# Why do you think there is no aquarium advertising?



## T-Bone (Nov 23, 2005)

Besides magazines dedicated to hobbyists. There is next to no advertising for anything fish related. (at least in Canada or the US) I mean pet stores are always advertising dogs and cats and the sort. But theres nothing, I have ever seen for anything fish related. 

Some of us spend alot of our money on the hobby. I don't have much money and ive spent over a grand on the hobby(i'm sure some of you a whole lot more) So there is a market share. So why nothing? Not so much as hey we have cats, dogs birds blah blah blah ...and oh by the way we also have fish. zip nada?


We have the money and the insanity/obsession whatever you want to call it. I mean when the movie "Finding Nemo" came out. The hobby exploded for a while. So I'm sure it would make an impact. Perhaps one might say that too much hype would lead to people failing at the hobby subsiquently leading to a lull in the market. But that all goes back to if peoplke were educated enough that all might change. Also if there were more people interested then attitudes might actually change. Meaning more people interested would have to mean more education. Wishfull thinking maybe. But to get back to the origional question; Just wondering your thoughts on why there seems to be no interest by the media on aquariusts.?


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## sarahbobarah (Sep 5, 2005)

It has to do with money. Dog and cat food has the biggest margin in the industry (margin=profit). It costs pennies to make, and a bag of premiummy dog food costs about $40. Dog bark collars are over $100. Cat trees go into the hundreds too.

Dog food accounts for roughly 40% of a store's sales, whereas fish hardgoods come in ... maybe 4th place on a good week with a whopping 6%, and live fish at about 1%. 

Therefore, more marketing is targeted towards dog and cat people. 

Another factor is that keeping fish can be somewhat more complicated and daunting than keeping a puppy. The usual customer will try once and give up after unsuccessfully keeping 8 feeders in a 10 gallon tank with the misconception that fish are "not worth it" or "it costs more to treat the fish than to buy new ones." 

It takes a certain kind of person to endeavor to keep fish. Unfortunately, the media and advertising have to pander to the lowest common denominator and we don't usually fall into that category.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

sarahbobarah said:


> ...pander to the lowest common denominator and we don't usually fall into that category.


Thank God! I hate being the lowest common denominator!


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## Gumby (Aug 1, 2005)

I've seen some advertising. I know a lot of tank maintanence people who run adds in an Atlanta home decorating maganize. I recently caught a commercial on TV for a store that I worked at for 6 years. The main emphasis of the commercials was on the quality and the rare fish that the store carries... Although the production quality of the commerical was equivlant to the day time "have you been injured in a wreck?" lawyer commercials. 

I might be crazy, but I think the aquarium hobby is growing and we might see some more advertising soon. 

sarah also has a good point, the profit margin on aquariums/fish/related supplies is signifigantly lower, especially when it comes to imported products (ie: Ehime, Aquamedic, Dupla, etc.). Dogs/Cats/Reptiles offer a much higher profit margin. 

Fish don't ship well, generally. You have to pay for shipping and consider losses. Then you get random things like tank crashes, power failures, cyanide caught saltwater fish, corals that wither away, and a lazy staff. Selling the actual livestock for an aquarium is a great way to loose money with bad suppliers/bad staff. Why not sell a dog for $1700 (with high profit margin) over a $500 aquarium set up(low margin)?


Sarah: I think the ability to keep fish depends largely on the sales person and their amount of knowledge. When I was working the LFS scene, I always set people up the correct way and they ended up being repeat customers. I've had several people set up an Eclipse 6 freshwater fish only tank, just for them to come back within 6mo-1yr to buy a set up for a 55-180 gal reef set up (bling bling!). Unforturnately the majority of advice that is given at large stores (Petsmart, Petco, etc.) is crap. People's fish die with bad advice and they abandon the hobby.


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## sarahbobarah (Sep 5, 2005)

Gumby, I don't completely agree with your premise. I believe the ability to keep fish depends largely on the customer's willingness to learn. 

There is... a moderate amount of interest in "keeping fish as pets" and big stores take advantage of that to sell gimicky garbage. For example, some stores push "cycle" and "stress zyme" because they "instantly cycle your tank." Unfortunately, this kind of power selling yields a profit margin that, albeit small, cannot be ignored by corporate offices, and therefor they continuously hire ignorant workers to fill that department in order to sell, sell, sell. It would cost more money to hire a knowledgeable employee. 

The largest volume of shrink (unexplainable loss or product/ livestock) is also in the fish department. Corporate takes this into account and turns it around to squeezing more money out of the consumer with medications and algaecides rather than information on how to prevent them. 

There is a very large gap of information between what you hear in the store, and what you read in magazines/ get in advertising. Most chain stores do not/ will not carry the newer products because they have not been "test marketed" - their margin is unknown, and it would be more cost effective to put that kind of marketing research into dog and cat products. 

There is a simple way to fix this problem. 

Vote with your dollars.

Educate the corporations. Don't bother trying to talk to the workers, or the store managers - they are no one in the big picture. If you want to see a change, take it up with someone who can do something about it. 

If you want Petco or Petsmart to start carrying coralife fixtures or seachem products, tell corporate. 

And no, they aren't concerned about competing with local LFS. They will never carry the more advanced products, or the more exotic livestock. They aren't interested in taking niche markets away. They are concerned about competing with each other. 

Also, if you want more information about new products, if you want to know when new products come out, tell the companies that make them. Have the companies send out product reps. Dog and cat food reps are at the chain stores every weekend marketing their stuff. Where are the fish people???


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## T-Bone (Nov 23, 2005)

Well I guess profit margin is a factor. But personally I spend on average $20-$100 a month on new plants/frozen foods/various tank related items. The only thing we buy for our cat, is food right now. If you buy in bulk then the cost is simmiler or somewhat less. 

I realize us plant geeks are in the minority when it comes to our purchasing habits. All the fake plant/treasure chest people aren't buying much. But if they were to be informed properly, and started having success then I'm sure they'd be hooked like us. 

I just think with more popularity on the hobby. Awareness would have to go up. Places like petco/wallmart/pet(whatever) would either start having to properly inform, or have the whistle blown on them. All it would take is a small amount of bad press, and most big stores would clean up their act. As of now the only negativeness towards these stores is our little gripes on our forums. Which is only speaking to people who are allready informed enough. But never go much beyond our forums really.

I'm not implying we all march to our local cable suppliers and demand fish comercials :yell: LOL I'm merely curious, and thought it was odd. Perhaps good press is more harm then good. I meaqn look what nemo did. A whole lot of people started into clown fish, and I'm sure a whole lot of clown fish suffered an untimely death because of it. But hen it goes back to education if these people were actually informed properly. We'd have alot more peole succcesfully keeping the fish then getting hooked on the hobby, and going out and buying multi thousand dollar reef systems. There are people who spend alot of money on their dogs or other pets. But how many people 'really' spend thousands on them?


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## sarahbobarah (Sep 5, 2005)

It can easily cost ~$800 to set up a new puppy. The first year, you pay for all teh vaccinations and lessons. Food at a premium would be ~$100 per month. 

T-Bone, you touched on a point I brought up in another forum. There's really not that much that's going to change as long as the desire to change stays within the few grumblings and gripings of a private community. It's once the message is out there that big changes are enacted. Take a look at PETA, for example. THey don't always have the right info. They don't always have a clear picture of what they want. All it takes is a few people to complain to a corporate office to start a fire burning under the butts of people who make decisions. And, from my observation, the intelligent people are more likely to confide in peers rather than actually broadcast a statement to the general public. 

I, for one, am tired of seeing the same rants about the same stores and when asked for followup, the original poster goes "I dunno.... I guess I won't go there anymore."


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

There was a TV ad by Tetra I believe but I may be wrong. The company name is not that important. What they where doing though pretty much proves that their research showed them that people consider aquariums too much of a hassle or difficult.

They showed close-ups of discus and corries and there was one single bold message - "Fish are easy". Draw your conclusions...

I personally think that most people consider aquariums a pain in the neck to keep and a sure disappointment sooner or later. Thanks to the big chain stores and to the underpaid/randomly hired local LFS people that is indeed so. Also I think that people consider aquariums to be an item that is not that great and not really worth puting the effort to maintain. If it is worth it people belive that it has to be saltwater AND it has to be expensive.

One of the things that really surpises me is the design of the new tanks that are on sale in the US. They are stuck in the early 80's - the plastic wood trims, the stands, the canopies. The looks of most tanks makes you feel that you are looking at something cheap, cheesy, and old fashioned.

A store here in Dallas that opened last year has been successful despite the look that is just like the dumpy LFS we all know. Maybe if the LFS layouts start to change some fresh air will flow through this market.

--Nikolay


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

My opinion is that it is because this is what most people think of when you mention a planted aquarium. Not that this is a bad looking aquarium, but...


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## T-Bone (Nov 23, 2005)

But thats what I'm getting at. Peoples perceptions have to change. The only way it is going to happen is with more awareness and understanding. You give that picture to an uneducated plant aquarium enthusiust and they might think thats a pretty good looking tank. Put an ADA tank next to it, even one that didnt place and it blows it out of the water (pun _intended_) But for the most part people dont *know* they exist. If they knew they might change their minds. Getting back to nemo (I'm not sure why i keep going there) do you remember the tank he was put into? the aussies tank. I remember thinking to myself what a pathetic reef tank, and at that time I wasn't into tanks. But I knew then that was the perception. Just from being in pet stores.

I re-iterate that we know that we are hooked and have a little OCD when it comes to our tanks. So we know once we are hooked we are caught.( <-----lame pun and metaphor intended) and money _can_ be made off of us crazies. It all comes down to perception, and with effort perception is possible to change. I know when me and the then girlfriend first purchased our 10 gallon we percieved the tank in question to be pretty good. now even she said that tank looks like a piece of @#%^ Which makes me feel happy. To be honest and though I don't like to admit it but one of my best scapes incorperated a stupid ceramic castle. People still PM me on how I did it. I think back on how much I have learned and what the heck i was thinking.

I'm not really even sure why I even care that theres no ads or not. Personally I hate Ads, the commercials on TV drive me insane. Most ads today are totally stupid. I now wait a few weeks to go to movies so the crowds die down.....just so I can swow up late to miss the commercials. But it just still strikes me as odd. I mean I would think that Big al's would do advertizing as thats is their only source of revinue. Other pet stores can fall back on other stuff. Bis A's just relies on word of mouth? To me thats just wierd.


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## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

by advertising do you mean tv ads?

let's look at what it takes. 
hiring a multinational agency to do the creative requires millions. it will cover below the line[anything that doesn't require media space buying: pop-point of purchase displays, flyers, etc]
and above the line[tv, newspapers etc]

on average shooting a tvc with film etc will cost hundreds of thousand. 
media costs will be ~9X that. [speaking from where i live]
using a celebrity to endorse the product will drive up the cost by [X] factor depending on whether you're using Andre Agassi or the local karaoke champion.

either way the cost is not recoverable...

hope this answers your question...


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## T-Bone (Nov 23, 2005)

Thats a very good point. I guess even the lame commercials like the old vern fonk ones cost allot. I was mainly getting at that, but in general as well. Other then the odd newspaper add there just isn't much exposure. But then again what else is there? It might be nice though if demand brought up supply some.  

I guess one could think that even if there were more exposure could the hobby sustain a huge growth? I mean as it is most fish stocks are way overbread, and some of the rarer fish have been brought to the brink of extinction. Its hard to get good plants as it is now. So who knows.


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## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

it's all about the money...


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