Julia Jang

Furtrieve
Marketing
Jordan Hetlund
Jhetlund@futrieve.com
MKT 393
31 Jan 2023

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 I. Background

Furtrieve is a pet tracking device company that has many versatile and advanced features to
ensure the safety and monitoring of your pet. Features available for their highest product,
Furtrieve+, has a feature that does not exist elsewhere: “Save Our Stray.” This feature allows
direct two-way voice communication throught he Furtrieve device while alerting nearby devices
of lost pets. Other functions that enhances the reach for Futrieve include GPS tracking with street
view, mobile virtual fence, crowd-notify, history tracker, water resistance, and adjustable
batteries. Furtrieve primarily focuses on dogs and cats–Purrtrieve devices are smaller with a
much cuter and appealing appearance that is tailored to tracking cats. Furtrieve devices all come
with a subscription bundle that gives users access to all the aforementioned features and fully
utilize the potential of the tracker through their mobile app launching soon. More information on
the product and company can be seen on Exhibit #2.

II. Environments
A. Competition
Whistle, Fi, Jiobit, and Tractive are Furtrieve’s main competitors. Whistle focuses on a large part
on personalization through surveys/quizzes. The website for Whistle is not as coordinated
however, it does consist of subscription popups and banners indicating sales/discounts. Fi has a
much more cooler aesthetic than Whistle and Furtrieve–It is not as cute, but more sleek and
minimal. Fi focuses on testimonial videos and differentiating themselves from Airtags by telling
their story. Jiobit is a pet tracking company powered and purchased by another popular tracking
app called Life360. Jiobit, similar to Furtrieve, has a cute aesthetic and implements a lot of play
on words or humor, which is engaging to users and potential buyers that are interested in
purchasing the pet tracking devices. Tractive focuses a lot on insisting that they are the world’s
number 1 pet tracking company (differentiation). Tractive also separates their devices similar to
Furtrieve with their dog tracking devices vs cats. Their dog devices are called GPS DOG LTE,
whereas the cat tracking device is called GPS CAT LTE.
B. Technology
The SOS (save our stray) technology is what separates and differentiates Furtrieve from its
competitors because it is the only dog tracking device that features the SOS two way
communication that allows the owners to directly interact with their pets or the person who
found their pet. Other features include the GPS tracking–which is the most essential part of the
tracking industry. Through GPS tracking, Furtrieve is able to successfully track and also record
teh whereabouts of a lost stray and also alert owners when their dogs have strayed outside of a
“mobile virtual fence.” The mobile virtual fence is when a pet owner can create a 100m or larger
radius zone that could detect their pet if they step outside of that targeted zone, and notify the
owner through the Futrieve app.
C. Economy
Furtrieve manufactures their devices in China and then imports them to the United States for
selling and distribution. According to U.S. Pet Wearable Market Size, “rising disposable income
and increasing demand for advanced features in pet wearables for monitoring pets’ health are
expected to drive the adoption of pet wearables in the U.S.” With the increasing income for pet
owners, people are more likely to be spending more money in their areas of interest
D. Legal or political factors

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There has been articles that mention how dog tracker apps are snooping on humans, meaning that
these devices have been becoming a threat to cyber security. The login details and locations of
pet owners have been exposed by several dog tracking apps. Credibility for dog tracking devices
decreases and impact the tracking industry. A solution for this would be to enforce and create
long passwords for security and mitigate the chances of getting their accounts hacked into.
E. Customer Trends
Pet adoption numbers have been increasing:

Report from the Grand View Research (GVR):

Every year, it has been reported that pet wearable market has been increasing steadily, and is
expected to continue to increase, positively impact and supporting this industry.
F. What is the effect of Covid-19 on this industry and suppliers in this industry?
Due to Covid-19 and quarantine resulting from it, people rarely went out, resulting in fewer dog
walks, especially to the parks, etc. Due to there being infrequent outings, pet owners most likely
found it unnecessary to purchase dog tracking. Other impacts include financial
instability–workers were getting fired because of the recession resulting from the pandemic.
Lowered income negatively impacts the market for nonessential items within the physiological
hierarchy of needs such as pet tracking devices. It would ultimately lower sales for Furtrieve’s
devices during Covid-19, however, Furtrieve was founded in 2022, therefore it was still a startup
without there being an excessive impact to its potential market.
III. The Organization’s Marketing Mix
A. Target Market
The target market would consist of pet owners that are young adults to middle aged due to the
pricing of Furtrieve’s products. The complexities of the product digitally would also be a
challenge to elders as well, resulting in the primary target market being middle aged customers.
Both female and males within the US (domestic) are included in the target market. All sales are
online; Furtrieve is an e-commerce business that focuses its sales and promotions mostly online.
However, they have expressed interest in opening up a physical store as well.
B. Offering (Product/Servcie)

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The company offers an extraordinary pet tracking device that is set apart from its rivaling
competitors because of its SOS feature that no other pet tracking device has. It is separate from
airtags because airtags would require the iPhone to be at a certain range. Furtrieve’s devices are
also tested for IPX67, which means it can withstand water pressure an can be submerged up to a
depth of 1 meter, whereas the airtag is only splash proof with light submersion.

Furtrieve+

Fi pet tracker has water resistance of IP68 and IP66K, which is the highest standards available,
and has been tested for water resistance and submersion. However, they do not have the SOS
tracking feature of being able to communicate with your dog directly through the device.
C. Revenue/Pricing
The organization has made income before they ran into issues wth the cellular network
connection expiring from Tmobile (mentioned in section V). Currently they are working on a
social media campaign to increase exposure for sales to increase at the moment. Furtrieve is

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currently on a discount currently of 30% off with a promo code to those who purchase Furtrieve
devices in order to boost sales and conversions. In addition, Furtrieve is considering lowering
their prices by a minimal amount in order to further increase potential sales, but still above the
rivaling companies because Furtrieve devices have more functions/features than the other
competitors, which would make their devices more expensive.
D. Distribution
The customers are primarily online as of currently. Most of the marketing is online as
well–focusing on social media campaigns as well as email marketing, and selling on amazon as
well. Amazon is still in progress to be completely set up–Furtrieve just needs to meet the
requirements for the graphics displayed in Amazon’s product display and then they will be able
to sell Furtrieve devices on Amazon in the incoming future. Furtrieve has done marketing events
in the past with donations and giveaways, which was another method of how our customers
could reach our products. Online sales are our primary source of income.

Fi is also an online company that directs its sales from online customers. Whistle is also a pet
tracking device company that sells its devices online. While Jiobit GPS tracker is primarily sold
online through their site, they also feature their devices in Walmart grocery stores as well.
E. Marketing Communication
The company’s current methods of promoting their product is through social media posting and
e-blasts. Previously, Furtrieve has done giveaways, but currently sales have not been as active as
before because they were relaunching Furtrieve devices which is explained in section V. The
company can measure the effectiveness of social media ads by viewing the statistics relating to
each post. This includes statistics of engagement, impressions, and how many conversions have
been made within the week of posting social content. Viewing comments or how many likes we
have received is another method of measuring the engagement levels of a certain social media
post that Furtrieve uploaded.

Other competitors such as Jiobit are similar to how Furtrieve markets their products, however,
they focus on posting a significant amount of Instagram reels that Furtrieve lacks.

IV. SWOT Analysis

Furtrieve:
S:
- SOS Tracking (Save Our Stray): Unique to just Furtrieve–It allows for direct
communication from the pet owner to pet; commands can be given to the pet through the
SOS communication.
- Purrtrieve devices: There are pink and green options for customers to choose; Purrtrieve
devices are more aesthetically pleasing
W:
- Device sizes cannot be altered–Futrieve+ devices can be too large or chunky on smaller
dogs such as chihuahuas.
O:
- Social media campaigns are in progress currently
- Discounts of 30% Off with promo code

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T:
- Fi devices have higher water resitatnce than Furtrieve
- Products are manufactured and imported from China–import delays can impact the
inventory of Furtrieve device stock.

Fi:
S:
- Accurate reliable pet escape detection–geo fence
- Aluminum metal armor which makes the devices more durable
- Waterproof rating is among the best (IP66K and IP68)

W:
- Does not include SOS tracking like Furtrieve does
- Expensive–prices are much higher than Whistle pet tracking
O:
- Instagram posting frequently
- Expert reviews that comment positively for Fi

T:
- Fi excels in water resistance, but Furtrieve still has advantage of SOS tracking

Whistle:
S:
- Has different styles to choose from:
- yellow and black for Whistle Health & GPS tracker (5 lbs and up)
- Grey, green and pink options for Whistle Health & GPS tracker (25 lbs and up)
- Cheaper prices (lowest is $59)

W:
- Rubber material makes it less durable than Fi pet tracker

O:
- Lots of sales and discounts for the Whistle Health & GPS tracker

T:
- Devices are commonly linked with complains that devices are not as durable as Fi’s pet
tracking device.

Jiobit:
S:
- Credible tracking company due to the fact that it was a purchased company from Life360,
which is a renowned tracking company

W:

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 - Device design is simple, clean, and modern. However, the shape is triangular and may be
too large for cats to wear comfortably.

O:
- Instagram is well up to date with frequent engagement (reblogging/reposting of funny
cat/dog videos)

T:
- Furtrieve’s SOS pet tracking (two way communication)

V. Statement of the Benchmark and Marketing Goal

Furtrieve is currently not having high sales because of preparation to launch their new Furtrieve+
product. They have sold products in the past until they came across an issue with an expiring
cellular network connection for their products (Tmobile), resulting in them to relaunch with an
updated version of Furtrieve device, calling it Furtrieve+. Furtrieve is open to sales, but have
been at slower conversion rates than in the past. They currently have only two devices, the
Furtrieve+ and Purrtrieve. The short term goals include planning and executing a social media
campaign to boost exposure and engagement in the community, along with customer
members/subscribers. Furtrieve goals include launching the mobile app for ios or android, which
is currently still in beta testing. Future long term goals include opening its own shop, as well as
expanding devices manufactured, branching out from Furtrieve+ and Purrtrieve.

VI. Your solution to achieve goal in V

Furtrieve should increase the amount of devices that they manufacture and sell. Currently there is
only Furtrieve+ (which is primarily for dogs), and Purrtrieve (which is for cats). Furtrieve would
benefit from expanding their devices to have more variations or styles for the devices. Size
variations would also be extremely beneficial to expanding the target market as well because
Furtrieve+ devices can be a bit large on small dogs such as chihuahuas or pomeranians, etc.
Examples of the size of Furtrieve device:

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The product itself for both Furtrieve and Purrtrieve are phenomenal in the various functions they
have, along with the unique SOS tracking feature that no other pet tracking company has.
However, there could be complaints with the issue of sizing for the Futrieve+ device. The size of

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the Furtrieve+ device could be a bit chunky or too bothersome for smaller dogs—it could bother
their neck from the size of it. If Furtrieve were to have additions in sizing options, it would set
them apart even more from other companies as well. Upon viewing device sizes from
competitors, Jiobit, Fi, and Whistle don’t have changes in sizes. Whistle’s devices are relatively
the same size.
Jiobit has a triangular shape that does not have an option to change size:

While Jiobit’s tracker has a clean and simple style that is neat to the eye, it unfortunately looks
very bulky and heavy even for a smaller sized pet like this cat shown. Offering options of device
sizes of XS, S, M, and L would definitely increase conversions. Customization is a bonus ideal
that most customers would want and Furtrieve would benefit from taking the upperhand by being
the first one to offer the different sizing options.

As mentioned earlier, pricing is very high for Furtrieve, which sells Furtrieve devices for $149
per month and then $10 monthly after that. Purrtrieve devices sell for $119 now and then $10
monthly after. This is much higher than other higher end pet tracking companies such as Fi and
Jiobit. Futrieve yearly would be $235 now and then $96 yearly after that. Purrtrieve yearly is also
$96.
Fi sells their devices with different pricing options:

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Depending on the time period of subscription, Fi has varying prices, however, the prices are still
much lower than Furtrieve. Furtrieve is currently working towards implementing discounts in
order to boost sales. Discounts of 30% off has been introduced as a promo code (See exhibit #4).
In addition to that, Furtrieve has been considering lowering the costs of their devices, which, as I
have provided, evidently shows to be a plausible option to boost sales considering their slower
progress on sales currently.

Promotion is the most important part of Furtrieve. As a relatively new company, no one knows
about Furtrieve, and even if they do, they don’t know that Furtrieve is set apart from other pet
tracking companies for their SOS two way communication function. There should be a
significant focus towards social media posting detailing what the company is about or the
product (See exhibit #5).

With social media campaigns, holidays and special events are a must for posting on social media.
For example, posting on Valentines day or July 4th and Christmas would have increased
engagement and appreciation. Adding a discount in appreciation to the holiday would also help
boost sales. See Exhibit #3 for an example on how ads would like for holidays such as Valentines
day. Exhibit 1 is an example of an social media ad on a consistent weekly basis.

Social Media Campaign: Furtrieve’s goal is to tell a story for their product when promoting it,
rather than only trying to solve a problem or getting a customer to purchase a higher end product.
Telling stories of who we have saved with the help of Furtrieve+ devices will give much more
credibility and honor to the company. Examples can be seen with Fi pet tracking
site:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsZqWtCdHwc&feature=youtu.be

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 Original stories through how Fi helped save pups helps evoke sympathy and the desire to want to
do the same with their own pets. Furtrieve should also focus on telling a story and featuring more
stories on what strays Furtrieve has helped and create a blog on their website for the different
stories of saving pups.

VII. Reference Page

1. Klune, Judith, et al. “Tracking Devices for Pets: Health Risk Assessment for Exposure to
Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields †.” Animals (2076-2615), vol. 11, no. 9, Sept.
2021, p. 2721. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.depaul.edu/10.3390/ani11092721.
2. “Fact.MR – Pet GPS Tracker Market by Technology (Cellular Pet GPS Tracker, Mixed or
Multi-Tech GPS Pet Tracker), by Offerings (Hardware Device, Software and Associated
Services), by Sales Channel (Modern Trade, Franchised Outlets) & by Region - Global
Market Insights 2021-2031.” Fact.MR, Market Research Company,
https://www.factmr.com/report/pet-gps-tracker-market.
3. fi_dogs. “GPS Dog Tracker & Activity Monitor.” Fi Smart Dog Collar,
https://tryfi.com/.
4. “How Jiobit Works.” Jiobit by Life360,
https://www.jiobit.com/how-jiobit-works-search?utm_source=google&utm_medium
=cpc&utm_campaign=CID_1738022875-_-Google%7CConv%7CSearch%7CBrand
ed&utm_term=jiobit+tracker-_-e&utm_content=GID_149658504608-_-AID_6
42558232478-_-jiobit+-+tracker-_-TID_kwd-413107706327&gclid=Cj0KCQiA54K
fBhCKARIsAJzSrdp26ZxfGhOOlNylVHYEX--Lkvu06sgx8FFvWG7NzKhmrzeC2RaZ
LoYaAqBqEALw_wcB.
5. U.S. Pet Wearable Market Size & Share Report, 2030, https://www.g
randviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-pet-wearable-market-report.

VIII. Exhibits (Figures)

1. SWOT:

Competitors Strengths Weakness Opportunities Threats

Furtrieve - SOS Tracking - Devices sizes - social media - Fi devices have

(Save our Stray) is cannot be campaigns in higher water
unique to only altered–custome order to boost resistance than
Furtrieve rs do not have sales and Furtrieve
- Purrtrieve the option to engagement - Products are
Devices are more change - giveaways are manufacture and
aesthetically - Futrieve+ going to come in imported from
pleasing than other devices have the future China (delays
brands. only one style - 30% off have occurred,
- Geo Fence and color unlike discounts are along with
(mobile virtual their Purrtrieve currently going miscommunicati
fence) devices (Pink on on due to the

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 - adjustable battery and green language
life option) barrier.)
- expensive

Fi - Accurate and - Does not - Instagram - Although Fi

reliable escape include SOS - expert reviews excels in water
detection tracking have commented resistance
- Geo Fence - absence of on Fi smart dog compared to
- LTE-M network crowd notify collars Furtrive,
(GPS) - expensive Futrieve still has
- Aluminum metal an advantage of
armor for the having another
devices (more feature (SOS
durable) tracking)
- waterproof rating
is one of the best
- no limit to how
far you can track
your pup
- long battery life

Whistle - Has different - rubber - lots of sales - Devices are

styles to choose attachment (less and discounts commonly
from durable) for the GPS linked with
tracker and complaints that
Health tracker the devices are
not as durable as
other pet
tracking devices.

Jiobit - credible tracking - device design - Instagram is - Furtrieve’s

company (because is simple, clean well up to date SOS tracking
Life360 purchased and modern, with frequent
Jiobit) however, it is a engagement
triangular shape
that may be too
large for cats to
wear
comfortably.

2. Map
Furtrieve’s coverage of their product in the United States (domestic).

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Jiobit can be found in most Walmart grocery stores or supercenters

3. Social Content
EXHIBIT #1:

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EXHIBIT #2

EXHIBIT #3:

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EXHIBIT #4:

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EXHIBIT #5

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