June 19, 2025 • 38 mins
In this lively episode of The Whisker Report, hosts Mary Tan and Alexandre Ricard—along with producer Mark Winter of Pet Life Radio—welcome a very special guest: Ethan Haber, aka “The Hamster Man” and founder of Happy Habitats. Ethan shares the inspiring story behind his award-winning pet innovation, the Halo—an ingenious small pet exercise ball carrier—born from a moment with his emotional support hamster, Mooxie. At just 26 years old, Ethan is changing the game for small pet care with support from his dad and top-tier design firm P9. Tune in as the hosts chat about how Happy Habitats started, earned media vs. paid media, and how entrepreneurs can use PR to get noticed—all while celebrating young innovation, international friendship, and a whole lot of pet love!
EPISODE NOTES: Happy Habitats & Hero Hamsters: Small Pets, Big Innovation
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/whisker-report-pet-pr-publicity-pet-life-radio-original--6669416/support.
EPISODE NOTES: Happy Habitats & Hero Hamsters: Small Pets, Big Innovation
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/whisker-report-pet-pr-publicity-pet-life-radio-original--6669416/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the Whisker Report. We're a new podcast dedicated
to helping anyone in the pet industry, whether you're in
animal welfare or a for profit pet company, get some
pr and buzz for your nonprofit or business. Hello everyone,
I'm Mary Tan, one of the hosts of the show,
along with my bestie alexand Ricard, a French gal who
(00:37):
hails from Vancouver. Are actually France but now lives in Canada,
and she travels the world in the hopes of spay
and neutering stray cats across the globe. Goneer Alexon.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
And we're also here with our producer, Mark Winter of
Pet Life Radio, who is the man who gets us
to you each and every week. Hey, Mark, we were
with one of your other our host yesterday we did
a podcast with Isabelle on Covered in Pet Hair.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
How was that was that fun? It's a fun show.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
It was really fun.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
She's not a great host, like she had games planned,
like we we had a really good time.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Were you drinking because that's the main thing.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
On her show.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, we were drinking also, so you know, really fun.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yes, we were, and she kind of puts us to
shame Alex because you know, she really plans out the
show and we kind of just kind of, you know,
whatever comes out of our mouths is what happens.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
You know.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
It's a different style, Mary, It's a different.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Style, all right. Well, we are so honored to be
part of Mark's Pet Life Radio network and you can
do pr for yourself with Alex, Mark and I We're
going to help you each and every week.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
And today we have the great pleasure of having Ethan
Haber the Hamster Man as our guest, the founder of
Happy Habitats. Happy Habitats is the first company to innovate
in the small pet space in the last forty years.
Ethans creates unique toys and accessories for small animals and
especially the Hallow, which is a small pet bull carrier.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Thank you for coming on our show, Ethan.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Can you tell us how it all started? How did
you How did you end up creating Happy Habitats.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm you know,
very happy to be here. So Happy Habits had started
when I was a sophomore in college. I had in
you know, emotional support hamster Me and my hamster Mooxie
were very very close. And one day we were out
on the quad and he was in his ball and
I was just chasing him in circles and I turned
and I saw an upperclassman walking her dog and I
(02:45):
was like, wow, I wish I could walk my hamster.
And then I was like, why can't I? And you know,
that kind of got the ball rolling, you know, metaphorically
and literally. It's only been up from there.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
Amazing. When was that?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
When did you start? Like, because you said sophomore years,
how long go with that?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
So I just turned twenty six three days ago, so
it was it was twenty nineteen. It was twenty nineteen
when I first started the company and we first and
then we started selling product in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Wow, Alex and you are the same age. You're both babies.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Now.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I'm a bit older because you just turned twenty six
vist year. I turned twenty six last year. Mary, Oh,
I'm not a baby on this show.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So Ethan, it's amazing. You're so young and you started
Happy Habitats and you're like this amazing entrepreneur at such
a young age. Tell us how you did it?
Speaker 4 (03:37):
So I have I have two other partners, one partner
is my father who works on the business with me.
And then our third partner is a design for P
nine Design in Edgewater, New Jersey, and they create products
for major companies Honeywell, vix Oxosewell, and they are partnered
with us and they helped us create the Halo. And
the original idea I had is very different than what
(03:57):
we have now and they've been a an extremely valuable partner.
So having them to help me, you know, I was
throwing ideas at the wall and we were seeing what
sticks and just to get from there to here. It's
been very valuable having them as a partner.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Wow, that is amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
The Halo has won multiple awards, is that right?
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Yeah? We got Best in Show at Super Zoo in
twenty twenty one. We got the twenty twenty award because
it was the show that was canceled for due to
COVID at twenty twenty one, and it was an award
winning product at the Global Pet Expo in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
You know I met you first the Fox station here
in Minneapolis had asked me to do like a trends,
a pet trends segment, and so I was walking all
over the show looking for innovative pet products, and I
saw yours in the new product showcase, and that's why
I boogied all the way to your booth, and I'm like,
(04:53):
do you want to be on this? And the first
question you asked was do I have to pay for it?
Which is a good question because a lot of people
don't understand the difference between earned media and paid media. So,
of course paid media is advertising, but what Alex and
(05:14):
I do is earned media, which is just pitching your
product on the merits of it and letting a journalist
or an influencer decide if they really like it. But anyways,
we have to take a quick break and when we
get back, we're going to dive more into this with Ethan,
and we're going to also answer some of his questions
when it comes to marketing and.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
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with an ad In pet Life Radio podcast and radio shows,
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large and reaches more pet parents and pet lovers than
pet Life Radio with over seven million monthly listeners. Pet
(05:58):
Life Radio podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms,
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visit Petlifradio dot com. Slash advertised Today.
Speaker 7 (06:23):
Let's talk pets on petlife radio dot com.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
And we're back with Ethan, the founder of Happy Habitat.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Ethan, can you tell us some of the struggles you
faced when.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
You first started Happy Habitats. I know you said your
dad is a partner. Did you have to convince him?
Speaker 5 (06:49):
Was it really hard?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
So, my dad's been a very valuable partner. You know,
he provides his insight and expertise from you know, just
the years he's lived beyond me. He's much more wise
than I am, and he's an entrepren earn a businessman himself.
So he's been very valuable along the way, helping us
figure out where to you know, shave costs down and
and and good ways to market the product or or
(07:10):
reach out to people, and innovative ways to just get
get uh grab attention. So he's been very valuable for that.
One of the first problems we faced and this was
you know, very specific to It wasn't specific to our brand,
but it was specific to the timing that we did.
It is we incorporated, we created, we we had the
molds ready to go for our product, and they were
on one of those ships waiting to port in California.
(07:33):
During COVID there was a year where we just couldn't
do anything because we couldn't get our molds off of
the ship to get them to our factory in Mexico
to manufacture. So we were just you know, sitting on
our hands that whole time.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Oh wow, I you know what I remember that it
was there was a lot I feel like a lot
of pet suppliers were sitting around and retailers didn't have
enough product from what I remember. So, how did you
go about marketing the Halo.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
We've tried a bunch of different ways to market the product.
We we We've tried you know, social media ads, We've
tried Google ads, We've tried influencers, and ultimately what's just
ended up working for us is is Amazon where we
have the product on Amazon and we do Amazon Ads.
And it's been very it's been We've had a very
difficult time, you know, convincing the consumer to purchase directly
from us off of our site. There's a much bigger,
(08:25):
you know, barrier of trust you need to break down.
But on Amazon, people buy product all the time, you know,
in two seconds. So doing ads on Amazon and it's
something we stayed away from from the longest time because
my dad is anti big business and he likes, you know,
to help the independent retailers and small businesses. But as
a small business myself, Amazon has given me the opportunity
to you know, get my product in front of exponentially
(08:47):
more people and sell it to them at a much
lower lift. So it's kind of this double edged sword
where they're taking most of the profit, but they're also
you know giving us, you know, this revolving door of sales.
So Amazon ads is where we've had the best success
so far because it's just a niche product.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
So you were also telling us you're part of some
hamster's Facebook group?
Speaker 5 (09:07):
Is that helpful?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Like?
Speaker 5 (09:09):
What is your goal when you do that?
Speaker 4 (09:11):
So I joined a lot of social media groups for
small pets too at the very beginning of when I
was creating this product and creating my company, to you know,
bounce ideas off of small pet owners, because a lot
of people who own exotics will tell you that they
have to you know, DIY HomeKit their own solutions for
a lot of things. And that's not limited to just
(09:31):
you know, exotics or small animals. It could also be
you know, dogs and cats. People give their cats cardboard
boxes all the time. There's all these at home solutions
for things that are you know, either toys or equipment
or accessories that people need to create, and I wanted
to invent something that wasn't in the market, This value
proposition of being able to take your small pet out
and engage with them outside of the house. Take them
(09:52):
to your grandma's house, take the park. That's what I
really sought to create with the Halo and joining these
you know, social media groups allowed me to interact with
people in an organic way and see what they had
to think about the idea. And I would ask non
leading questions just to kind of see where their heads
were at and what they were thinking.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
So our hamsters, really, who's the hamster owner in the US?
Ooh yeah, she was like, what's the target demo of
a hamster?
Speaker 4 (10:17):
I would say the majority is families with young children.
A lot of small pets are owned by kids, and
then their parents are the ones that have taken care
of them. But there's also like a niche of college
kids because they're in this dorm and they want a pet,
but they can't have a dog or a cat. I mean,
that's why I got my hamster, because I didn't think
it would be fair to bring my dog and have
them live in my dorm with me while I was
(10:37):
juggling classes. So I would say it's parents with kids,
college students, and then young adults are are kind of
the three demographics of small pet owners.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Tell us your experience about PR, tell us everything you
know about it.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
So I was partnered with this PR firm in the past,
and I didn't have great success with it. It might
have just been a timing issue. It was early on
into my products life cycle. We didn't really have like
the notoriety or sales, so we might have engaged PR
too soon. But I think PR is great for getting
you know, this information about your brand, But ultimately, what
a lot of people want is sales and brand awareness
(11:15):
and sales are not, you know, equivalent, they go hand
in hand. But PR is very valuable for brand awareness
when I had engaged in. My business's primary focus was sales,
but now we're coming up to this time again where
we have sales and brand awareness, it could be a
valuable thing again. So that is my experience with PR
thus far.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
A lot of people tell us to be honest, like
I hired a PR agency and it wasn't that great.
What made it not that great? For you?
Speaker 4 (11:40):
The PR agency that I had partnered with specifically would
get our article on a website or get us a
short news station listing or something, and they would list
the total viewers of the site as viewers we reached.
When you know that was not the case, so the
results were overinflated in my experience, that.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Is so true. So we're very transparent Whisker Media. So
a lot of companies they want that data. They want
to know how many people did we reach? But that
is important to know that that's just a number of
how many people were reached. It doesn't give you a
clear number. It's impossible to know, well it is using
(12:22):
Nielsen ratings if it's a broadcast, but that generally isn't
as accessible. That information isn't accessible right away unless you're
the television station. So when you look at this, you
have to assume that it's a percentage that maybe really saw.
I mean, it could be you know, when you're watching television,
(12:42):
you could be like baking a cake while then you
know all the segment is on and that still counts.
And they actually have electronic measurement boxes where they can
know exactly how many people, especially with streaming services and
that sort of thing. But I just wanted getting back
to what I said before. I just wanted to let
people know earned media is pr That means you're not
(13:05):
paying to play. That is the responsibility of whether it's
the pet store owner, whether it's the pet product manufacture,
of pitching this too to try to get attention and
seeing what sticks. Usually it's done. The way we do
it is it's very targeted. We target exactly where your
(13:26):
specific customers get their news and information, and of course
a lot of times it's social media, and social media
is one of the best ways to do that. Of Course,
paid advertising, which we do not do at all, and
that's not our expertise, is basically taking ads out and
getting back to Amazon. What was it like working with them,
(13:47):
because a lot of the small businesses we work with say,
it's kind of a nightmare.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
So Amazon is like its own whole freaking beast. You
think you could go to college and get a you know,
an undergrad to graduate and like adoctorate and just how
an understanding Amazon. It's it's it's certainly beyond me. So
my business, Happy Habitats, is partnered with this firm of
Archnology that specializes in on and they've been extremely valuable
(14:14):
to us let us get you know, sales and getting
the right search engine optimization and doing the right keyword ads.
I will say before then, we were partnered with another
Amazon firm who we did not have success with. The
first Amazon firm that we were partnered with, we were
spending you know, three dollars to make one dollar and
it was not working out for us. But Marknology has
been an extremely valuable partner to us and they've they've
(14:39):
helped us achieve you know, positive return on an AD
spend and we're getting money back into our bank account
from the sales we're doing on Amazon and they've so
they've been an extremely valuable partner. They are regularly engaged
with Amazon, that's all they do, and they have the
buns of different clients and they're always on top of
it because Amazon will change its algorithm on a dime,
and you have to adapt. It's not something you you
(15:00):
can just like, you know, spend a lot of time
setting up and then you can go away from keyboard.
You have to you have to constantly monitor it. So
my recommendation if you want, if you're a small business
that wants to succeed on Amazon, is to find a
worthy partner can help you do that.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Yeah, we have that episode.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
We actually interviewed Aaron and Steven Gary from Acceleration and
they specialize in the pet industry and they help small
businesses to get into Amazon. And Erin was telling us
all about Amazon, and with Mary, we're just like wow.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Like it's impossible for somebody to diy I know.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I mean, if you're diying it, it's your full time job.
You can't do it as part of a bigger thing.
Speaker 7 (15:42):
No.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
And Ethan just going back also on social media, you
said you tried social media, you tried influencer.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
Can we hear a bit more about that.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah, there were so specifically for small pets. It's just
it's such a niche category there. I mean I was
able to find you know, no more than thirty small
pet in influencers, which were people that were, you know,
making videos with their you know, hamster's gerbils mice on
a regular basis and that was their brand. And engaging
with them was tough too, because, as I'm sure you
(16:11):
know as pet owners, everyone has an opinion, and there
were certain people that you know, didn't want to work
with us for whatever reason or or they thought like
it was a great product, but they had the you know,
X y Z they wanted to say, and influencers ended
up just being not a viable path for us. What
ended up happening was I kind of became the influencer
for our brand. We have a TikTok account with over
ten thousand followers and a few and a few viral
(16:33):
videos and those were all the things I put out there.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
Good for you.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
So do you say when you make those videos, do
you say that you're the founder?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
I do in some of the videos, and there are
other videos where I just like post like a view
of the hamster, like I'm not even in it. So
it's a mix of both.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
That's really good.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Why is there when you go to the pet stores
the critter section is so small, and critters I'm thinking
animal well for terms, so we're talking rap it's hamster's gerbils,
that whole realm. It's tiny. Are you getting into the
pet stores too? Can people find your product there?
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Yeah? So we're currently in Feeder's Pet Supply, we're in
pet Supermarket, We're in pet Value, We're in Petco Mexico,
We're in pet Land, We're on Chewy, we're on Walmart
dot com, and then we're in a few mom and
pops here and there. And let me check my lists
to make sure I'm not missing anyone.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Like, what did the retailers say like about your product?
They must have been pretty excited.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
So retailers love our products because it's it's innovation in
this space that just hasn't really had it in so long.
We've learned a lot, you know, creating a product and
putting it out there. When we first created the product,
we had in this colored retail box and it wasn't
moving well on shelves in the box. What we found
is that our product is pretty complicated and it's hard
to convey the value of it to the consumer with
(17:58):
the static image. So what we ended up doing is
we switched from a box to a clamshell, like a
clear plastic clamshell. This clamshell has a hole cut out
in the center so you can spin the ball while
it's in the carrier, and handles cut out too, so
you can pick it up and really engage with the
product in real time on the shelf, and then you
(18:18):
can kind of understand why you want this product. And
we've had much better sales with the product in the
clamshell than we have with the retail box. So it's
been in this clamshell for less than a year, so
it's been a very positive switch, but it's still new
data that's coming in.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
We're not easy starting a product. I mean you have
to think of all the different details and the slightest
thing like changing the box. Now, I remember you gave
me one for the segment and it was in a
traditional box with just a picture on it. But the clamshell,
I mean, the whole idea of that is brilliant. I
mean I totally see because people want to touch things.
(18:54):
Have you ever noticed that when you go into stores,
even pet food, I saw people touching like the packaging,
like it's not that's not even really rall. I mean
packaging is important, but like in pet food that I
just saw that the other day here. And I like
to watch people when I go to pet stores to
see how they shop. And that's one thing I noticed
(19:16):
is people are always touching stuff. So when it's flucy,
to be careful.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Gloves and hand sanitizer.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yes, exactly, Mary.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
We always say that cats are treated like second class citizens,
right compared to dogs. So where would you place hamsters
and small animals in that?
Speaker 4 (19:36):
I've second class citizens. Hamsters and small animals are like
a third world country.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Yeah, Mary, how do you if you were the hamster woman, right,
because Ethan is the hamsterman, how would you go about it?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
You know, I would start with a campaign showing tons
and tons of like close up shots of cute faces
of hamsters, and I would really you kind of need
to do what the cats are doing now, which is
to showcase the benefits and how loving a hamster can be,
(20:11):
because I think a lot of people people think that
dogs are the only animals that give back and they're
the best because they follow and they do what you say.
But it's now coming where people are starting to be told,
you know what you just have to go about interacting
with a cat differently than a dog. With a cat,
you're going to need a lot of negotiation. I imagine
(20:33):
it's the same way with hamsters. Am I right?
Speaker 5 (20:35):
Ethan?
Speaker 4 (20:36):
I would say you don't need to negotiate as much
with your hamster. But if you get a hamster experiencing
and your hope is to experience what you experience with
a dog, then you're not going to, you know, get
that experience right.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
People just lump pets all together that you know they're
going to be loving pets, They're going to want to
sleep with you, and all of that sort of thing.
I can't imagine you could like roll over on a
hamster and kill it, couldn't she I guess that's a dangerous.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I would not sleep with my hamster. There was one
time I had a pet hedgehog for three and a
half years, And there was one time I took a
nap with my headshog in my sweater pocket. But after
I did that, I was like, I'm not going to
do this again.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Oh my gosh, Ethan, you've had a lot of the
have you had most of the critter family.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
So my goal in life is to you know work
my way up the small pet food chain. So far,
I've I've made it through three of the different hamster breeds,
four of the different hamster of species. There's two that
are pretty close together, so it's four out of five
of like the mean pets of hamsters and a hedgehog.
But I'm working my way up the food chain. One
day I'll have them all.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yes, go Ethan go.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Well.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
One thing I would suggest to you is you have
to sell to people that hamsters and all critters make
wonderful pets. So you've got to showcase the hamster lifestyle.
You've got to showcase how it fits in with a
regular person's lifestyle. And you're the fact that you can
now take your hamster on a walk and it will
(22:06):
stay safe with your hamster carrier is amazing. Like I
would totally suggest you starting. This is one that a
lot of companies do and a lot of times it
takes off. Is to create a special day for the hamster.
Are there special critter days or hamster days out there?
Speaker 4 (22:22):
I'm sure there is somewhere on the calendar, but I
wouldn't know of that off the top of my head.
It's certainly an idea with some merit to it though.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Yeah, you know, capitalize and the ultimate dream for you
would be hamster Con, just like cat Con gets like
ten thousand people in Pasadena, creating buzz, you know, getting
attention and you know what you see their little faces.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah, but it's also changing the way we see them
because it's exactly what we're doing with cats.
Speaker 7 (22:52):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Now we're promoting adventure cats and you know, cats that
can take a flight with you. So it's showing that
a cat can become your partner, just like a dog
is your partner in life, and you know your hamster
could too. A hamster is not just an animal you
have in a cage in your apartment. It's a little
pet that you can take with you outside and you
can show it the world. So it's yeah, promoting a
(23:15):
different way of owning a hamster.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Yeah. People. One of the big pushbacks that we had
when we first created the brand is everyone was like,
you can't take a hamster outside. And the crazy thing
about that is they're wild animals. I mean, they weren't
born in a cage. You know, that's something we manufactured
and created. It's almost like the it's almost like wicked
with the animals. I mean, animals deserve to be able
to go outside and experience, you know, all these new
(23:40):
sights and smells and stimuli that yeah, that can you know,
enrich their lives and pet and Richmond is a very
valuable thing. So being able to get your small pet
out there safely into the world is is something that
you know, I'm spearheading and we're starting to see less
push back on it, and it'll be curious to see
how things continue to change.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
When you went to superzuing goal, did you take your
hamster with you?
Speaker 4 (24:01):
You can't fly with small animals. They can't handle the
pressure change from ground to Oh.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Okay, okay. Another idea for you is to work with
a critter rescue or the local humane societies where you're going,
because they have a lot of critters usually and they
could bring in a lot of critters.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Yeah, and you could have an adoption event.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Yes, that's the great idea.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
The other thing ethan since I looked and there's no
adventure hamsters out there, so it's up to you to
become the adventure hamster owner to show people and showcase people.
And I find that that's what a lot of these
influencer are doing like our good friends surfer Cat Mav.
He travels the world. He's this cat, this Bengal that
(24:49):
goes all over the world. And they have their own
line of pep products, right Alex.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Yeah, like harnesses and leash to show everybody like you
can do it too.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
And so that's what you need to do is take
the adventure. Is your current hamster again, I forgot his name.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
My current hamster's name is Stripe straight.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
You need to take Stripe everywhere you go. Take him
on a subway, and you know what, get great pictures
of him, you know, at all the various New York
City landmarks. And here's the thing, I bet like if
you reached out to the pr people at all these
landmarks and they all want attention, and what would get
(25:28):
more attention than a cute little hamster at their place,
you know, take him to our Broadway show.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
I have a recommendation.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Actually, So I live in Vancouver and in my neighborhood,
we have a Facebook group and there's a famous cap
in my neighborhood. So it's somebody's cat and she dresses
her cat and she takes the cat to the beach
and then she will send a message into the Facebook
group being like Sparkly is at the beach from two
to five today if you want to cuddle, come, And
so that cat is becoming like the ambassador of our
(25:56):
neighborhood because everybody, you know, no one really sees and harnesses.
Yet it's still not like something you see every day.
So people go just to see the cat and take pictures.
And I feel like that's maybe something you could do
in New York, like look at my hamster. Stripe will
be here from two to five and some work or something.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
You know, we love your product because there's so many
fun things you can do with it, yeah, you know,
and the fact that you created it yourself, like you're
the story behind happy Habitats, and plus your name is great,
Like it's just really well done what you've done with
your product. Thank you, But we need to take a
(26:38):
quick break because we got to pay for the show,
and we'll be right.
Speaker 8 (26:41):
Back begging to hear more of your favorite show.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Horful.
Speaker 8 (26:48):
Episodes of all our shows are available on demand. Go
to fedlife radio dot com to fed s our entire
lineup of possum Ted podcasts. Also dig us up in
iHeartRadio and iTunes. Let's talk pets live only from pet
Life Radio, Let's talk past, Let's talk.
Speaker 9 (27:08):
About Life Radio, Headline Radio, pet live Radio dot Com.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
And we're back with Ethan.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
So now it's the part where Ethan can ask us
some questions.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Yeah, so my first question is what is a relationship
with you as a PR agency and a brand. Look Like,
when you guys are trying to work off of earned.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
PR, you want to do that, Alex or shall I know,
you go for it? Okay, So we're a little different
than most pr agencies because we don't believe you need
long term PR except if you have a great story
to tell constantly. So most, I would say most pet
(27:56):
companies that we work with, you know, the big legacy
brand like the Purinas, the Hills, that's a little different.
But the average startup and the smaller to mid size
business you don't have continually great stories. And the way
to get earned media or great PR is you've got
to have a compelling story pitch which is usually emotional
(28:20):
and like makes people feel something, and your product absolutely
when people see Like when I initially saw your product,
I didn't even see a hamster in it, but immediately
triggered in my mind, Oh my gosh, Hamster owners now
have a way to take their animal with them wherever
they go, and I didn't forget that. And so it's
(28:42):
the same way with working with the media. It's just
getting the right story pitch. And so we believe in
shorter term contracts because we also know that you need
an ROI and a lot of pet pr agencies, not
pr agencies in general, are going to say, yeah, no,
it's not necessarily about sales. It's about brand awareness. Well,
(29:03):
you know, brand awareness is important for sales, but in
the end, it's about we know, whether you're going to
continue working with us depends on whether or not you're
getting sales. Like you had talked about that earlier, right,
we saw these numbers, but it didn't translate into sales. Also,
you know, you really do want to ask the pr
(29:25):
agencies for examples of some of the work they've done,
what case studies and that sort of thing. So that's
kind of how we work. But we have turned down
work because somebody needed help pitching a product, but they
also didn't want to you know, the owner founder didn't
want to invest the time with us to tell us
(29:45):
the background of it, and and you know, we need
something to go by. We're not just going to put
out a press release that says, here's the Halo. It's
been around for two years, like nobody really cares. But
for example, if the Halo had a co telling story
we could share, Like for example, the story you talked
about being on campus, a huge dog walk was right,
(30:07):
you know, close by you before you invented the Halo.
That dog it could have been a terrible, terrible result
for MUXI right, Like I would tell that story. That's
a really I mean, you're gonna feel like, oh.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
My god, that hamster could have been.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
You know, devoured by a dog. And we would have
put you out there talking about how scary scared you
were and how you realized like this is horrible. And
so you know, I also come from a crime background.
So for me, if it bleeds, it leads or you know, death, destruction,
fear loathing, that always attracts people. But you know, we
don't want to do that. We want to do a
(30:43):
more positive side of things. But you know that's one
way you need to look at it, like like that
is your story, Like and I know that you actually
use that story in your marketing.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
Correct, Yeah, it's my pitch when I I am presenting
the product to whoever it may be.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Ethan you are, you're on top of things. You're not
even a PR person, but you know you did really
great and I looked at your website and I'm like,
he's got it, you know, which proves you know, we
want you to hire us. But we also realize that
a lot of small startups and mid level companies they
can't afford, you know, they're too busy giving their profits
(31:19):
to Amazon.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
And something also Married didn't mention is be careful with
agencies that will over promise results because you know, in
PR's earned media, so you can never guarantee anything. But
the thing I've seen with Mary and since I jehon
Whisker Media, is that she always goes above and beyond
to provide something like she won't stop until she get results.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
A PR agency should. We did have one client where
we just couldn't get anything. So that's kind of our
philosophy on how we deal with things. A PR firm
should never ever promise you that you're going to get
them on this media and that media. A good PR
agency is going to be transparent that they can't get
guarantee anything. But I can tell you from our side
(32:02):
of things, we're going to do everything possible to try,
you know, to make your pr dreams come true. And
sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. So there's never
any guarantees. Alex, do you have any thoughts too or No?
Speaker 4 (32:15):
That was good, Mary, that was great. I really appreciate
that answer. Just one follow up answer is something you
kind of touched on a little bit with the pushback
is when you have a product or a service or
something you're trying to promote that is divisive, how do
you go about, you know, kind of channeling that energy
and getting a positive result. One thing I had with
my product when I was, you know, first promoting it
is we got some pushback because there's a stigma that's
(32:36):
anti hamster. Ball is like the ball they roll around
in in the small pet community, and you know, min
Invention sought to with the halo and then the rolling
the ball by itself, we sought to kind of solve
all those issues and I think we did a very
good job of doing that. But it's still a hard
thing to convey to the customer because they'll just see
it and they'll go, no hamster ball bad. But well
we got rid of the pod trapping. We made it
(32:58):
like a safe structure for the pet to be in.
And people always just say, edutain it, And I'll stop
talking and let you answer. But I'm curious how you
handle a divisive topic.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
For me, may I'll go for me is get an
expert that will prove that your product is actually good
for their hamster. So for example, I would guess for
you it's a behaviorist that will explain the benefits of
the halo.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Absolutely, it's about getting credibility also talking to I went
to the VMX conference last year, which I think is
going coming soon. It's the veterinary conference, and I met
some critter veterinarians or people that do there are people
that specialize in them. You need to get an expert,
somebody with you know, DVM or something behind. That would
(33:39):
be one way. The other route to take is that
you just have to realize and I think every brand
that puts something out there, there's just people that are
always not going to like your product. And these are
like tend to be the same people to complain about
anything and are just negative nellies and you just got
to shut them out. I've seen that with you know,
we represent a raw food, a raw Kibbel manufacture, and
(34:03):
the amount of pushback we got from you know, the
anti raw diet people. That's going to happen when you're
formulating campaigns. You have to realize that, but you have,
you know, you kind of before you launch the product,
you should do some research to find out who the
what the negative feedback is going to be. And sometimes
(34:24):
you may not just have to launch it to find out,
but you do need to come up with some thoughts
on wording and an explanation to combat their concerns. If
you start getting a lot of concerns and it's coming
from a much wider group of people, then you need
to relook at your pet products. Because we've had products
(34:48):
where we're like, we can't promote this, we put it
out there, and the sentiment from people who really matter,
people with expertise. If there's seems to be a wider
swath of people feeling concerns, We're not just talking twenty
or thirty people, but if you're starting to hear, like
from several hundred people on Facebook or that sort of thing,
(35:09):
you do need to look at your product because there's
a lot of products that don't work in the pet industry.
And I can tell you a story about a litter box.
I worked with a litter box company. The litter box
was way too small. Most American pet cats are really fat.
American pets in general, our sixty percent of US pets
are really fat. And Minnesota has the fattest pets in
(35:31):
the world. And it's just because it's cold, and so
the dogs don't get out right when it's twenty below zero,
it's kind of hard to you know, ren your dog
around unless it's like a big uphen Lend or something.
But you know, make sure that you are taking consideration
into the people that matter and relook at your product.
(35:52):
When I was working with the litter box company, they
had designed the litter box size to fit an Amazon
box because, as you know, Ethan, the size of your
the box that it ships and matters, doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
Yeah, that's where a lot of our profit goes.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Yes, exactly, And this was just not going to work,
and so they redid the litter box.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
It's now.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
It now comes in a huge jumbo and xcel. The
company was sold for you know, millions of dollars and
now it's all over you know pet Co. It's doing
really well. So that's just something to remember. Look at
the criticism if it's just you know, Joe Blow, a
random person, but if it starts coming from you know,
(36:36):
even rescues and shelters bring a lot of credibility. And
so I always tell pet product people showcase your product
to behaviorists because if you get a seal of approval
from somebody with expertise and credentials behind their name, it
adds so much more.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Thank you, Okay, Ethan, just tell us where people can
find you, your social media handles, your website, where they
can buy your product.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
So our social media handles are at happy HAPs and
party py, dot, Habitats, habs, and boy it Ats. You
can also get us on our website happyhabitats dot net.
And then also at the retailers that I spoke of earlier,
you know at Chewy, Walmart, dot Com, Feeder's Pet Supply,
pet Supermarket, Petlands, Pet Value, Peco Mexico, and also Amazon Perfect.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Thank you, well, this has been a really long show,
partly because I talk too much. That's a wrap for
this show. We're so excited to be doing this for
all of you. We love folks like Ethan who are
making the pet product industry far more innovative. And you
know you're also making life better for animals, and Ethan,
(37:52):
shout out to you for helping all the hamsters out there.
So do you have a question? Do you want to
ask us questions? Just like Ethan, We'll reach out to
us on Instagram or Facebook under Whisper Media and we're
going to try to answer your questions in a future podcast.
If you want to be a guest where we answer
some of your questions, we'd love that too. So, as
(38:13):
we always say, bark loud and per smart, see you later, everyone.
Speaker 7 (38:19):
Let's talk beext every week on demand only on petlifradios
dot com
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the Whisker Report. We're a new podcast dedicated
to helping anyone in the pet industry, whether you're in
animal welfare or a for profit pet company, get some
pr and buzz for your nonprofit or business. Hello everyone,
I'm Mary Tan, one of the hosts of the show,
along with my bestie alexand Ricard, a French gal who
(00:37):
hails from Vancouver. Are actually France but now lives in Canada,
and she travels the world in the hopes of spay
and neutering stray cats across the globe. Goneer Alexon.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
And we're also here with our producer, Mark Winter of
Pet Life Radio, who is the man who gets us
to you each and every week. Hey, Mark, we were
with one of your other our host yesterday we did
a podcast with Isabelle on Covered in Pet Hair.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
How was that was that fun? It's a fun show.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
It was really fun.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
She's not a great host, like she had games planned,
like we we had a really good time.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Were you drinking because that's the main thing.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
On her show.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, we were drinking also, so you know, really fun.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yes, we were, and she kind of puts us to
shame Alex because you know, she really plans out the
show and we kind of just kind of, you know,
whatever comes out of our mouths is what happens.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
You know.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
It's a different style, Mary, It's a different.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Style, all right. Well, we are so honored to be
part of Mark's Pet Life Radio network and you can
do pr for yourself with Alex, Mark and I We're
going to help you each and every week.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
And today we have the great pleasure of having Ethan
Haber the Hamster Man as our guest, the founder of
Happy Habitats. Happy Habitats is the first company to innovate
in the small pet space in the last forty years.
Ethans creates unique toys and accessories for small animals and
especially the Hallow, which is a small pet bull carrier.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Thank you for coming on our show, Ethan.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Can you tell us how it all started? How did
you How did you end up creating Happy Habitats.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm you know,
very happy to be here. So Happy Habits had started
when I was a sophomore in college. I had in
you know, emotional support hamster Me and my hamster Mooxie
were very very close. And one day we were out
on the quad and he was in his ball and
I was just chasing him in circles and I turned
and I saw an upperclassman walking her dog and I
(02:45):
was like, wow, I wish I could walk my hamster.
And then I was like, why can't I? And you know,
that kind of got the ball rolling, you know, metaphorically
and literally. It's only been up from there.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
Amazing. When was that?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
When did you start? Like, because you said sophomore years,
how long go with that?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
So I just turned twenty six three days ago, so
it was it was twenty nineteen. It was twenty nineteen
when I first started the company and we first and
then we started selling product in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Wow, Alex and you are the same age. You're both babies.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Now.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I'm a bit older because you just turned twenty six
vist year. I turned twenty six last year. Mary, Oh,
I'm not a baby on this show.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So Ethan, it's amazing. You're so young and you started
Happy Habitats and you're like this amazing entrepreneur at such
a young age. Tell us how you did it?
Speaker 4 (03:37):
So I have I have two other partners, one partner
is my father who works on the business with me.
And then our third partner is a design for P
nine Design in Edgewater, New Jersey, and they create products
for major companies Honeywell, vix Oxosewell, and they are partnered
with us and they helped us create the Halo. And
the original idea I had is very different than what
(03:57):
we have now and they've been a an extremely valuable partner.
So having them to help me, you know, I was
throwing ideas at the wall and we were seeing what
sticks and just to get from there to here. It's
been very valuable having them as a partner.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Wow, that is amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
The Halo has won multiple awards, is that right?
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Yeah? We got Best in Show at Super Zoo in
twenty twenty one. We got the twenty twenty award because
it was the show that was canceled for due to
COVID at twenty twenty one, and it was an award
winning product at the Global Pet Expo in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
You know I met you first the Fox station here
in Minneapolis had asked me to do like a trends,
a pet trends segment, and so I was walking all
over the show looking for innovative pet products, and I
saw yours in the new product showcase, and that's why
I boogied all the way to your booth, and I'm like,
(04:53):
do you want to be on this? And the first
question you asked was do I have to pay for it?
Which is a good question because a lot of people
don't understand the difference between earned media and paid media. So,
of course paid media is advertising, but what Alex and
(05:14):
I do is earned media, which is just pitching your
product on the merits of it and letting a journalist
or an influencer decide if they really like it. But anyways,
we have to take a quick break and when we
get back, we're going to dive more into this with Ethan,
and we're going to also answer some of his questions
when it comes to marketing and.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
Pr take a bite out of your competition advertiser business
with an ad In pet Life Radio podcast and radio shows,
there is no other pet related media that is as
large and reaches more pet parents and pet lovers than
pet Life Radio with over seven million monthly listeners. Pet
(05:58):
Life Radio podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms,
and our live radio stream goes out to over two
hundred and fifty million subscribers on iHeartRadio, Odyssey, tune In,
and other streaming apps. For more information on how you
can advertise on the number one pet podcast and radio network,
visit Petlifradio dot com. Slash advertised Today.
Speaker 7 (06:23):
Let's talk pets on petlife radio dot com.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
And we're back with Ethan, the founder of Happy Habitat.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Ethan, can you tell us some of the struggles you
faced when.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
You first started Happy Habitats. I know you said your
dad is a partner. Did you have to convince him?
Speaker 5 (06:49):
Was it really hard?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
So, my dad's been a very valuable partner. You know,
he provides his insight and expertise from you know, just
the years he's lived beyond me. He's much more wise
than I am, and he's an entrepren earn a businessman himself.
So he's been very valuable along the way, helping us
figure out where to you know, shave costs down and
and and good ways to market the product or or
(07:10):
reach out to people, and innovative ways to just get
get uh grab attention. So he's been very valuable for that.
One of the first problems we faced and this was
you know, very specific to It wasn't specific to our brand,
but it was specific to the timing that we did.
It is we incorporated, we created, we we had the
molds ready to go for our product, and they were
on one of those ships waiting to port in California.
(07:33):
During COVID there was a year where we just couldn't
do anything because we couldn't get our molds off of
the ship to get them to our factory in Mexico
to manufacture. So we were just you know, sitting on
our hands that whole time.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Oh wow, I you know what I remember that it
was there was a lot I feel like a lot
of pet suppliers were sitting around and retailers didn't have
enough product from what I remember. So, how did you
go about marketing the Halo.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
We've tried a bunch of different ways to market the product.
We we We've tried you know, social media ads, We've
tried Google ads, We've tried influencers, and ultimately what's just
ended up working for us is is Amazon where we
have the product on Amazon and we do Amazon Ads.
And it's been very it's been We've had a very
difficult time, you know, convincing the consumer to purchase directly
from us off of our site. There's a much bigger,
(08:25):
you know, barrier of trust you need to break down.
But on Amazon, people buy product all the time, you know,
in two seconds. So doing ads on Amazon and it's
something we stayed away from from the longest time because
my dad is anti big business and he likes, you know,
to help the independent retailers and small businesses. But as
a small business myself, Amazon has given me the opportunity
to you know, get my product in front of exponentially
(08:47):
more people and sell it to them at a much
lower lift. So it's kind of this double edged sword
where they're taking most of the profit, but they're also
you know giving us, you know, this revolving door of sales.
So Amazon ads is where we've had the best success
so far because it's just a niche product.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
So you were also telling us you're part of some
hamster's Facebook group?
Speaker 5 (09:07):
Is that helpful?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Like?
Speaker 5 (09:09):
What is your goal when you do that?
Speaker 4 (09:11):
So I joined a lot of social media groups for
small pets too at the very beginning of when I
was creating this product and creating my company, to you know,
bounce ideas off of small pet owners, because a lot
of people who own exotics will tell you that they
have to you know, DIY HomeKit their own solutions for
a lot of things. And that's not limited to just
(09:31):
you know, exotics or small animals. It could also be
you know, dogs and cats. People give their cats cardboard
boxes all the time. There's all these at home solutions
for things that are you know, either toys or equipment
or accessories that people need to create, and I wanted
to invent something that wasn't in the market, This value
proposition of being able to take your small pet out
and engage with them outside of the house. Take them
(09:52):
to your grandma's house, take the park. That's what I
really sought to create with the Halo and joining these
you know, social media groups allowed me to interact with
people in an organic way and see what they had
to think about the idea. And I would ask non
leading questions just to kind of see where their heads
were at and what they were thinking.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
So our hamsters, really, who's the hamster owner in the US?
Ooh yeah, she was like, what's the target demo of
a hamster?
Speaker 4 (10:17):
I would say the majority is families with young children.
A lot of small pets are owned by kids, and
then their parents are the ones that have taken care
of them. But there's also like a niche of college
kids because they're in this dorm and they want a pet,
but they can't have a dog or a cat. I mean,
that's why I got my hamster, because I didn't think
it would be fair to bring my dog and have
them live in my dorm with me while I was
(10:37):
juggling classes. So I would say it's parents with kids,
college students, and then young adults are are kind of
the three demographics of small pet owners.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Tell us your experience about PR, tell us everything you
know about it.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
So I was partnered with this PR firm in the past,
and I didn't have great success with it. It might
have just been a timing issue. It was early on
into my products life cycle. We didn't really have like
the notoriety or sales, so we might have engaged PR
too soon. But I think PR is great for getting
you know, this information about your brand, But ultimately, what
a lot of people want is sales and brand awareness
(11:15):
and sales are not, you know, equivalent, they go hand
in hand. But PR is very valuable for brand awareness
when I had engaged in. My business's primary focus was sales,
but now we're coming up to this time again where
we have sales and brand awareness, it could be a
valuable thing again. So that is my experience with PR
thus far.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
A lot of people tell us to be honest, like
I hired a PR agency and it wasn't that great.
What made it not that great? For you?
Speaker 4 (11:40):
The PR agency that I had partnered with specifically would
get our article on a website or get us a
short news station listing or something, and they would list
the total viewers of the site as viewers we reached.
When you know that was not the case, so the
results were overinflated in my experience, that.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Is so true. So we're very transparent Whisker Media. So
a lot of companies they want that data. They want
to know how many people did we reach? But that
is important to know that that's just a number of
how many people were reached. It doesn't give you a
clear number. It's impossible to know, well it is using
(12:22):
Nielsen ratings if it's a broadcast, but that generally isn't
as accessible. That information isn't accessible right away unless you're
the television station. So when you look at this, you
have to assume that it's a percentage that maybe really saw.
I mean, it could be you know, when you're watching television,
(12:42):
you could be like baking a cake while then you
know all the segment is on and that still counts.
And they actually have electronic measurement boxes where they can
know exactly how many people, especially with streaming services and
that sort of thing. But I just wanted getting back
to what I said before. I just wanted to let
people know earned media is pr That means you're not
(13:05):
paying to play. That is the responsibility of whether it's
the pet store owner, whether it's the pet product manufacture,
of pitching this too to try to get attention and
seeing what sticks. Usually it's done. The way we do
it is it's very targeted. We target exactly where your
(13:26):
specific customers get their news and information, and of course
a lot of times it's social media, and social media
is one of the best ways to do that. Of Course,
paid advertising, which we do not do at all, and
that's not our expertise, is basically taking ads out and
getting back to Amazon. What was it like working with them,
(13:47):
because a lot of the small businesses we work with say,
it's kind of a nightmare.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
So Amazon is like its own whole freaking beast. You
think you could go to college and get a you know,
an undergrad to graduate and like adoctorate and just how
an understanding Amazon. It's it's it's certainly beyond me. So
my business, Happy Habitats, is partnered with this firm of
Archnology that specializes in on and they've been extremely valuable
(14:14):
to us let us get you know, sales and getting
the right search engine optimization and doing the right keyword ads.
I will say before then, we were partnered with another
Amazon firm who we did not have success with. The
first Amazon firm that we were partnered with, we were
spending you know, three dollars to make one dollar and
it was not working out for us. But Marknology has
been an extremely valuable partner to us and they've they've
(14:39):
helped us achieve you know, positive return on an AD
spend and we're getting money back into our bank account
from the sales we're doing on Amazon and they've so
they've been an extremely valuable partner. They are regularly engaged
with Amazon, that's all they do, and they have the
buns of different clients and they're always on top of
it because Amazon will change its algorithm on a dime,
and you have to adapt. It's not something you you
(15:00):
can just like, you know, spend a lot of time
setting up and then you can go away from keyboard.
You have to you have to constantly monitor it. So
my recommendation if you want, if you're a small business
that wants to succeed on Amazon, is to find a
worthy partner can help you do that.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Yeah, we have that episode.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
We actually interviewed Aaron and Steven Gary from Acceleration and
they specialize in the pet industry and they help small
businesses to get into Amazon. And Erin was telling us
all about Amazon, and with Mary, we're just like wow.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Like it's impossible for somebody to diy I know.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I mean, if you're diying it, it's your full time job.
You can't do it as part of a bigger thing.
Speaker 7 (15:42):
No.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
And Ethan just going back also on social media, you
said you tried social media, you tried influencer.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
Can we hear a bit more about that.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah, there were so specifically for small pets. It's just
it's such a niche category there. I mean I was
able to find you know, no more than thirty small
pet in influencers, which were people that were, you know,
making videos with their you know, hamster's gerbils mice on
a regular basis and that was their brand. And engaging
with them was tough too, because, as I'm sure you
(16:11):
know as pet owners, everyone has an opinion, and there
were certain people that you know, didn't want to work
with us for whatever reason or or they thought like
it was a great product, but they had the you know,
X y Z they wanted to say, and influencers ended
up just being not a viable path for us. What
ended up happening was I kind of became the influencer
for our brand. We have a TikTok account with over
ten thousand followers and a few and a few viral
(16:33):
videos and those were all the things I put out there.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
Good for you.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
So do you say when you make those videos, do
you say that you're the founder?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
I do in some of the videos, and there are
other videos where I just like post like a view
of the hamster, like I'm not even in it. So
it's a mix of both.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
That's really good.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Why is there when you go to the pet stores
the critter section is so small, and critters I'm thinking
animal well for terms, so we're talking rap it's hamster's gerbils,
that whole realm. It's tiny. Are you getting into the
pet stores too? Can people find your product there?
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Yeah? So we're currently in Feeder's Pet Supply, we're in
pet Supermarket, We're in pet Value, We're in Petco Mexico,
We're in pet Land, We're on Chewy, we're on Walmart
dot com, and then we're in a few mom and
pops here and there. And let me check my lists
to make sure I'm not missing anyone.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Like, what did the retailers say like about your product?
They must have been pretty excited.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
So retailers love our products because it's it's innovation in
this space that just hasn't really had it in so long.
We've learned a lot, you know, creating a product and
putting it out there. When we first created the product,
we had in this colored retail box and it wasn't
moving well on shelves in the box. What we found
is that our product is pretty complicated and it's hard
to convey the value of it to the consumer with
(17:58):
the static image. So what we ended up doing is
we switched from a box to a clamshell, like a
clear plastic clamshell. This clamshell has a hole cut out
in the center so you can spin the ball while
it's in the carrier, and handles cut out too, so
you can pick it up and really engage with the
product in real time on the shelf, and then you
(18:18):
can kind of understand why you want this product. And
we've had much better sales with the product in the
clamshell than we have with the retail box. So it's
been in this clamshell for less than a year, so
it's been a very positive switch, but it's still new
data that's coming in.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
We're not easy starting a product. I mean you have
to think of all the different details and the slightest
thing like changing the box. Now, I remember you gave
me one for the segment and it was in a
traditional box with just a picture on it. But the clamshell,
I mean, the whole idea of that is brilliant. I
mean I totally see because people want to touch things.
(18:54):
Have you ever noticed that when you go into stores,
even pet food, I saw people touching like the packaging,
like it's not that's not even really rall. I mean
packaging is important, but like in pet food that I
just saw that the other day here. And I like
to watch people when I go to pet stores to
see how they shop. And that's one thing I noticed
(19:16):
is people are always touching stuff. So when it's flucy,
to be careful.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Gloves and hand sanitizer.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yes, exactly, Mary.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
We always say that cats are treated like second class citizens,
right compared to dogs. So where would you place hamsters
and small animals in that?
Speaker 4 (19:36):
I've second class citizens. Hamsters and small animals are like
a third world country.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Yeah, Mary, how do you if you were the hamster woman, right,
because Ethan is the hamsterman, how would you go about it?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
You know, I would start with a campaign showing tons
and tons of like close up shots of cute faces
of hamsters, and I would really you kind of need
to do what the cats are doing now, which is
to showcase the benefits and how loving a hamster can be,
(20:11):
because I think a lot of people people think that
dogs are the only animals that give back and they're
the best because they follow and they do what you say.
But it's now coming where people are starting to be told,
you know what you just have to go about interacting
with a cat differently than a dog. With a cat,
you're going to need a lot of negotiation. I imagine
(20:33):
it's the same way with hamsters. Am I right?
Speaker 5 (20:35):
Ethan?
Speaker 4 (20:36):
I would say you don't need to negotiate as much
with your hamster. But if you get a hamster experiencing
and your hope is to experience what you experience with
a dog, then you're not going to, you know, get
that experience right.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
People just lump pets all together that you know they're
going to be loving pets, They're going to want to
sleep with you, and all of that sort of thing.
I can't imagine you could like roll over on a
hamster and kill it, couldn't she I guess that's a dangerous.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I would not sleep with my hamster. There was one
time I had a pet hedgehog for three and a
half years, And there was one time I took a
nap with my headshog in my sweater pocket. But after
I did that, I was like, I'm not going to
do this again.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Oh my gosh, Ethan, you've had a lot of the
have you had most of the critter family.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
So my goal in life is to you know work
my way up the small pet food chain. So far,
I've I've made it through three of the different hamster breeds,
four of the different hamster of species. There's two that
are pretty close together, so it's four out of five
of like the mean pets of hamsters and a hedgehog.
But I'm working my way up the food chain. One
day I'll have them all.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yes, go Ethan go.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Well.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
One thing I would suggest to you is you have
to sell to people that hamsters and all critters make
wonderful pets. So you've got to showcase the hamster lifestyle.
You've got to showcase how it fits in with a
regular person's lifestyle. And you're the fact that you can
now take your hamster on a walk and it will
(22:06):
stay safe with your hamster carrier is amazing. Like I
would totally suggest you starting. This is one that a
lot of companies do and a lot of times it
takes off. Is to create a special day for the hamster.
Are there special critter days or hamster days out there?
Speaker 4 (22:22):
I'm sure there is somewhere on the calendar, but I
wouldn't know of that off the top of my head.
It's certainly an idea with some merit to it though.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Yeah, you know, capitalize and the ultimate dream for you
would be hamster Con, just like cat Con gets like
ten thousand people in Pasadena, creating buzz, you know, getting
attention and you know what you see their little faces.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah, but it's also changing the way we see them
because it's exactly what we're doing with cats.
Speaker 7 (22:52):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Now we're promoting adventure cats and you know, cats that
can take a flight with you. So it's showing that
a cat can become your partner, just like a dog
is your partner in life, and you know your hamster
could too. A hamster is not just an animal you
have in a cage in your apartment. It's a little
pet that you can take with you outside and you
can show it the world. So it's yeah, promoting a
(23:15):
different way of owning a hamster.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Yeah. People. One of the big pushbacks that we had
when we first created the brand is everyone was like,
you can't take a hamster outside. And the crazy thing
about that is they're wild animals. I mean, they weren't
born in a cage. You know, that's something we manufactured
and created. It's almost like the it's almost like wicked
with the animals. I mean, animals deserve to be able
to go outside and experience, you know, all these new
(23:40):
sights and smells and stimuli that yeah, that can you know,
enrich their lives and pet and Richmond is a very
valuable thing. So being able to get your small pet
out there safely into the world is is something that
you know, I'm spearheading and we're starting to see less
push back on it, and it'll be curious to see
how things continue to change.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
When you went to superzuing goal, did you take your
hamster with you?
Speaker 4 (24:01):
You can't fly with small animals. They can't handle the
pressure change from ground to Oh.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Okay, okay. Another idea for you is to work with
a critter rescue or the local humane societies where you're going,
because they have a lot of critters usually and they
could bring in a lot of critters.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Yeah, and you could have an adoption event.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Yes, that's the great idea.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
The other thing ethan since I looked and there's no
adventure hamsters out there, so it's up to you to
become the adventure hamster owner to show people and showcase people.
And I find that that's what a lot of these
influencer are doing like our good friends surfer Cat Mav.
He travels the world. He's this cat, this Bengal that
(24:49):
goes all over the world. And they have their own
line of pep products, right Alex.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Yeah, like harnesses and leash to show everybody like you
can do it too.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
And so that's what you need to do is take
the adventure. Is your current hamster again, I forgot his name.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
My current hamster's name is Stripe straight.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
You need to take Stripe everywhere you go. Take him
on a subway, and you know what, get great pictures
of him, you know, at all the various New York
City landmarks. And here's the thing, I bet like if
you reached out to the pr people at all these
landmarks and they all want attention, and what would get
(25:28):
more attention than a cute little hamster at their place,
you know, take him to our Broadway show.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
I have a recommendation.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Actually, So I live in Vancouver and in my neighborhood,
we have a Facebook group and there's a famous cap
in my neighborhood. So it's somebody's cat and she dresses
her cat and she takes the cat to the beach
and then she will send a message into the Facebook
group being like Sparkly is at the beach from two
to five today if you want to cuddle, come, And
so that cat is becoming like the ambassador of our
(25:56):
neighborhood because everybody, you know, no one really sees and harnesses.
Yet it's still not like something you see every day.
So people go just to see the cat and take pictures.
And I feel like that's maybe something you could do
in New York, like look at my hamster. Stripe will
be here from two to five and some work or something.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
You know, we love your product because there's so many
fun things you can do with it, yeah, you know,
and the fact that you created it yourself, like you're
the story behind happy Habitats, and plus your name is great,
Like it's just really well done what you've done with
your product. Thank you, But we need to take a
(26:38):
quick break because we got to pay for the show,
and we'll be right.
Speaker 8 (26:41):
Back begging to hear more of your favorite show.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Horful.
Speaker 8 (26:48):
Episodes of all our shows are available on demand. Go
to fedlife radio dot com to fed s our entire
lineup of possum Ted podcasts. Also dig us up in
iHeartRadio and iTunes. Let's talk pets live only from pet
Life Radio, Let's talk past, Let's talk.
Speaker 9 (27:08):
About Life Radio, Headline Radio, pet live Radio dot Com.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
And we're back with Ethan.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
So now it's the part where Ethan can ask us
some questions.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Yeah, so my first question is what is a relationship
with you as a PR agency and a brand. Look Like,
when you guys are trying to work off of earned.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
PR, you want to do that, Alex or shall I know,
you go for it? Okay, So we're a little different
than most pr agencies because we don't believe you need
long term PR except if you have a great story
to tell constantly. So most, I would say most pet
(27:56):
companies that we work with, you know, the big legacy
brand like the Purinas, the Hills, that's a little different.
But the average startup and the smaller to mid size
business you don't have continually great stories. And the way
to get earned media or great PR is you've got
to have a compelling story pitch which is usually emotional
(28:20):
and like makes people feel something, and your product absolutely
when people see Like when I initially saw your product,
I didn't even see a hamster in it, but immediately
triggered in my mind, Oh my gosh, Hamster owners now
have a way to take their animal with them wherever
they go, and I didn't forget that. And so it's
(28:42):
the same way with working with the media. It's just
getting the right story pitch. And so we believe in
shorter term contracts because we also know that you need
an ROI and a lot of pet pr agencies, not
pr agencies in general, are going to say, yeah, no,
it's not necessarily about sales. It's about brand awareness. Well,
(29:03):
you know, brand awareness is important for sales, but in
the end, it's about we know, whether you're going to
continue working with us depends on whether or not you're
getting sales. Like you had talked about that earlier, right,
we saw these numbers, but it didn't translate into sales. Also,
you know, you really do want to ask the pr
(29:25):
agencies for examples of some of the work they've done,
what case studies and that sort of thing. So that's
kind of how we work. But we have turned down
work because somebody needed help pitching a product, but they
also didn't want to you know, the owner founder didn't
want to invest the time with us to tell us
(29:45):
the background of it, and and you know, we need
something to go by. We're not just going to put
out a press release that says, here's the Halo. It's
been around for two years, like nobody really cares. But
for example, if the Halo had a co telling story
we could share, Like for example, the story you talked
about being on campus, a huge dog walk was right,
(30:07):
you know, close by you before you invented the Halo.
That dog it could have been a terrible, terrible result
for MUXI right, Like I would tell that story. That's
a really I mean, you're gonna feel like, oh.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
My god, that hamster could have been.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
You know, devoured by a dog. And we would have
put you out there talking about how scary scared you
were and how you realized like this is horrible. And
so you know, I also come from a crime background.
So for me, if it bleeds, it leads or you know, death, destruction,
fear loathing, that always attracts people. But you know, we
don't want to do that. We want to do a
(30:43):
more positive side of things. But you know that's one
way you need to look at it, like like that
is your story, Like and I know that you actually
use that story in your marketing.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
Correct, Yeah, it's my pitch when I I am presenting
the product to whoever it may be.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Ethan you are, you're on top of things. You're not
even a PR person, but you know you did really
great and I looked at your website and I'm like,
he's got it, you know, which proves you know, we
want you to hire us. But we also realize that
a lot of small startups and mid level companies they
can't afford, you know, they're too busy giving their profits
(31:19):
to Amazon.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
And something also Married didn't mention is be careful with
agencies that will over promise results because you know, in
PR's earned media, so you can never guarantee anything. But
the thing I've seen with Mary and since I jehon
Whisker Media, is that she always goes above and beyond
to provide something like she won't stop until she get results.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
A PR agency should. We did have one client where
we just couldn't get anything. So that's kind of our
philosophy on how we deal with things. A PR firm
should never ever promise you that you're going to get
them on this media and that media. A good PR
agency is going to be transparent that they can't get
guarantee anything. But I can tell you from our side
(32:02):
of things, we're going to do everything possible to try,
you know, to make your pr dreams come true. And
sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. So there's never
any guarantees. Alex, do you have any thoughts too or No?
Speaker 4 (32:15):
That was good, Mary, that was great. I really appreciate
that answer. Just one follow up answer is something you
kind of touched on a little bit with the pushback
is when you have a product or a service or
something you're trying to promote that is divisive, how do
you go about, you know, kind of channeling that energy
and getting a positive result. One thing I had with
my product when I was, you know, first promoting it
is we got some pushback because there's a stigma that's
(32:36):
anti hamster. Ball is like the ball they roll around
in in the small pet community, and you know, min
Invention sought to with the halo and then the rolling
the ball by itself, we sought to kind of solve
all those issues and I think we did a very
good job of doing that. But it's still a hard
thing to convey to the customer because they'll just see
it and they'll go, no hamster ball bad. But well
we got rid of the pod trapping. We made it
(32:58):
like a safe structure for the pet to be in.
And people always just say, edutain it, And I'll stop
talking and let you answer. But I'm curious how you
handle a divisive topic.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
For me, may I'll go for me is get an
expert that will prove that your product is actually good
for their hamster. So for example, I would guess for
you it's a behaviorist that will explain the benefits of
the halo.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Absolutely, it's about getting credibility also talking to I went
to the VMX conference last year, which I think is
going coming soon. It's the veterinary conference, and I met
some critter veterinarians or people that do there are people
that specialize in them. You need to get an expert,
somebody with you know, DVM or something behind. That would
(33:39):
be one way. The other route to take is that
you just have to realize and I think every brand
that puts something out there, there's just people that are
always not going to like your product. And these are
like tend to be the same people to complain about
anything and are just negative nellies and you just got
to shut them out. I've seen that with you know,
we represent a raw food, a raw Kibbel manufacture, and
(34:03):
the amount of pushback we got from you know, the
anti raw diet people. That's going to happen when you're
formulating campaigns. You have to realize that, but you have,
you know, you kind of before you launch the product,
you should do some research to find out who the
what the negative feedback is going to be. And sometimes
(34:24):
you may not just have to launch it to find out,
but you do need to come up with some thoughts
on wording and an explanation to combat their concerns. If
you start getting a lot of concerns and it's coming
from a much wider group of people, then you need
to relook at your pet products. Because we've had products
(34:48):
where we're like, we can't promote this, we put it
out there, and the sentiment from people who really matter,
people with expertise. If there's seems to be a wider
swath of people feeling concerns, We're not just talking twenty
or thirty people, but if you're starting to hear, like
from several hundred people on Facebook or that sort of thing,
(35:09):
you do need to look at your product because there's
a lot of products that don't work in the pet industry.
And I can tell you a story about a litter box.
I worked with a litter box company. The litter box
was way too small. Most American pet cats are really fat.
American pets in general, our sixty percent of US pets
are really fat. And Minnesota has the fattest pets in
(35:31):
the world. And it's just because it's cold, and so
the dogs don't get out right when it's twenty below zero,
it's kind of hard to you know, ren your dog
around unless it's like a big uphen Lend or something.
But you know, make sure that you are taking consideration
into the people that matter and relook at your product.
(35:52):
When I was working with the litter box company, they
had designed the litter box size to fit an Amazon
box because, as you know, Ethan, the size of your
the box that it ships and matters, doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
Yeah, that's where a lot of our profit goes.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Yes, exactly, And this was just not going to work,
and so they redid the litter box.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
It's now.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
It now comes in a huge jumbo and xcel. The
company was sold for you know, millions of dollars and
now it's all over you know pet Co. It's doing
really well. So that's just something to remember. Look at
the criticism if it's just you know, Joe Blow, a
random person, but if it starts coming from you know,
(36:36):
even rescues and shelters bring a lot of credibility. And
so I always tell pet product people showcase your product
to behaviorists because if you get a seal of approval
from somebody with expertise and credentials behind their name, it
adds so much more.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Thank you, Okay, Ethan, just tell us where people can
find you, your social media handles, your website, where they
can buy your product.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
So our social media handles are at happy HAPs and
party py, dot, Habitats, habs, and boy it Ats. You
can also get us on our website happyhabitats dot net.
And then also at the retailers that I spoke of earlier,
you know at Chewy, Walmart, dot Com, Feeder's Pet Supply,
pet Supermarket, Petlands, Pet Value, Peco Mexico, and also Amazon Perfect.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Thank you, well, this has been a really long show,
partly because I talk too much. That's a wrap for
this show. We're so excited to be doing this for
all of you. We love folks like Ethan who are
making the pet product industry far more innovative. And you
know you're also making life better for animals, and Ethan,
(37:52):
shout out to you for helping all the hamsters out there.
So do you have a question? Do you want to
ask us questions? Just like Ethan, We'll reach out to
us on Instagram or Facebook under Whisper Media and we're
going to try to answer your questions in a future podcast.
If you want to be a guest where we answer
some of your questions, we'd love that too. So, as
(38:13):
we always say, bark loud and per smart, see you later, everyone.
Speaker 7 (38:19):
Let's talk beext every week on demand only on petlifradios
dot com
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