Waterfront: January 2007 - Going To The Dogs; Yellow Helps Out

Going To The Dogs Hot-water therapy a hit with the canine crowd AQUA editor Kirstin Pires' furry friend, Kady, enjoys the hot tub at Aunt B's Pet Spa & Resort. Kady's veterinarian recommends the hot tub for the 8-year-old dogs acute arthritis.

Going To The Dogs 

Hot-water therapy a hit with the canine crowd. 

The benefits of hot-water therapy are well known for people, so it seems inevitable that the idea would trickle down to the canine segment of the population — think of doggy bakeries and Halloween costumes for pets. Most dogs aren't lucky enough to have owners who allow them into the home hot tub, though, so many doggy day care establishments offer dedicated tubs for the pooches.

While most of those establishments use human hot tubs for dogs, the enterprising MTI Whirlpools, based near Atlanta, has come up with a home jetted tub designed specifically for dogs, the Jentle Pet spa, which allows owners to give their canine companions the spa treatment themselves.

"We introduced it at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show this past April, so it's a fairly new product," says Michael Kornowa, the company's director of marketing. "As we saw a growing number of people who were just pampering their pets, we thought this might be another avenue for us to apply our technology to that particular area of life. And when we looked at the marketplace, we really didn't see anything available."

The tub, which boasts features like a hand-held shower, a self-cleaning whirlpool system and five full-sized point-massage whirlpool jets, can be used either as a bathtub or for more therapeutic purposes. "A lot of dogs suffer from arthritis and hip dysplasia, so it actually is a very therapeutic remedy to help them along," says Kornowa. Yellow Helps Out

How consumers use the yellow pages 

Word-of-mouth referral may be the best way to generate leads, but having an ad in the Yellow Pages certainly doesn't hurt, either. "Pool service companies and equipment supply stores have historically relied heavily on the Yellow Pages because of the high return on investment: $17 of profit for every one dollar spent," says Larry Small, director of research for the Yellow Pages Association. "In fact, the average swimming pool contractor's Yellow Pages display ad generates more than $900,000 in revenue annually."

Here are a few more facts and figures from the Yellow Pages Association that may interest you:

16 million

The estimated number of times U.S. consumers reference the "Swimming Pool Equipment & Supplies" Yellow Pages heading annually.

14 million

The estimated number of times U.S. consumers reference the "Swimming Pool Contractors, Dealers and Designers" Yellow Pages heading annually.

138th/155th

Rankings, respectively, of the "Swimming Pool Equipment & Supplies" and the "Swimming Pool Contractors, Dealers and Designers" Yellow Pages headings among more than 4,000 Yellow Pages headings.

27

The percentage of consumers who look up the "Swimming Pool Equipment & Supplies" Yellow Pages heading for pool-cleaning chemicals, followed by pool repair/parts (24 percent), pool covers/liners (16 percent) and filters/pumps (15 percent).

4.3

The average number of advertisements consumers reference when looking under the "Swimming Pool Equipment & Supplies" Yellow Pages heading.

65

The percentage of "Swimming Pool Equipment & Supplies" heading references that are driven by home or personal needs. The remaining 35 percent of look-ups are for business purposes.

$516/$1,930

The average purchase amount under the "Swimming Pool Equipment & Supplies" and the "Swimming Pool Contractors, Dealers and Designers" Yellow Pages headings, respectively.