text of the Article which appeared in Dog News in  October /November of 2012

The Moore County Kennel Club’s Marketing and Community Outreach Committee … and Moore

The Moore County Kennel Club has been around  since 1989 serving the interest of purebred dogs in Moore County North Carolina. By any measure we are a great club of talented and accomplished dog people, supporting a myriad of interests, including Conformation, Obedience, Agility, Rally, vet-tech scholarships, the Military Working Dogs (War Dogs), MIRA, Pet Responsibility and a host of other philanthropic  dog related causes.  Our back-to-back September AKC All-Breed shows are held outdoors, on the infield of the Pinehurst Harness Track and Polo Field, which is one of the loveliest settings possible for an outdoor show.  Over the years we’ve done amazing things to build attendance at our All-Breed shows.  On the Friday before our shows we host the Central Carolina Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club’s Specialty Show and the Carolina Terrier Association Specialties;  and, we host a Benefit Golf Tournament on the Monday after our All –Breed show weekend.   We have local and state politicians as trophy presenters. We have a demonstration of the Military Working Dogs during the lunch break of the Saturday show, which always draws a large  local crowd.  And, during the group judging on both Saturday and Sunday,   MCKC member Beth Dowd has catered wine and hors d'oeuvres for everyone on the grounds. Still, over the years we’ve seen the numbers of exhibitors dwindling and people drifting away from the sport and from breeding. Like all of you, we are aware of the Animal Rights agenda (which has AKC breeders / exhibitors directly in the crosshairs).  The breeders in the MCKC noted the overwhelming public shift towards a doctrine of “spay and neuter everything – as early as possible.” (which ultimately leaves nothing to go forward with in a breed).  Worst of all, we noted the shift in the sport over the past decade or so, away from any sense of connectedness to each other, toward an ultra-competitive sense of isolation.    In a political climate where we are the direct target of Animal Rights legislation, we simply can not afford to be perceived as a small, weak, socially isolated group. Even if one is not involved in breeding and showing, you may simply enjoy the right to own a purpose-bred, pure-bred dog, and therefore the breeder’s and exhibitor’s concerns are your concerns.   As a society, if we wish to continue to enjoy the treasure of purpose-bred, pure-bred dogs, we need the unity and strength of our numbers. It is imperative that we are connected to each other and to the sport itself, so that we act as one united body in a political context.   And it is absolutely essential that we draw new breeders and exhibitors to the sport.  The bottom line is very simple:  Politicians are swayed by numbers that reflect an engaged, motivated, unified group of voters. If we appear small, fragmented and weak, our voice will not be heard and over time we will be legislated right out of existence. A few years ago the Moore County Kennel Club formed a committee – Marketing and Community Outreach - to focus on ways to build a sense of connectedness, unity  and ultimately - political power. We saw two areas where we could make great improvements: First, we looked at the public’s perception of us, which is based largely upon how we package ourselves and the sport to the American public.  Second, we looked at how we treat each other in the sport and how we come across to those who are new and still undecided about showing and breeding dogs. With respect to the first observation, the Marketing and Community Outreach Committee took note of the impression J. Q. Public has of our sport. We specifically focused on how we have allowed ourselves to be packaged by network television.  The cult favorite movie-  Best In Show  - typifies what the American public thinks of our sport.  Sadly, the average person thinks of us as the elitist, egocentric, stereotypes portrayed in the movie (which is loosely based upon the Westminster telecast and others like it).  I will concede that the movie was funny, but it made showing dogs seem meritless, and it made us  appear to be buffoons, by utterly ignoring the thousands and thousands of  experienced, knowledgeable, committed breeders and exhibitors who are the vanguards of their breed,  devoting their lives and resources to preserve and perpetuate the unique and amazing qualities of the various breeds of pure bred dogs exhibited at AKC shows.   The movie - and broadcasts like it-  utterly fail to convey the fundamental fact that showing dogs is about identifying superb breeding stock. If you look at our beautiful print dog-show-focused publications, we are largely  connecting to each other.  Stacked win photos are great to share among ourselves, but they are of absolutely no interest to the J. Q. Public. If anything, they reinforce stereotypes and turn people off. As a breeder I cannot tell you how many people say, “I want the beautiful dog, I will pay whatever price,  but I want no part of showing.”  If you push them as to why they do not want to show, it is often because of the impressions they have of the sport, based upon stereotypes  they’ve seen in the media. If you haven’t bred dogs in a while you might be surprised by the cumulative impact of the images the public sees of us.  Without question, Google, Animal Planet and the AR agenda have influenced the American public.  For example, as a breeder, in 2012, I can sell every Doberman we breed, for good money (e.g., $3K –n $10K) without ever showing another dog.  People want the look, and the obvious quality, but they do not care at all about conformation titles.  We are allowing dog shows to become totally irrelevant. The Marketing and Community Outreach Committee felt that we could improve upon how we are packaged to the American public, and that doing so would benefit us all.   We decided to try to take control of our image, and we felt that the internet and a club website (that was heavy on photos) was a great and economical place to start.   Initially we had enthusiasm, clearly defined goals and a budget of $0.0, which as you might imagine, presented a few challenges.   The good news it that we had club members with good digital cameras and a willingness to learn how to build a website. Looking back, the greatest single asset we had was our MCKC President Mr. Steve Watson, who had the long-range vision of the end goal,  and the wisdom to allow for flexibility as we refined our focus. We realized that people are drawn to clear, bright beautiful photos of people interacting with happy healthy purebred dogs.  It doesn’t  matter who (the face) was in the photo, what matters is that the dog is  a  happy, healthy purebred, who was either looking at the viewer or at the bright happy smiling face in the photo.  People connect to the emotion conveyed in the photo.  We noted that each and every AKC All Breed show is the equivalent of opening night on Broadway.  Dogs and people are at their bright and shiny best… and the photographic opportunities are endless. It didn’t take us long to get the website up and running,  We used the Word Press CMS (which is free) and a Premium photographer based Theme – Photocrati (which cost about $50 and can be shared infinitely with other clubs).  We filled our website with photos, which change every few weeks throughout the year, drawing people back to the site. Our feeling is that dog clubs around the country are missing  great opportunities which the internet provides.   Each of the thousands of dog clubs around this country have the ability to capture event images that are powerfully appealing to the public.  Clubs need to capture the hundreds of moments at every show, in clear, bright, high-quality images that convey the powerful emotions we feel for our beautiful, happy,  pure-bred show dogs. The  camera can capture an infinite array of powerfully appealing images… all of which belong up on the club’s website. The goal is that we flood the internet with positive images of us and our sport, so that when people Google for information on showing dogs, the get thousands of positive images of our sport. Once we had the website up and running, we focused on the second problem:  how to bring more people back to the sport.  In the past we were able to bring crowds to our shows, for example, people in our community enjoy the  demonstration we have of the Military Working Dogs (the  War Dogs), but  we noticed that  they did not stay around much after the demonstration. And the crowds we attracted were not “dog people” in the sense that they had any interest in breeding and showing purebred dogs at AKC conformation shows. We saw a bump in parking revenue, which was a plus,  but that was about the extent of it.   In fact, if you spoke with some of the groups we brought in, they did not use AKC dogs, and went out of the US (to Canada and other countries) to acquire their dogs.  While we support these groups, they are not the target audience we in the sport need to reach.  It was very clear that mere numbers of attendees at our shows alone is not going to build the next generation of breeders and exhibitors in our sport. The MCKC Marketing and Community Outreach committee started with a very basic premise, that to build numbers up, exhibitors and spectators needed to enjoy our shows.   There was a time long ago when people in the sport took the time to enjoy each other’s company. Exhibitors and spectators found the time to watch classes, while discussing the dogs, the sport and the challenges and joys of breeding and showing pure bred dogs. Shows were a place to share breed knowledge. They were a celebration of our fellowship, and connection to a common passion,   which ultimately helped make us strong. Shows provided an opportunity to learn from our mentors and our peers.  If exhibitors just show and go home, they  are missing out on all these opportunities. For a variety of reasons, show sites these days seem to focus on the minimal requirements necessary to put on a show, with less and less focus on the atmosphere that is created for spectators and exhibitors. When you go to a show, the facility is often cramped, noisy and dirty.  Exhibitors look stressed and worn. Spectators look confused and disconnected. It can be hard to find a smiling face, everyone is turned inward. It’s all too common for people to show in their breed and go home. People new to the sport are turned off before they ever get started. We seem to have lost sight of the importance of how we present ourselves and our sport to each other and to the general public.   We have lost sight of the simple fact that our fellowship, and the unity that flows from it, are important teaching tools and a powerful political asset.   To be blunt, if we come across as a disconnected, antisocial,  grumpy group of introverts,  we lose both the next generation of breeders and exhibitors, and we lose our political power,  which, in this AR fueled political climate, is fatal. The Marketing and Community Outreach committee took a look at the experience of attending the Moore County Kennel Club shows from the perspective of being a vendor, an exhibitor and a spectator. Your club may face the same challenges we faced. One of our problems is that ours is an outdoor show, and we are at the mercy of the weather.  For years we had one large (200’ x 40’) tent which we felt served all our needs, providing ring shade, grooming areas for exhibitors and a place for spectators to stand around and watch the show.  To be honest, the tent was hot, crowded and stuffy.  The aisle at ring side was too crowded to get through, the garbage cans got rank rather fast… by mid-day it was simply an unpleasant place to be. Our vendors were left out in the blazing sun on the opposite side of the rings, to fend for themselves. In scorching 95° heat, it was simply too hot to go shopping at the vendor booths.   You could not blame people for showing and going home. Marketing and Community Outreach decided to go back in time, to the relaxed, gracious and cordial atmosphere of shows from years ago, by creating a welcoming place for spectators to sit and enjoy the show and each other. And we wanted to embrace our vendors and show them that we value their contribution to the overall experience for our spectators and exhibitors.  We rented a second 200’ x 40’ tent that is set up parallel to the rings (and the other tent), filled it with ten 5’ round tables and chairs (with table cloths and flowers),   creating a Vendor Mall  and seating for roughly 80 people.   The Vendor Mall / Spectator Tent  is  an area to shop,  and then sit, relax, enjoy a meal  and watch the show.   We try to have the right balance of vendors.  In addition to our great all- purpose vendors like A Magic Reflection, and specialty vendors like I Sew4U,  we have great food vendors Hot Java and Cold Stone Creamery. We encourage local craftsmen like Collie Expressions and R & R Custom Designs, and others – like Maverick Pet Food - who have a quality product and a bright positive marketing approach.  We keep our vendor costs low ($50 for a 10’ x 10’ space) and we give them free advertising on our club’s website (hyperlinked to their website if they have one) for a year after the show.  We do the same for our sponsors and donors.   On Friday evening – under the tent - we host an informal party for everyone on the show grounds (i.e., those from the Specialty shows, the overnight motorhome  exhibitors, club members, vendors and the public).  We have live music and great food. We added a booth for the MCKC club, with banners, posters, membership applications, and a club handout  that references our club’s purpose and the website address  www.themckc.com   We spend the weekend at the shows taking photos, which end up on the club’s website.  With each photo we put on the club’s website, we take the time to note the dog, the breed, the owner and as much detail as possible.  We have found that the show provides enough images that we can update the website throughout the year with fresh images.  Our goal is to cover our Agility Trials, Obedience and other club events in the same manner.  Website traffic jumps considerably after an event, as people check in to see the photos we have of their family and friends, or of their favorite breed of dog.    We have had extremely positive feedback from vendors, spectators and exhibitors alike about the Vendor Mall / Spectator Tent about the warm friendly atmosphere at our shows. The good will this generates is amazing. To pay for the tent, the printing, tables and flowers etc., (which comes to about $4,000.00) the MCKC sought donations and sponsorship from within the community, across the country and around the world.  We were inclusive, any amount a donor or sponsor could give was enthusiastically accepted.  Along with their sponsorship, the business (or individual) got a year of mention on the club’s website, with a hyperlink to their website if desired. In some cases we built websites for sponsors and donors, simply to give them a value added bang for their sponsorship buck.  M &CO members and other club members – like our Benefit Golf Tournament Chair – Bill Pace  generated support from those outside the sport who wanted an association with our club, including  local banks, law firms, investment companies, feed stores, pet resorts, grocery stores, and locally owned retail stores.  Some sponsors - like Land Rover Cary  - wanted to first take a look at who we are.  Companies like Land Rover have a great deal invested in the image of their product and they needed some sense that the Moore County Kennel Club (as a group) fit with their marketing image.  Since they did not know us, their marketing people took a look at our website to get a sense of who we are.  They liked what they saw. Finally, we have sponsorship support from dog show enthusiasts / breeders within the sport, who have a personal connection to our MCKC members.  We have sponsors from other states, and from around the world, including Mr. C. Abhimanyu  Reddy and Mr. Subrata Chattopadhyay from India. These foreign sponsors have connections to members of the club who are breeders and exhibitors, and they value the opportunity to be a part of our AKC All Breed Shows. We are always looking forward. For example, we are in the process of having a high def. video made, which will run on our web site and  in our booth,  conveying  our club message - using our video footage and photos of our events throughout the year. We hope to have this video  run on the local cable T.V. before next year’s show.  We’d love to get video footage of a positive dog show related event that portrays the us and/ or the sport in a positive manner, that could go viral in YouTube.  We’d like to flood the internet with photos and video of the positive aspects of breeding and showing purebred dogs. And, we’ve even done much more simple things, like adding a QRcode to our club’s handout, for easy access to our website.  Our hope is that clubs around this country become connected to the AKC and to each other through simple things like an RSS feed on our websites. In the end we are back at the beginning, proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, energized with the ability to take some control of how we are portrayed to the American public.  Though still in its infancy, our Marketing and Community Outreach program has been a huge success, inspiring us to be even better next year.  We’ve had former club members return to the club, we’ve seen people attending our shows say, “we want to be part of this.”  Based upon the feedback we’ve gotten, we are achieving our goals. The future looks brighter.  Our feeling is that the stronger we are as a group, both within the sport and in our community, the more powerful our voice will be in the political context.