American Executive - Where Business Leadership Begins

With a hands-on, direct marketing campaign and a little help from industry friends, in just two years John McKenzie, president and CEO, has built Pet Praise Memorials into a successful, fast-growing company in a newly emerging market.

With people increasingly treating their pets as extended family members, the presence of the wooden pet urn industry continues to grow. According to McKenzie, it is becoming something of a new phenomenon in this country. Pet cemeteries, crematoriums, and veterinarians alike have recognized the place for pet memorials in the market, and Pet Praise Memorials is the company to deliver them.

The key issue to further developing the industry is increasing consumer awareness. “The general public doesn’t know it exists,” said McKenzie. “Greater public awareness of what services are available will increase demand.”

To help spread the word, McKenzie provides a wide array of services to his business partners and customers. “We are offering them marketing, promotions, and public relations services along with product services. If we can help them grow, it will help us grow.”

Pet Praise Memorials serves 31 states and has 68 active clients, with orders numbering 10,000 each year. McKenzie has seen sales increase 19 times since the company’s first quarter—not bad for a self-professed “new guy on the block.”

Marketing tactics pay off
After contacting pet crematoriums, cemeteries, and veterinarians close to his Winston-Salem, NC base, McKenzie was surprised by the results of his inquiries. “This is a side to the pet industry I had no idea existed,” he said.

Pet Praise Memorials, a division of McKenzie Associates, Inc., came to fruition in late 2001 after a Romanian business contact manufacturing wooden pet urns highlighted the enormous demand for his products throughout Western Europe.

As a result, McKenzie contacted the International Association of Pet Cemeteries and provided urn samples manufactured by his contact in Romania, and the opportunity was quickly realized. “I decided to concentrate on growing my market slowly, making sure I had good quality products and good services,” McKenzie said.

Since McKenzie Associates has provided quality assurance consultancy services for Eastern European businesses for seven years, McKenzie had formed strong business ties with companies in Romania and Moldova. In fact, he is chairman for an economic development committee that forges business links between Eastern Europe and North Carolina.

The strong relationships McKenzie previously developed have greatly contributed to the rapid growth of Pet Praise Memorials. “Business development work depends on contacts,” he said.

Understanding the needs of the customer base was also paramount. To achieve this, he met with potential clients and discussed their requirements in terms of quality and quantity.

Although the pet urn industry in the US is still developing, McKenzie was able to isolate a niche market where demand was evident. He gradually compiled his database through personal visits, direct mailings, and telephone calls. Commenting on the results of this deliberate approach, McKenzie said: “The growth rate has been great.”

Reducing overhead
Manufacturing and logistics costs have been reduced by McKenzie’s excellent industry relationships. “I have formed an alliance with some other industry suppliers providing products complimentary to mine,” he said. “We help each other in respect to the supply chain. We have also formed a strategic partnership in which we will market our products to our existing bases.”

All manufacturing is outsourced to Eastern Europe where labor costs are lower and raw materials are readily available at significantly reduced prices. McKenzie estimates that outsourcing everything has halved his production costs. Strict inventory control and careful supply chain management have been key to the company’s success.

This approach to production enables McKenzie to reduce overhead and launch new models such as the popular photo urn to the marketplace. In addition, Pet Praise Memorials is able to offer a turnaround time of just two days.

McKenzie firmly believes that delivering quality products on schedule to clients is essential. “I will continue the blood and sweat approach: providing a good product at a good price, quickly. If anybody has a complaint about any of my products, they get a new one. No questions asked.”

Bright future
Reducing overhead enables Pet Praise Memorials to sell its products at a more affordable price. “Pet cremation tends to be relatively inexpensive, so the industry is fairly recession-proof,” McKenzie said. “Urns sell for between $20 and $80, enabling families to give their pets a more honorable departure.”

McKenzie is extremely confident about the future of both Pet Praise Memorials and the industry as a whole. “We are in from the beginning,” he said, likening the growth potential to that of the specialty pet foods industry.

To ensure continued growth, McKenzie vows to stay true to his original vision of high quality and good service. “At the end of the day, if you compete on price alone, you have a formula for disaster.”