Mobile app thoughts on a pet company, such as PetSafe

There is a local company, PetSafe, http://www.petsafe.net/blog/, that has a dog park across from the office in town.  So I was thinking about how mobile applications or taking advantage of changes from mobile devices.

Web pages led to companies changing their business approach, and what worked before is not as effective now, so I will write several blog articles, I expect, to help different industries think about changes.

So PetSafe has a blog to help connect with their customers, but imagine if they had customers send in photos of their pets with some of the equipment from PetSafe, and if you strip out the geocoded information, write a dynamic wallpaper that gets images from near your location, so if you take your dog on a trip, you can see pictures of how people are using this equipment there.

On the website, or use the mobile application to allow people to vote on uploaded images and those that get the most votes are selected to be part of the next update.  Perhaps have 10-20 images, and the updating can be automated as people upload images and other people are voting on them.  Some people may want to download a zip file with the next image set, but since they are unzipped outside the application, people can copy those images and they may be found in other applications.  If losing control of the images is acceptable then it would be simpler to just download the new set.

Another application would be a dog park finder that works well, and again, let people take pictures of the dog park and strip the geolocation information, but store it in a database, so people can look for close dog parks, and see pictures of that park to decide if it is a good park for their beloved pet.  If there are enough pictures then perhaps show those that were taken in the approximate time of day and time of year, to give people more information, so that would mean that the application should be able to take the photos and upload them.

But, there are other applications that would perhaps help open up new opportunities for this company.  Next I will just describe three applications.

The first is to help people see how they can use the products sold to help pet owners improve their pet's lives.  So, allow people to take give an approximate sketch of their home, and what type of pets they have, and then they can start to place different products and see how it may work. So, put a doggie door going out back, for example, and then have the application simulate temperatures to see how it may affect their air conditioning.  This idea would require prototyping to see how to make it useful to people.  One idea would be to allow people in similar environments to share their photos and experience, with hopefully similar breeds.  But, you may also want to target potential pet owners.  Why not work with SPCA organizations in the local community so they can display pictures of some pets for adoption that may be well-suited for the prospective pet owner, based on type of home, number and age of children.

It is important not to share more than is necessary with the webserver that will determine which pets to show, so try to keep it at a minimum, and if possible, it may be better to just send course location and basic data is returned so the application can prune out based on information from the user, so the number of children and ages are never sent out from the phone.

The next idea is similar but allow the user to sketch out their yard, and help them to see how to make a child/pet fun place.  This will go beyond what PetSafe sells, but it opens up new opportunities to form partnerships with non-competing businesses, and can help bring out possibly new product opportunities that are missing.  So, for example, build a platform to hold swings and a slide, but what if there is a ramp so dogs can run up and down, chasing after children.  Then the dog may decide to go down the slide, or have a way to chase the child that does go down.

The last idea is to look at the wearable space.  If there is a device you can click to a collar that transmits a signal that is picked up by a mobile application then when your dog escapes you can more easily follow it.  This may require a new collar to help hold some of the circuitry.  The trick is how do you get it to turn on?  For example, if there is a device in the garage and it activates the collar as the dog goes by that may help.  Wearables have great opportunities but it requires a new way of thinking, so it may be better, initially, to form partnerships, and do a great deal of prototyping.