January 22, 2023 • 26 mins
You don't need to consistently look for big, humongous changes in your organization. According to Tanbir Grover, Chief Marketing and Digital Officer at Pet Valu, thinking about and focusing on the edges is critical as most things in your business are usually working quite well. The challenge is in getting alignment and support to work on making those things better. The trick according to Tanbir, is to figure out who you can ally with and gain alignment on a common vision to take things forward, and gain investment in making the good even better. Listen in as Tanbir and I discuss this as well as how Pet Valu has been transitioning itself into a digitally enabled, neighborhood partner in the health and wellbeing for pets of all kind. Oh, and learn that the movement of focusing on overall "wellness" isn't just for humans any longer!
Tanbir Grover is the Chief Marketing and Digital Officer of the Pet Valu, having responsibility of the Company’s omni-channel marketing, e-commerce and marketing analytics, including the Company’s loyalty program. Prior to joining Pet Valu, Mr. Grover served as Vice President, Digital at the Co-operators Group Limited from January 2020 to November 2020. Prior to that, he held a number of different roles at Lowe’s Canada from 2011 to 2020 where he most recently served as Vice President of e-commerce and Omnichannel. Mr. Grover also held senior digital and marketing positions at the Hudson’s Bay Company and Sears Canada. He is also a graduate of the Not for Profit Directors Education Program at the Institute of Corporate Directors at the University of Toronto.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Corby Fine (00:44):
so I am a pet lover.
I've had a couple of dogs in mylife.
I've had a tarantula, I've had abeard to dragon.
For any of you that don't knowwhat that is, look it up.
It's scary looking, but it'sactually kind of cool.
So I get dinosaur in your house.
And I once had an interview witha, a pet food company, and I
remember vividly that theconversation went down the line
(01:06):
of, if all I knew was the breedof the animal you had and the
birthdate, I basically had 10 to15 years of CRM logic prebuilt.
I knew exactly when your animalwould convert from a puppy to a
adult dog or from a kitten to acat or whatever it might be.
And there's really no excuse.
To not be able to build a reallystrong long-term relationship if
(01:27):
you do it right, and, I thinkabout all of the.
Scenarios that play into thattechnology, marketing,
communications the willingnessto be proactive in terms of
customer relationships andreally how do you automate and
digitize all of these things.
And with me today, I've got areally interesting guest who's
got a, a, a varied backgroundTan Bear Grover, who's currently
(01:48):
the Chief Marketing and DigitalOfficer at PET Value.
So again near and dear to myheart having pets responsibility
for the company's overallomnichannel marketing,
e-commerce, and analyticspractice as well as the loyalty
program, which, which I'm reallyintrigued about.
Prior to joining Pet Value, hewas the Vice President of
Digital at Cooperator's Group.
So having spent a little time ininsurance as.
(02:10):
Different roles prior at Lowe's,Hudsons Bay Company, Sears
really strong retail backgroundand, and just a really, really
great guy.
I'm really happy to have himhere today.
Tan Bear.
Welcome to the podcast.
Tanbir Grover (02:22):
No thank you Corby.
Really glad to join you.
And you know, I've admired itfrom far, far away and you know
what a pleasure it is to getinvited to join you.
Corby Fine (02:29):
Well, I appreciate it.
Why don't you just maybe tostart, give the couple of minute
background on, on the company,on what is pet value for not
everyone that knows and maybewhat your accountabilities.
Tanbir Grover (02:40):
For sure.
So, I
Tanbir with Corby (02:41):
mean,
Tanbir Grover (02:41):
pet value is a leading retailer of pet food and
pet related supplies.
We have over 700 corporate ownedor franchise locations across
the country, and we have a richhistory in Canada for, you know,
over 40 years.
PET values earned the trust andloyalty of pet parents.
By offering knowledgeablecustomer service, premium
product, and engaging in-storeservices really to.
(03:03):
Because we're a neighborhoodstore we offer more than 7,000
competitively priced productswith a broad assortment of
premium, super premium,holistic, and award-winning
proprietary brands as well.
And we do this every day.
I'm really proud because, youknow, to experience pet value.
You have to understand who ourACEs are, which are our animal
care experts.
(03:24):
They're the guys who actuallywork in the stores who drive all
of the experiences you get inthat store.
They share their expertise withyou, and then also they serve
you.
They serve you locally, but weare also able to serve you
anywhere through our onlinechannel
Tanbir with Corby (03:37):
as
Tanbir Grover (03:37):
well.
And that's something that Ithink is really, really part of
the pet value equation is behindour ACEs and that expertise and
really creating those memorablemoments that happen for a pet
lover.
Corby Fine (03:48):
So pet owners and parents.
Are the two groups that everyonealways says are sort of
recession proof, and you joinedthe business, I guess, as the
pandemic was really just kind ofkicking off
Tanbir Grover (04:00):
Yeah.
Corby Fine (04:01):
what, what have you seen, just to kind of correlate
a little bit and set thebaseline around your customer
base in terms of their behaviorhow things like, you know the
digital transformation throughthe pandemic.
Obviously you still need to feedyour pet.
You need to groom your pet.
You need to care for your.
Compared to, let's say, previousexperiences like, you know, a
Lowe's where maybe it's, it'sabout me and myself and my home.
(04:21):
Any sort of differences orsimilarities you.
Tanbir Grover (04:24):
Yeah, there's, I mean, there's similarities and
differences.
Let's start, like, I started inNovember of 2020, so you can
imagine the pandemic's alreadyin full flight.
We've gone through probably alockdown here or there, here
from the beginning and.
You know, getting into anotherone at that point in time.
Here in Ontario especially, Ithink part of what I, what I
think about that happened overthe pandemic are a couple of
things.
One is pet ownership increased.
(04:46):
So we know, you know, based onour data, more people are at
home.
More people were looking forsome level of companionship.
And pets became that to fillthat void, let's call it.
I think too, there's been agradual shift on humanization of
pet, so you.
I would say earlier as, as a kidgrowing up, I always viewed Pat
as an animal.
You know, they're the dog, theystay in the dog house.
(05:08):
We kind of separate our homesper se.
Today, that's not the casetoday.
Our pets are our part and parcelof our lives.
In fact, they're making it intoour Christmas cards, they're
sleeping on our bed.
If, if not, they're sleepingright beside us on the bed, not
necessarily even at the foot ofthe bed anymore.
So, you know, with all of thathumanization that's also
occurring, people are also morecognizant of how they're
(05:30):
treating their pet and whatthey're feeding their pet and
how they're actually workingthrough their pets.
Know, health and wellness as, asI would call it.
I think that was a, a big sortof push as we went through it.
Now, Covid happens and one ofthe things that we realized
that's a shortage or, or, or alack in our strategy is we have
a very.
Lacking digital experience.
So at this time in pet value,there was no e-commerce.
(05:52):
So, you know, we quickly stoodup what we called a shop ahead
program, where we allowed ourDPLs, who are devoted pet lovers
to actually order online but notactually transact online.
So the idea would be that theywould indicate, here are the
items I.
there was no inventory feed.
So they were literally justsaying, Here's the six things
that I want.
And hopefully the store couldfigure out if they had those six
(06:13):
things.
And if they didn't, they wouldlook to do some substitution.
They would do a phone call, theywould use a number of minutes to
sort of satisfy that demand.
And then what quickly raisetowards was how do we actually
set up and launch an e-commercebusiness in the year of 2020
going into 2020.
So think about it from a Lowe'sexperience where you're fully
fledged e-com, into thepandemic, and then pet value
(06:34):
where you're not E-com enabledand you need to get e-com
enabled quickly.
Corby Fine (06:38):
So that's the perfect segue to the general
starting point that I'd like toenter these conversations with,
which is you.
Walked into an organization andyou quickly identified, I would
call that a fairly substantialgap in capabilities.
How do you go about when you, Imean, that's, that's massive,
right?
That's, that's like transformingthe overall organization to
(06:59):
enable something like, nothaving to go to store anymore.
And maybe that's a, a bigexample, but there's often
smaller ones when you walk inand you say, Hey, there's things
in the team.
There's things in the process.
There's things in just the waywe think that could.
Changed and modernized.
How, how do you identify thoseand, and, and what are the two
or three things or tips that youcan give people on how to
actually start to address fixingor resolving?
Tanbir Grover (07:21):
for sure.
And I, I don't wanna take allthe credit for going digital
because I think the, the guysahead of.
We're laying the groundwork forthat.
I think it just, I was there tohelp speed it up more than
anything else.
The strategy was sort of, we'regonna do it, here's sort of the
steps.
And I came in on the back end ofthat step to help huddle,
accelerate it is, is what Iwould say.
But it's a great questionbecause I think when I joined
Pet Value, It's a successfulbusiness.
(07:44):
It's not like I came in and hadto reinvent the business or do a
whole bunch of things.
You know, for me it was reallyunderstanding the edges of the
business and really trying tounderstand how can I actually
help in a thematic way thatmakes a difference.
So the way I looked at how doyou solve some of these problems
is in four buckets is how I lookat things.
So I look at things first aspeople.
Do we have the right peopledoing the right things?
(08:05):
Process.
Do we have good processes inplace?
What are we trying to do?
How are we trying to speak toour customer, our tpl, are we
speaking to them accordingly?
And our internal processesshould not weigh or create a
false customer experience.
We need to align our processesto what my mom, who is who I
kind of use in my teams to say.
Hey, if this makes sense to mymom, then we're good.
If it doesn't make sense, let'snot do it.
(08:26):
Third is technology.
So really just understanding,you know, what are some of the
technology plays that we can do?
How are we gonna look at theroadmap?
Are there any other tools orsystems we could be using to
help make our lives easier?
And then lastly, it's aroundgovernance.
So really it's around the rightleaders, the right structure,
the right process to follow upto ensure that we're all moving
in that same way.
So the first of all, I'll giveyou, you know, they'll give you
(08:47):
two quick examples that thatkind of happened at pet value.
So first, our digital marketing.
We just started entering intodigital marketing at the time.
Really just dipping our toe intoit and we were doing it on our
own.
And what I realized was the waywe were actually set up was we
weren't set up behind aperformance market.
Engine.
We were actually set up bychannel, and when I say that is,
(09:08):
we had somebody managing ourGoogle business and we had
somebody managing our Facebookor meta business.
Now if you think about that, thechallenge is, is each person
gets, call it a hundred dollarsto manage their budgets, but
the, the counterside of that iseach person's gonna also spend a
hundred bucks because that'swhat they got.
Now as a total business, we'llget, let's call it$200 in
(09:29):
return.
So$200 in sales.
What we haven't figured out iswhy am I putting all this money
in Google or meta?
Should I be putting it in onechannel over the other?
Because I'm actually not focusedon Google or Meta.
I'm focused on the$200 in sales.
One of the quick changes that wetried to make was how do we
actually realign the people andthe process so that our goals
(09:51):
are different?
So they're not about maximizingthe spend or protecting the
empire of your spend, it's aboutmaximizing sales.
And as a result, you know thosewho are in the Google shop or
the Meta Shop would say, Yougotta figure out, you know, of
that$200 down in total, am Igonna put 150 in Meta and 50 in
Google?
Or vice versa?
But all of a sudden the dynamicshave to shift in that we were
(10:11):
now gonna be performanceoriented versus channel
oriented.
And by that really we actuallystarted seeing an increase in
our ability to go after oursales, go after our customer,
really focus on that versus,Hey, I spent a hundred bucks on
meta and I spent a hundred buckson Google.
I did my job.
Kudos to me for, doing it.
And I managed my performancewithin each of those channels.
(10:33):
So that was.
The other one I would say thatwe really changed also was
process.
And process was around our flyerand our P o P.
So when I first got there, I waspresented, you know, the printed
flyer, I was showing the printedflyer, and one of the biggest
things that came out for me waswe actually printed no price in
the flyer.
So, already there was thismystique of what does the flyer
(10:56):
do?
And, you know, for me it's, it'snot a question of what does it
do for us?
Are we communicating the rightinformation even for it to be
effective?
And when I dug into it and ask,Why don't we, you know, you're
gonna say, save five bucks, savefive bucks on$10, or save five
bucks on a hundred dollars.
Those require two different sortof emotional connections as a
(11:16):
result.
If you can't drive me to havethat emotional connection of$5
is worth it, then maybe thewhole thing isn't really
packaged the right way to beworth it.
So the first thing we kind oflooked at was how do we include
price?
So the challenge was, is thatour flyer was being produced, 16
weeks in advance.
Prices were being locked 12weeks in advance, and we a very
(11:38):
long drawn out cycle.
And as you dig into it, you alsolearn the same things happening
on p.
You know, we would print our p op, send it into our warehouses.
Then our warehouses would, thenwe have three warehouses.
We would then ship from thosethree warehouses into our store
network.
But you can actually imagine howmuch time this is all taking now
from a ideal customer facingoutput.
(12:00):
So the two changes that we madeone, we would shift more to a
digital flyer, which allowed usto.
Cut the time down and alsoinclude the prices, which, seems
logical.
And then two is we wouldactually shift the way we did
printing.
So it may have cost us a littlebit more upfront because now we
were gonna centralize printingand send direct to stores.
It may cost us upfront, but it'sactually gonna save us money cuz
(12:20):
A, we're not gonna have as muchwaste, we're actually gonna be
able to effectively use it.
So the return on that isactually greater, you know, and
the big challenge internally.
We've never done it this waybefore, and you're kind of like,
I get it and I know it, but ifwe don't change anything we're
doing, then the reality is, isthat something's gonna change
and it won't be, it'll be aroundus that will change, which will
(12:42):
actually help or hinder ourbusiness more than anything
else.
So, you know, the advice that Igive people is really think
about the edges.
You don't need to go in and makebig humongous changes.
It, it's not that.
It's actually thinking abouthow.
Round or edge things overbecause things usually are
working.
And I think part of it is alsoto figure out who you can ally
(13:02):
with, who you can sort of say,Hey, do you understand the
vision I have?
How do you understand thatvision?
And then let's go try to deliverthat vision and giving people
the ability and the capabilityand the freedom to sort of push
the business further along.
Corby Fine (13:17):
There's a lot to unpack in that.
The two things that I thinkstand out the most were.
You know, it's one thing tothink about shifting from a
legacy process of print whereyou didn't have prices to
digital, which is very logical.
But even within that, the notionof something you said, which was
very interesting, how do youactually test the value of what
(13:37):
is gonna resonate with thecustomer in terms of that value?
Is it$5 off?
Is it 20% off?
Is it lowest prices?
The, the notion.
However I put it, even if I doput it in a print component,
it's fixed.
It's one size fits all.
Do you do anything aroundtesting and learning from the
perspective of what is it that'sgonna drive the conversion?
(13:58):
Now that you've made more shiftto digital, do you understand,
does the average pet ownerrespond to price sensitivity or
comparison value or et cetera?
Like how do you operate thatkind of test?
Tanbir Grover (14:09):
So we're starting
Tanbir with Corby (14:10):
a
Tanbir Grover (14:10):
little bit of that.
Truthfully, I, you know, Ialways, tell people that we
we're starting at the groundfloor of our, of our business
and trying to really understandhow we build more of this, the
test and learn concepts, the ABlevel of testing.
And we've also got richhistorical data, like our
merchant team understandspricing elasticity.
They understand, you know, whatdrive.
The visit into our store, theyunderstand what drives discovery
(14:33):
that needs to happen.
You know, where we're trying toreally understand now is, is we
shift, because flyer is really afixed sort of model.
What we're trying to reallyunderstand is the 360 approach
of, you know, what do we wannatest in email?
So, we'll test products and sortof see things in flyers as they
go through.
We're trying to do much more ofthe discovery notion of flyer,
to show the breadth and depth ofour assortment and really get
(14:54):
people excited about like ourholiday campaign, you know,
what's coming out.
But email is a great way to sortfor us to test more things
within that.
So we can test like couponsensitivity, you know, what
happens in a lapse customer?
Do they actually react more to apercentage off or a dollar off?
And, and what's the right sortof balance of that?
We're also trying to testmessaging.
You know, Corby, you talkedabout, pet retailers in theory
(15:18):
should have, all thispredictable data around you.
You buy dog food, you know youneed to buy dog food every
month.
You know, we should have thispredictable model, but we're
also thinking about how do webuild those customer journey.
Because our email program wasalso not very sophisticated when
I got here.
So part of it was, Hey, let'sbuild the acquisition part of
our business, get more emails,number one, two, let's actually
(15:39):
change the way we actually sendout emails.
Because prior to this, we weresending out maybe three emails a
month and the reaction was, ourcustomers don't want it more
than that.
And the answer was really, Areyou hearing that from the
customers or are you sort ofsaying that on behalf of our
customers?
Because we'll say lots of thingsthat we don't want.
Lots of email.
But yet we all receive lots ofemails and how do we rebalance
(16:00):
that and really look atunsubscribes as a KPI to
actually know, are we doing theright thing?
Let's look at open rates to seehow that's going.
So we're starting now to embarkon the test and learn that we've
got about a year of digitalnessunderneath us to kind of figure
out where do we wanna reallythink about offers, promotions,
experiences to really help drivewhat I would call that repeat
purchase and, and that sort ofaffinity.
Corby Fine (16:23):
So when you came in, obviously there were a lot of
things in place.
We're working right?
Things are going well.
It's a great business.
It's making money.
It's keeping people happy.
It's keeping pets happy andhealthy.
Sometimes.
One of the most challengingthings as a new leader coming
into a business is trying tofind those areas where, You just
kind of think you need toinnovate and iterate even though
(16:45):
the things are doing well,right?
it's harder to convince anexecutive team or your peers and
your partners to tweak andadjust things that they feel are
going well, as opposed to thethings that maybe as you said,
Well, I'm spending a hundreddollars on meta, I'm spending a
hundred on Google.
Why don't we put it together andget the best performance?
That's logical, but there areother things that maybe seem
less logical.
How do you convince your peersand how do you convince.
(17:06):
Your stakeholders and your,executives, that there are still
things to be focused on in sortof a consistent improvement
model.
Any, any advice.
Tanbir Grover (17:15):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's part and parcel of
all roles, right?
Is that there's always thiscontinuous improvement or what I
would call optimization.
Exercise that you're alwaysrunning.
And I think if you're digitallyborn or digitally led, in some
ways that's just second naturebecause we're so used to this
idea of optimization within allof our advertising cuz you know,
I call it the tuning effect,where you can tune or amplify as
(17:36):
you see things happening.
Now, you know, I look back at myexperience and say, you know,
there's lots of things like I'min the pet business, it's, it's
a good business.
It's been going well.
You know, I didn't have to getthere to sort of say that, you
know, by no means am I a savioror any.
Like that kind of concept.
But what I thought was reallyinteresting that we were doing
that I wanted to sort of justplay with was a little bit of
(17:57):
our creative side too.
So I'll give you the example.
You know, one of the things thatstruck me is your example of,
you know, we need to buy foodevery single month.
For my dog, that's verycognitive, it's very
transactional, right?
It's like, I need an iPhonecable, I go to Amazon.
But how do we actually changeour business to be not so
(18:17):
transactional, but much moreemotion.
It's an easy business to beemotional.
It's no different than havingkids.
Like the whole toy business isan emotional business to me.
Right.
It's about inspiring.
It's about like, Oh my God.
And it's also about this weirdthing called affirmation.
It's many of us want to knowwe're doing the right thing by
our pets, and sometimes becausethey don't speak to us easily,
(18:39):
we can never know if we're doingthe right thing or wrong thing.
But this is where communitycomes
Corby Fine (18:43):
My.
Me all the time, by the way, so,
Tanbir Grover (18:46):
I want a dog like that, that's, that would make my
life a whole time easier.
But you think about some ofthat, you know what we really
tried to do and tweak, you know,this is what you're asking me,
What do we tweak?
We really just leaned in moreheavily into that emotional
connection.
You can see it through ouradvertising, our commercials.
The way we even just talk aboutit in our business now is much
more about that dpl and, youknow, the vernacular of the
(19:08):
devoted pet lover is anemotional connect.
Right.
So thinking about how we were,you know, we wanted just to sort
of use that vernacular in ourculture and talk through that
more.
We wanted to really focus in onit.
So our creative startedreflecting that more too, which
is a really important part.
So, you know, we started reallypushing our creative team to be
less production oriented andmore creative oriented.
(19:28):
And again, I think this is notnecessarily a wholesale change
or trying to convince myexecutive peers on what we were
trying to do.
It was much more about, Heyguys, you.
the research we've done shows usthis emotional connection.
How do we actually put it intoour voice and tone going
forward?
And that allowed that.
And then I look back even atLowe's, like the, the great
example I had at Lowe's was, youknow, I was lucky enough to
(19:51):
start and help launch thedigital business at Lowe's.
So if you think about it, thatwas going well, everything's,
you know, everything's moving upfrom 2012 on, you couldn't do no
wrong given you're justlaunching this econ business.
But I think, you know, wherereally where we try to push
ourselves is how do we optimizeit more?
How do we sort of think throughwhat the in-store experience
would be?
So the first thing that we,attempted just to try with one
(20:12):
store, cause we got anencouraging store manager was do
we actually take some overonline exclusive?
And actually put them in thestore so people can see them.
So the first store I think wechose was a store in Vaughn, and
you know, it was a highlyItalian neighborhood.
So the first online exclusivething that went in was the pizza
oven.
This is 2013.
So you think about it was like,again, your peers may not
(20:35):
believe you, but you're tryingto sit there and go, Hey, let's
try to find one thing that wecan kind of align to and see if
it actually.
Create a different dynamic, moreonline views, more PDP views.
You know, what do our associatessay?
What do our customers say this?
Well, do I actually get salesoutta this thing?
You know, even sticking a QRcode on it back then
Corby Fine (20:53):
So just on that.
When you talk about digitalexclusives, but putting it in
retail, were they allowed to buyit in retail or did they have to
go back and then buy it online?
Tanbir Grover (21:02):
they still have to go buy it back.
It buy it online.
Corby Fine (21:04):
Yeah, that's a, that's a debate I actually still
am having in differentorganizations today with regards
to the notion of a digitalexclusive and whether or not it
actually should be somethingthat organizations offer versus
what happens if someone walksinto the store and says, I saw
that online and I really wantit.
Is it, is it.
To actually say no, and that,that's still a big debate I, I
(21:24):
don't know if you have a quick32nd philosophy on that.
Tanbir Grover (21:27):
an opinion on it.
I mean, my, my, my opinion isthat why should you let a
customer walk away empty handedand.
And hope and pray that they gohome and take care of it.
If the answer is, is that youdon't care, you're in your
store.
But can you imagine anexperience where you don't have
it in your store, but you canactually still transact against
it, which would be no differentthan an out of stock item, No.
Different than a color.
(21:47):
Way missing
Corby Fine (21:48):
If you grew up in the 1980s in Canada, you'd
remember a store calledConsumers Distribut.
And it was kind of the samething, except you'd walk out
with it instead of having itshipped.
But if they didn't have it, youcould get it delivered.
So I, I, again, full circle on,on how these things operate.
One maybe just visionaryquestion now as we kind of come
to the end.
(22:08):
Great examples on everythingthat you've started to do and
have been.
Exercising within your currentrole, where do you see the, the
pet business going?
What, Can you talk a little bitabout the evolution of pet value
going forward?
Any innovations or secret saucesthat you can.
Tanbir Grover (22:23):
Yeah, I wish I could say share all our secret
sauces, but being public andbeing a secret sauce, we don't
wanna share too much.
But I think part of where,really, where we wanna lean
into, You know, I would, I wouldcall it our curation ability.
Our stores aren't big, they'resmaller.
So we're highly responsible tomake sure we put the right
assortment in front of ourcustomers and our right
assortment online.
So, you know, we still have tolean into thinking how do we
(22:45):
ensure what we give our DPLs?
Is what we'd be proud of versusjust listing product on our
website or in a store kind ofconcept.
Two, I think there's a shiftthat's gonna happen and can,
will continue to happen aroundwellness.
So, you know, health is, is abig topic for humans.
Wellness is a big topic.
You know as well that that'sgonna start sort of showing up
(23:05):
more.
And I think part of the ideareally around wellness is how.
How do we sort of shift intothat space, either through our
expertise, but also throughother ways that we can actually
drive or enhance it.
And sometimes it's even throughcompassion.
Like, you know, imagine a daywhere you come into our store
and you're saying, My dog issick, or My cat's not feeling
well, and we don't actually sellyou a product.
(23:27):
All we tell you is we think,based on what you've told us,
you gotta go see a.
That, you know, that level ofcompassion is also required in
our business given, given whatwe're doing and trying to really
instill that, that concept intoour business is an important
one.
And I think the third one that Iwould say is really around
experiences.
So number one is how do webecome more of a socializing
(23:50):
space?
For pets and pet owners.
You know, I always look at thelocal dog park that is next to
us, and really it's just a parkwhere the dogs come hang out.
But you know, how does pet valueplay more into that space?
Can we, can we create moreactivities, more events where
pet owners can, can hang out?
You know, can we become thelocal watering hole per se, of
the business?
And with that also comes in moreof the.
(24:12):
So more of the events, more ofthe learning, more of the you
know, just the, you know, you gointo a pet value, you look at a
dog wash, seems simple,self-serve dog wash, but there's
a theater to it.
You know, you observe it fromfar and it's like, you know,
this bond that's happeningbetween the dog and the owner.
And then you think about yourbearded dragon, right?
Like, you know, we always focuson the dogs and cats, but you
(24:32):
know, people aren't just owningdogs and cats.
Yes, they're the predominantpets.
There's other pets that arepopular.
You know, we've got fish athome.
How do we actually know we'redoing a good job taking care of
our fish?
So all of that experiences, thesocializing,
Corby Fine (24:45):
kill them.
That's
Tanbir Grover (24:46):
you know,
Corby Fine (24:46):
how
Tanbir Grover (24:48):
Yeah, well that's goal number one.
But you know, you think aboutit, it's how do I clean my tank?
Do I need to do it every week?
Do I, you know, what's that?
You know, there's just this,what I would call, you've got a
lot of new pet owners that havecome into the world.
You've got a lot of immigrationthat's coming into the world.
So people who haven't grown upnecessarily with.
Or learning how to be petowners.
And that's where I go back tothat affirmation.
(25:10):
Sometimes it's just cool to geta high five and be like, You're
doing, you're doing good.
Corby Fine (25:14):
I really appreciate that.
So four really quick, rapid fireready dog, or.
Tanbir Grover (25:19):
Go for it.
Corby Fine (25:19):
Cat
Tanbir Grover (25:21):
Fish
Corby Fine (25:22):
snake or lizard
Tanbir Grover (25:24):
lizard.
Corby Fine (25:26):
pets or kids.
No, you don't have to answerthat.
That's okay.
how about both?
Both.
Listen Tan Beer, Grover ChiefMarketing and Digital Officer at
Pet Value.
I really appreciate you takingthe time some of your insights a
great track record and I lookforward to what's coming next
for both you and theorganization.
Thanks for being with me today.
Tanbir Grover (25:42):
Oh, thanks Corby.
Super appreciate it.
Thank.
you.
so I am a pet lover.
I've had a couple of dogs in mylife.
I've had a tarantula, I've had abeard to dragon.
For any of you that don't knowwhat that is, look it up.
It's scary looking, but it'sactually kind of cool.
So I get dinosaur in your house.
And I once had an interview witha, a pet food company, and I
remember vividly that theconversation went down the line
(01:06):
of, if all I knew was the breedof the animal you had and the
birthdate, I basically had 10 to15 years of CRM logic prebuilt.
I knew exactly when your animalwould convert from a puppy to a
adult dog or from a kitten to acat or whatever it might be.
And there's really no excuse.
To not be able to build a reallystrong long-term relationship if
(01:27):
you do it right, and, I thinkabout all of the.
Scenarios that play into thattechnology, marketing,
communications the willingnessto be proactive in terms of
customer relationships andreally how do you automate and
digitize all of these things.
And with me today, I've got areally interesting guest who's
got a, a, a varied backgroundTan Bear Grover, who's currently
(01:48):
the Chief Marketing and DigitalOfficer at PET Value.
So again near and dear to myheart having pets responsibility
for the company's overallomnichannel marketing,
e-commerce, and analyticspractice as well as the loyalty
program, which, which I'm reallyintrigued about.
Prior to joining Pet Value, hewas the Vice President of
Digital at Cooperator's Group.
So having spent a little time ininsurance as.
(02:10):
Different roles prior at Lowe's,Hudsons Bay Company, Sears
really strong retail backgroundand, and just a really, really
great guy.
I'm really happy to have himhere today.
Tan Bear.
Welcome to the podcast.
Tanbir Grover (02:22):
No thank you Corby.
Really glad to join you.
And you know, I've admired itfrom far, far away and you know
what a pleasure it is to getinvited to join you.
Corby Fine (02:29):
Well, I appreciate it.
Why don't you just maybe tostart, give the couple of minute
background on, on the company,on what is pet value for not
everyone that knows and maybewhat your accountabilities.
Tanbir Grover (02:40):
For sure.
So, I
Tanbir with Corby (02:41):
mean,
Tanbir Grover (02:41):
pet value is a leading retailer of pet food and
pet related supplies.
We have over 700 corporate ownedor franchise locations across
the country, and we have a richhistory in Canada for, you know,
over 40 years.
PET values earned the trust andloyalty of pet parents.
By offering knowledgeablecustomer service, premium
product, and engaging in-storeservices really to.
(03:03):
Because we're a neighborhoodstore we offer more than 7,000
competitively priced productswith a broad assortment of
premium, super premium,holistic, and award-winning
proprietary brands as well.
And we do this every day.
I'm really proud because, youknow, to experience pet value.
You have to understand who ourACEs are, which are our animal
care experts.
(03:24):
They're the guys who actuallywork in the stores who drive all
of the experiences you get inthat store.
They share their expertise withyou, and then also they serve
you.
They serve you locally, but weare also able to serve you
anywhere through our onlinechannel
Tanbir with Corby (03:37):
as
Tanbir Grover (03:37):
well.
And that's something that Ithink is really, really part of
the pet value equation is behindour ACEs and that expertise and
really creating those memorablemoments that happen for a pet
lover.
Corby Fine (03:48):
So pet owners and parents.
Are the two groups that everyonealways says are sort of
recession proof, and you joinedthe business, I guess, as the
pandemic was really just kind ofkicking off
Tanbir Grover (04:00):
Yeah.
Corby Fine (04:01):
what, what have you seen, just to kind of correlate
a little bit and set thebaseline around your customer
base in terms of their behaviorhow things like, you know the
digital transformation throughthe pandemic.
Obviously you still need to feedyour pet.
You need to groom your pet.
You need to care for your.
Compared to, let's say, previousexperiences like, you know, a
Lowe's where maybe it's, it'sabout me and myself and my home.
(04:21):
Any sort of differences orsimilarities you.
Tanbir Grover (04:24):
Yeah, there's, I mean, there's similarities and
differences.
Let's start, like, I started inNovember of 2020, so you can
imagine the pandemic's alreadyin full flight.
We've gone through probably alockdown here or there, here
from the beginning and.
You know, getting into anotherone at that point in time.
Here in Ontario especially, Ithink part of what I, what I
think about that happened overthe pandemic are a couple of
things.
One is pet ownership increased.
(04:46):
So we know, you know, based onour data, more people are at
home.
More people were looking forsome level of companionship.
And pets became that to fillthat void, let's call it.
I think too, there's been agradual shift on humanization of
pet, so you.
I would say earlier as, as a kidgrowing up, I always viewed Pat
as an animal.
You know, they're the dog, theystay in the dog house.
(05:08):
We kind of separate our homesper se.
Today, that's not the casetoday.
Our pets are our part and parcelof our lives.
In fact, they're making it intoour Christmas cards, they're
sleeping on our bed.
If, if not, they're sleepingright beside us on the bed, not
necessarily even at the foot ofthe bed anymore.
So, you know, with all of thathumanization that's also
occurring, people are also morecognizant of how they're
(05:30):
treating their pet and whatthey're feeding their pet and
how they're actually workingthrough their pets.
Know, health and wellness as, asI would call it.
I think that was a, a big sortof push as we went through it.
Now, Covid happens and one ofthe things that we realized
that's a shortage or, or, or alack in our strategy is we have
a very.
Lacking digital experience.
So at this time in pet value,there was no e-commerce.
(05:52):
So, you know, we quickly stoodup what we called a shop ahead
program, where we allowed ourDPLs, who are devoted pet lovers
to actually order online but notactually transact online.
So the idea would be that theywould indicate, here are the
items I.
there was no inventory feed.
So they were literally justsaying, Here's the six things
that I want.
And hopefully the store couldfigure out if they had those six
(06:13):
things.
And if they didn't, they wouldlook to do some substitution.
They would do a phone call, theywould use a number of minutes to
sort of satisfy that demand.
And then what quickly raisetowards was how do we actually
set up and launch an e-commercebusiness in the year of 2020
going into 2020.
So think about it from a Lowe'sexperience where you're fully
fledged e-com, into thepandemic, and then pet value
(06:34):
where you're not E-com enabledand you need to get e-com
enabled quickly.
Corby Fine (06:38):
So that's the perfect segue to the general
starting point that I'd like toenter these conversations with,
which is you.
Walked into an organization andyou quickly identified, I would
call that a fairly substantialgap in capabilities.
How do you go about when you, Imean, that's, that's massive,
right?
That's, that's like transformingthe overall organization to
(06:59):
enable something like, nothaving to go to store anymore.
And maybe that's a, a bigexample, but there's often
smaller ones when you walk inand you say, Hey, there's things
in the team.
There's things in the process.
There's things in just the waywe think that could.
Changed and modernized.
How, how do you identify thoseand, and, and what are the two
or three things or tips that youcan give people on how to
actually start to address fixingor resolving?
Tanbir Grover (07:21):
for sure.
And I, I don't wanna take allthe credit for going digital
because I think the, the guysahead of.
We're laying the groundwork forthat.
I think it just, I was there tohelp speed it up more than
anything else.
The strategy was sort of, we'regonna do it, here's sort of the
steps.
And I came in on the back end ofthat step to help huddle,
accelerate it is, is what Iwould say.
But it's a great questionbecause I think when I joined
Pet Value, It's a successfulbusiness.
(07:44):
It's not like I came in and hadto reinvent the business or do a
whole bunch of things.
You know, for me it was reallyunderstanding the edges of the
business and really trying tounderstand how can I actually
help in a thematic way thatmakes a difference.
So the way I looked at how doyou solve some of these problems
is in four buckets is how I lookat things.
So I look at things first aspeople.
Do we have the right peopledoing the right things?
(08:05):
Process.
Do we have good processes inplace?
What are we trying to do?
How are we trying to speak toour customer, our tpl, are we
speaking to them accordingly?
And our internal processesshould not weigh or create a
false customer experience.
We need to align our processesto what my mom, who is who I
kind of use in my teams to say.
Hey, if this makes sense to mymom, then we're good.
If it doesn't make sense, let'snot do it.
(08:26):
Third is technology.
So really just understanding,you know, what are some of the
technology plays that we can do?
How are we gonna look at theroadmap?
Are there any other tools orsystems we could be using to
help make our lives easier?
And then lastly, it's aroundgovernance.
So really it's around the rightleaders, the right structure,
the right process to follow upto ensure that we're all moving
in that same way.
So the first of all, I'll giveyou, you know, they'll give you
(08:47):
two quick examples that thatkind of happened at pet value.
So first, our digital marketing.
We just started entering intodigital marketing at the time.
Really just dipping our toe intoit and we were doing it on our
own.
And what I realized was the waywe were actually set up was we
weren't set up behind aperformance market.
Engine.
We were actually set up bychannel, and when I say that is,
(09:08):
we had somebody managing ourGoogle business and we had
somebody managing our Facebookor meta business.
Now if you think about that, thechallenge is, is each person
gets, call it a hundred dollarsto manage their budgets, but
the, the counterside of that iseach person's gonna also spend a
hundred bucks because that'swhat they got.
Now as a total business, we'llget, let's call it$200 in
(09:29):
return.
So$200 in sales.
What we haven't figured out iswhy am I putting all this money
in Google or meta?
Should I be putting it in onechannel over the other?
Because I'm actually not focusedon Google or Meta.
I'm focused on the$200 in sales.
One of the quick changes that wetried to make was how do we
actually realign the people andthe process so that our goals
(09:51):
are different?
So they're not about maximizingthe spend or protecting the
empire of your spend, it's aboutmaximizing sales.
And as a result, you know thosewho are in the Google shop or
the Meta Shop would say, Yougotta figure out, you know, of
that$200 down in total, am Igonna put 150 in Meta and 50 in
Google?
Or vice versa?
But all of a sudden the dynamicshave to shift in that we were
(10:11):
now gonna be performanceoriented versus channel
oriented.
And by that really we actuallystarted seeing an increase in
our ability to go after oursales, go after our customer,
really focus on that versus,Hey, I spent a hundred bucks on
meta and I spent a hundred buckson Google.
I did my job.
Kudos to me for, doing it.
And I managed my performancewithin each of those channels.
(10:33):
So that was.
The other one I would say thatwe really changed also was
process.
And process was around our flyerand our P o P.
So when I first got there, I waspresented, you know, the printed
flyer, I was showing the printedflyer, and one of the biggest
things that came out for me waswe actually printed no price in
the flyer.
So, already there was thismystique of what does the flyer
(10:56):
do?
And, you know, for me it's, it'snot a question of what does it
do for us?
Are we communicating the rightinformation even for it to be
effective?
And when I dug into it and ask,Why don't we, you know, you're
gonna say, save five bucks, savefive bucks on$10, or save five
bucks on a hundred dollars.
Those require two different sortof emotional connections as a
(11:16):
result.
If you can't drive me to havethat emotional connection of$5
is worth it, then maybe thewhole thing isn't really
packaged the right way to beworth it.
So the first thing we kind oflooked at was how do we include
price?
So the challenge was, is thatour flyer was being produced, 16
weeks in advance.
Prices were being locked 12weeks in advance, and we a very
(11:38):
long drawn out cycle.
And as you dig into it, you alsolearn the same things happening
on p.
You know, we would print our p op, send it into our warehouses.
Then our warehouses would, thenwe have three warehouses.
We would then ship from thosethree warehouses into our store
network.
But you can actually imagine howmuch time this is all taking now
from a ideal customer facingoutput.
(12:00):
So the two changes that we madeone, we would shift more to a
digital flyer, which allowed usto.
Cut the time down and alsoinclude the prices, which, seems
logical.
And then two is we wouldactually shift the way we did
printing.
So it may have cost us a littlebit more upfront because now we
were gonna centralize printingand send direct to stores.
It may cost us upfront, but it'sactually gonna save us money cuz
(12:20):
A, we're not gonna have as muchwaste, we're actually gonna be
able to effectively use it.
So the return on that isactually greater, you know, and
the big challenge internally.
We've never done it this waybefore, and you're kind of like,
I get it and I know it, but ifwe don't change anything we're
doing, then the reality is, isthat something's gonna change
and it won't be, it'll be aroundus that will change, which will
(12:42):
actually help or hinder ourbusiness more than anything
else.
So, you know, the advice that Igive people is really think
about the edges.
You don't need to go in and makebig humongous changes.
It, it's not that.
It's actually thinking abouthow.
Round or edge things overbecause things usually are
working.
And I think part of it is alsoto figure out who you can ally
(13:02):
with, who you can sort of say,Hey, do you understand the
vision I have?
How do you understand thatvision?
And then let's go try to deliverthat vision and giving people
the ability and the capabilityand the freedom to sort of push
the business further along.
Corby Fine (13:17):
There's a lot to unpack in that.
The two things that I thinkstand out the most were.
You know, it's one thing tothink about shifting from a
legacy process of print whereyou didn't have prices to
digital, which is very logical.
But even within that, the notionof something you said, which was
very interesting, how do youactually test the value of what
(13:37):
is gonna resonate with thecustomer in terms of that value?
Is it$5 off?
Is it 20% off?
Is it lowest prices?
The, the notion.
However I put it, even if I doput it in a print component,
it's fixed.
It's one size fits all.
Do you do anything aroundtesting and learning from the
perspective of what is it that'sgonna drive the conversion?
(13:58):
Now that you've made more shiftto digital, do you understand,
does the average pet ownerrespond to price sensitivity or
comparison value or et cetera?
Like how do you operate thatkind of test?
Tanbir Grover (14:09):
So we're starting
Tanbir with Corby (14:10):
a
Tanbir Grover (14:10):
little bit of that.
Truthfully, I, you know, Ialways, tell people that we
we're starting at the groundfloor of our, of our business
and trying to really understandhow we build more of this, the
test and learn concepts, the ABlevel of testing.
And we've also got richhistorical data, like our
merchant team understandspricing elasticity.
They understand, you know, whatdrive.
The visit into our store, theyunderstand what drives discovery
(14:33):
that needs to happen.
You know, where we're trying toreally understand now is, is we
shift, because flyer is really afixed sort of model.
What we're trying to reallyunderstand is the 360 approach
of, you know, what do we wannatest in email?
So, we'll test products and sortof see things in flyers as they
go through.
We're trying to do much more ofthe discovery notion of flyer,
to show the breadth and depth ofour assortment and really get
(14:54):
people excited about like ourholiday campaign, you know,
what's coming out.
But email is a great way to sortfor us to test more things
within that.
So we can test like couponsensitivity, you know, what
happens in a lapse customer?
Do they actually react more to apercentage off or a dollar off?
And, and what's the right sortof balance of that?
We're also trying to testmessaging.
You know, Corby, you talkedabout, pet retailers in theory
(15:18):
should have, all thispredictable data around you.
You buy dog food, you know youneed to buy dog food every
month.
You know, we should have thispredictable model, but we're
also thinking about how do webuild those customer journey.
Because our email program wasalso not very sophisticated when
I got here.
So part of it was, Hey, let'sbuild the acquisition part of
our business, get more emails,number one, two, let's actually
(15:39):
change the way we actually sendout emails.
Because prior to this, we weresending out maybe three emails a
month and the reaction was, ourcustomers don't want it more
than that.
And the answer was really, Areyou hearing that from the
customers or are you sort ofsaying that on behalf of our
customers?
Because we'll say lots of thingsthat we don't want.
Lots of email.
But yet we all receive lots ofemails and how do we rebalance
(16:00):
that and really look atunsubscribes as a KPI to
actually know, are we doing theright thing?
Let's look at open rates to seehow that's going.
So we're starting now to embarkon the test and learn that we've
got about a year of digitalnessunderneath us to kind of figure
out where do we wanna reallythink about offers, promotions,
experiences to really help drivewhat I would call that repeat
purchase and, and that sort ofaffinity.
Corby Fine (16:23):
So when you came in, obviously there were a lot of
things in place.
We're working right?
Things are going well.
It's a great business.
It's making money.
It's keeping people happy.
It's keeping pets happy andhealthy.
Sometimes.
One of the most challengingthings as a new leader coming
into a business is trying tofind those areas where, You just
kind of think you need toinnovate and iterate even though
(16:45):
the things are doing well,right?
it's harder to convince anexecutive team or your peers and
your partners to tweak andadjust things that they feel are
going well, as opposed to thethings that maybe as you said,
Well, I'm spending a hundreddollars on meta, I'm spending a
hundred on Google.
Why don't we put it together andget the best performance?
That's logical, but there areother things that maybe seem
less logical.
How do you convince your peersand how do you convince.
(17:06):
Your stakeholders and your,executives, that there are still
things to be focused on in sortof a consistent improvement
model.
Any, any advice.
Tanbir Grover (17:15):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's part and parcel of
all roles, right?
Is that there's always thiscontinuous improvement or what I
would call optimization.
Exercise that you're alwaysrunning.
And I think if you're digitallyborn or digitally led, in some
ways that's just second naturebecause we're so used to this
idea of optimization within allof our advertising cuz you know,
I call it the tuning effect,where you can tune or amplify as
(17:36):
you see things happening.
Now, you know, I look back at myexperience and say, you know,
there's lots of things like I'min the pet business, it's, it's
a good business.
It's been going well.
You know, I didn't have to getthere to sort of say that, you
know, by no means am I a savioror any.
Like that kind of concept.
But what I thought was reallyinteresting that we were doing
that I wanted to sort of justplay with was a little bit of
(17:57):
our creative side too.
So I'll give you the example.
You know, one of the things thatstruck me is your example of,
you know, we need to buy foodevery single month.
For my dog, that's verycognitive, it's very
transactional, right?
It's like, I need an iPhonecable, I go to Amazon.
But how do we actually changeour business to be not so
(18:17):
transactional, but much moreemotion.
It's an easy business to beemotional.
It's no different than havingkids.
Like the whole toy business isan emotional business to me.
Right.
It's about inspiring.
It's about like, Oh my God.
And it's also about this weirdthing called affirmation.
It's many of us want to knowwe're doing the right thing by
our pets, and sometimes becausethey don't speak to us easily,
(18:39):
we can never know if we're doingthe right thing or wrong thing.
But this is where communitycomes
Corby Fine (18:43):
My.
Me all the time, by the way, so,
Tanbir Grover (18:46):
I want a dog like that, that's, that would make my
life a whole time easier.
But you think about some ofthat, you know what we really
tried to do and tweak, you know,this is what you're asking me,
What do we tweak?
We really just leaned in moreheavily into that emotional
connection.
You can see it through ouradvertising, our commercials.
The way we even just talk aboutit in our business now is much
more about that dpl and, youknow, the vernacular of the
(19:08):
devoted pet lover is anemotional connect.
Right.
So thinking about how we were,you know, we wanted just to sort
of use that vernacular in ourculture and talk through that
more.
We wanted to really focus in onit.
So our creative startedreflecting that more too, which
is a really important part.
So, you know, we started reallypushing our creative team to be
less production oriented andmore creative oriented.
(19:28):
And again, I think this is notnecessarily a wholesale change
or trying to convince myexecutive peers on what we were
trying to do.
It was much more about, Heyguys, you.
the research we've done shows usthis emotional connection.
How do we actually put it intoour voice and tone going
forward?
And that allowed that.
And then I look back even atLowe's, like the, the great
example I had at Lowe's was, youknow, I was lucky enough to
(19:51):
start and help launch thedigital business at Lowe's.
So if you think about it, thatwas going well, everything's,
you know, everything's moving upfrom 2012 on, you couldn't do no
wrong given you're justlaunching this econ business.
But I think, you know, wherereally where we try to push
ourselves is how do we optimizeit more?
How do we sort of think throughwhat the in-store experience
would be?
So the first thing that we,attempted just to try with one
(20:12):
store, cause we got anencouraging store manager was do
we actually take some overonline exclusive?
And actually put them in thestore so people can see them.
So the first store I think wechose was a store in Vaughn, and
you know, it was a highlyItalian neighborhood.
So the first online exclusivething that went in was the pizza
oven.
This is 2013.
So you think about it was like,again, your peers may not
(20:35):
believe you, but you're tryingto sit there and go, Hey, let's
try to find one thing that wecan kind of align to and see if
it actually.
Create a different dynamic, moreonline views, more PDP views.
You know, what do our associatessay?
What do our customers say this?
Well, do I actually get salesoutta this thing?
You know, even sticking a QRcode on it back then
Corby Fine (20:53):
So just on that.
When you talk about digitalexclusives, but putting it in
retail, were they allowed to buyit in retail or did they have to
go back and then buy it online?
Tanbir Grover (21:02):
they still have to go buy it back.
It buy it online.
Corby Fine (21:04):
Yeah, that's a, that's a debate I actually still
am having in differentorganizations today with regards
to the notion of a digitalexclusive and whether or not it
actually should be somethingthat organizations offer versus
what happens if someone walksinto the store and says, I saw
that online and I really wantit.
Is it, is it.
To actually say no, and that,that's still a big debate I, I
(21:24):
don't know if you have a quick32nd philosophy on that.
Tanbir Grover (21:27):
an opinion on it.
I mean, my, my, my opinion isthat why should you let a
customer walk away empty handedand.
And hope and pray that they gohome and take care of it.
If the answer is, is that youdon't care, you're in your
store.
But can you imagine anexperience where you don't have
it in your store, but you canactually still transact against
it, which would be no differentthan an out of stock item, No.
Different than a color.
(21:47):
Way missing
Corby Fine (21:48):
If you grew up in the 1980s in Canada, you'd
remember a store calledConsumers Distribut.
And it was kind of the samething, except you'd walk out
with it instead of having itshipped.
But if they didn't have it, youcould get it delivered.
So I, I, again, full circle on,on how these things operate.
One maybe just visionaryquestion now as we kind of come
to the end.
(22:08):
Great examples on everythingthat you've started to do and
have been.
Exercising within your currentrole, where do you see the, the
pet business going?
What, Can you talk a little bitabout the evolution of pet value
going forward?
Any innovations or secret saucesthat you can.
Tanbir Grover (22:23):
Yeah, I wish I could say share all our secret
sauces, but being public andbeing a secret sauce, we don't
wanna share too much.
But I think part of where,really, where we wanna lean
into, You know, I would, I wouldcall it our curation ability.
Our stores aren't big, they'resmaller.
So we're highly responsible tomake sure we put the right
assortment in front of ourcustomers and our right
assortment online.
So, you know, we still have tolean into thinking how do we
(22:45):
ensure what we give our DPLs?
Is what we'd be proud of versusjust listing product on our
website or in a store kind ofconcept.
Two, I think there's a shiftthat's gonna happen and can,
will continue to happen aroundwellness.
So, you know, health is, is abig topic for humans.
Wellness is a big topic.
You know as well that that'sgonna start sort of showing up
(23:05):
more.
And I think part of the ideareally around wellness is how.
How do we sort of shift intothat space, either through our
expertise, but also throughother ways that we can actually
drive or enhance it.
And sometimes it's even throughcompassion.
Like, you know, imagine a daywhere you come into our store
and you're saying, My dog issick, or My cat's not feeling
well, and we don't actually sellyou a product.
(23:27):
All we tell you is we think,based on what you've told us,
you gotta go see a.
That, you know, that level ofcompassion is also required in
our business given, given whatwe're doing and trying to really
instill that, that concept intoour business is an important
one.
And I think the third one that Iwould say is really around
experiences.
So number one is how do webecome more of a socializing
(23:50):
space?
For pets and pet owners.
You know, I always look at thelocal dog park that is next to
us, and really it's just a parkwhere the dogs come hang out.
But you know, how does pet valueplay more into that space?
Can we, can we create moreactivities, more events where
pet owners can, can hang out?
You know, can we become thelocal watering hole per se, of
the business?
And with that also comes in moreof the.
(24:12):
So more of the events, more ofthe learning, more of the you
know, just the, you know, you gointo a pet value, you look at a
dog wash, seems simple,self-serve dog wash, but there's
a theater to it.
You know, you observe it fromfar and it's like, you know,
this bond that's happeningbetween the dog and the owner.
And then you think about yourbearded dragon, right?
Like, you know, we always focuson the dogs and cats, but you
(24:32):
know, people aren't just owningdogs and cats.
Yes, they're the predominantpets.
There's other pets that arepopular.
You know, we've got fish athome.
How do we actually know we'redoing a good job taking care of
our fish?
So all of that experiences, thesocializing,
Corby Fine (24:45):
kill them.
That's
Tanbir Grover (24:46):
you know,
Corby Fine (24:46):
how
Tanbir Grover (24:48):
Yeah, well that's goal number one.
But you know, you think aboutit, it's how do I clean my tank?
Do I need to do it every week?
Do I, you know, what's that?
You know, there's just this,what I would call, you've got a
lot of new pet owners that havecome into the world.
You've got a lot of immigrationthat's coming into the world.
So people who haven't grown upnecessarily with.
Or learning how to be petowners.
And that's where I go back tothat affirmation.
(25:10):
Sometimes it's just cool to geta high five and be like, You're
doing, you're doing good.
Corby Fine (25:14):
I really appreciate that.
So four really quick, rapid fireready dog, or.
Tanbir Grover (25:19):
Go for it.
Corby Fine (25:19):
Cat
Tanbir Grover (25:21):
Fish
Corby Fine (25:22):
snake or lizard
Tanbir Grover (25:24):
lizard.
Corby Fine (25:26):
pets or kids.
No, you don't have to answerthat.
That's okay.
how about both?
Both.
Listen Tan Beer, Grover ChiefMarketing and Digital Officer at
Pet Value.
I really appreciate you takingthe time some of your insights a
great track record and I lookforward to what's coming next
for both you and theorganization.
Thanks for being with me today.
Tanbir Grover (25:42):
Oh, thanks Corby.
Super appreciate it.
Thank.
you.
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