, all of them are created to help improve the relationship between pets and their owners.  We focus heavily on innovation and pride ourselves on providing unique solutions which meet consumer needs meaning stronger sales for retailers.

We also support our products with marketing at the store level to drive education and conversion as well as strong backend support. Our Customer Care group is extraordinary in helping consumers solve any issues they may have with one of our products.  This means a stronger overall brand experience helping drive stronger sales and fewer returns.

Rebekah: What is the process for PetSafe’s product ideation and development?

Jason: New product ideas come from a number of areas for us. We are a passionate about pets and have pets in the office so many ideas come from our own experiences or experiences of people we know with pets. We also have an innovation team which looks at trends in the market and new technologies.

Additionally we get a number of ideas from outside inventors. Once we have an idea, we have a formal process for developing and continuing to test against consumers to ensure we are meeting a need in the market. Innovation is critical to our growth and we are proud of our track record in both developing new ideas and recognizing strong ideas from outside partners and bringing them to market. We were the first with a wireless fence, have over 400 patents and our portfolio includes a product which was featured in the Smithsonian for innovation.

Rebekah: What is Petsafe’s most popular product?

Jason: As noted above, we have a very broad range of products and it varies by category. We are the market leader in most of the categories we enter. It is hard to list individual products because I would leave out something important. Our company was built off a base of electronic products (containment, remote trainers, bark collars) and we continue to drive growth in these areas for ourselves and retailers.  We have expanded into non-electronic training solutions to meet a market need there.

In addition, we have either developed or acquired products in the pet access area, water and feed, waste management, toys and treats and see strong results and opportunities in these areas. In all these areas, we bring creativity, innovation and a focus on pets driving strong demand. You can see our full offering at Global.