(Published Oct. 2005)
Just Keep Swimming (In Sales)
The industry continues to catch kids’ attention in fish
By Scott and Ann Springer

Hollywood has proven to have a huge impact on American consumer trends and the pet industry is no exception. Movies such as Shark Tale and Finding Nemo have sparked a renewed interest in the aquarium hobby for children, and some manufacturers have geared their product lines to catch the attention of these young customers.

"Our fish business is way up over the past few years," says Mike Silverman, the owner of Mutts and Butts, a full-line pet store in Merrick, N.Y. "Kids just love fish."

What Kids Want
Shiela Seter has seen children enter her store with a wad of birthday money in hand or a piggy bank full of hard-earned money in order to buy the needed supplies for their first fish tank.

Seter, the manager of Pet Adventure, a retail shop in Poplar Bluff, Mo., says the first step with this young clientele is to assess their fishkeeping skill level and budget.

Starter kits are top sellers for families getting started in the hobby, says Joanne McNeely, the chief of the bureau of seafood and aquaculture marketing for the Florida Department of Agriculture. Easy-to-maintain fish such as goldfish, guppies, and mollies are also inexpensive choices that are ideal first fish to be used in aquarium kits.

Starter kits, like the 1 1/2-gallon SpongeBob aquarium line manufactured by Farnam Pet Products, can be a good starting place for some families because children will recognize the accessories from the cartoon.

These tanks come with everything they need to get started but the fish themselves, says Carrie Foote, the public relations manager for the Phoenix, Ariz.-based manufacturer. Farnam also makes a small-sized beta tank and a line of fun accessories to go inside any tank.

"A small tank is wonderful because kids can have one or two small fish and it can be their very own," Seter says.

However, for some families they may choose to go with at least a 10-gallon tank that has a good heater and filter. "They may want more fish and something that they can grow with," Seter says.

There may not be a host of products designed specifically with children in mind, but there is a multitude of virtually dummy-proof products that may suit small children best.

"Submersible heaters are easy for kids to use because you don’t have to worry about where your water line is," Seter says. "Younger enthusiasts might not keep up on their evaporation and it might end up exposed and broken."

Seter also recommends filters that are easy to prime because "they won’t take as much time to get them started."

Captive Audience
While children may have to break their piggy banks to get established in the hobby, smart retailers know that children have a lot of purchasing power with their parents and these retailers wisely cater their displays to attract children.

Seter recommends having a display tank in the front of the store that will draw the eyes of small children. You should display tanks and accessories lower than usual to be at eye level for kids, she adds.

Using cartoon characters, clown fish, and other recognizable icons from a child’s world will also get kids oohing and awing over your display, Seter says.

Choose bright colors for inside and outside the aquarium, McNeely says. Keep in mind that what you view as tacky may be just the ticket for a youngster.

Children also recognize the holiday colors and will be attracted to color-coordinated tanks decorated for holidays such as black and orange tanks for Halloween and red, white and blue for the Fourth of July, Seter says.

"We carry a lot of aquarium ornaments in themes that children like," Seter says. Fantasy castles, shipwrecks, airplanes, tiki huts, skeletons, shark figurines, and other whimsical things are top sellers for kids’ tanks at Pet Adventure.

In addition to toys and tiny figurines for the tank, accessories that have movement or produce bubbles also bait children to want to purchase aquariums, Silverman says. For example, a treasure chest that opens and closes on its own captivates kids, he says.

McNeely’s organization provides free materials, such as posters and brochures, to retail outlets nationwide to help increase children’s education and interest in the hobby. "Our primary role is to assist retailers with material to encourage customers to buy and keep aquariums," she says.

Education Can Boost Sales
Open your doors for school tours for an educational experience about aquariums and they will be sure to return with their parents, McNeely says.

Pet Adventure hosts educational tours in its store and gives the children goodie bags consisting of stickers, pencils and other paraphernalia that act as free advertising. "We usually end up with parents back in the store in the next few weeks after we do a tour," Seter says.

Consider partnering with a manufacturer to co-sponsor educational and charity events with local schools.

Mutts and Butts co-sponsors several classroom fish tanks and has seen an increase in sales because of this community service it provides. All of the children in the sponsored classroom are given a gift certificate for a free fish.

"This creates a need for them to buy a tank and all of the other equipment they need to get started," Silverman says.

Mutts and Butts also offer these gift certificates at other events, including church carnivals or school events. "We never give out free fish on the spot because we want them to be ready for them," Silverman says.

At the end of summer school, Pet Adventure had a flood of sales from children who received gift certificates from a program, which they co-sponsored, that awarded children for getting good grades in summer school.

Pet Adventure also helped to sponsor the Feather and Fins Program with the local library. These presentations generated a lot of interest from families in pet ownership and created increased sales at the pet shop, Seter says.

The World Wide Pet Industry Association co-sponsors the Pets in the Classroom Program to encourage education and interest in the hobby.

The program gives out $25,000 each year in certificates to teachers to purchase supplies for their classroom pets, says Doug Poindexter, the executive vice president of the Arcadia, Calif. organization.

"Teachers are able to use the pets in their lessons plans for science and it exposes children to things that they may not be getting anywhere else," Poindexter says.

Every year the WWPIA holds a children’s aquarium decoration contest at the America’s Family Pet Expo in three locations across the country. "The children do all of the work decorating and the actual implementation, and at the end of the day they get to take the aquarium home with them," Poindexter says.

"If we can get kids more involved in fish or aquariums then we build the future of the industry and we are able to teach valuable lessons to these children," Poindexter says.

Scott and Ann Springer are freelance writers living in Southern California and are regular contributors to Pet Product News.