Eukanuba Dog Foods Article

PMS 226 is 10 parts Rhodamine Red and six parts Rubine Red.

That rich, vivid pink is instantly recognizable as The Iams Company's corporate color at dog field trials, at dog and cat shows, and in pet stores around the world.

It is the dominant color in a custom Cross Creek polo shirt. And it appears on the corporate paw print logo on T-shirts, aprons, poplin jackets, caps, visors, jogging suits, shorts, silk ties and scarves, and -- of course -- on dannas.

Dannas?

That's cat-dannas and dog-dannas.

Dannas are triangular neck scarves imprinted with the paw print and brand logos. Dannas come in PMS 226, green, orange and red, which are the colors of the various bags of pet food.

"Iams is the only company I know of that has them," says Lara Strazdin, who is Manager, Communications. "Cats usually don't love them, but they look so cute on dogs."

At the 1999 Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York City, Iams scored a PMS 226 public relations coup. At the Hotel Pennsylvania, the main show hotel, Iams outfitted every employee for the four-day run of the show. Valets and doormen wore Iams parkas while inside employees wore corporate polo shirts.

PMS 226 was everywhere.

The best

With 1,200 employees throughout the world, the family owned, privately held company is the seventh-largest pet food company in the . The company distributes Eukanuba and Iams dog and cat foods to more than 70 countries, with packaging in 20 languages.

When Founder Paul Iams wanted an unusual, memorable name for the company's product, he borrowed the word "eukanuba," an expression made popular in the 1940s by jazz great Hoagie Carmichael to mean "the best."

Robin Gilbert, Manager of Sales Services, looks for that ethic in the promotional products distributors from whom she buys.

"We need responsive vendors who keep a commitment and meet deadlines," she says. "They must really understand our business and what we are trying to do. We're looking for the best."

Quality is her most important criterion when she selects wearables. "We look at price, but it's not the final decision maker."

Iams staffers wear clothing in -- or highlighted with -- PMS 226 at field trials and other canine sporting events. They also wear the company's color at dog and cat shows around the country.

Employees order wearables from the company's fulfillment catalog for themselves and as gifts. One of the most popular office-wear items is a classic button-down denim shirt from Blue Pointe ("Everyone wears one," says Strazdin), and other wearables include shirts from Big Dog and Blake & Hollister, Hanes T-shirts, Sportsmaster jackets, and Jerzees sweatshirts.

"Many times we create items just for the holidays," Gilbert says. "They are limited editions. We want something new and different each year."

Field sales reps use Iams wearables as sales incentives, for clerk training, and for prizes. The company gives PMS 226-decorated wearables to the "influencer audience," which includes breeders and veterinarians. Sales meetings and other special events merit special polos.

A current wearables favorite is a T-shirt with an all-over print of illustrations taken from bags of Jams cat food. The company usually keeps a successful design for a year or two.

Collaboration

Wearables selection is a collaborative effort at Iams. The sales services department shares ideas with the marketing and sales teams.

"Then," Gilbert adds, "we look at ideas and at what we're focusing on, and make a selection." Gilbert buys 75 percent of Iams wearables from promotional products distributors. More than half of them are in Dayton or nearby Cincinnati.

"Some of those relationships go back 15 years, when we produced our first promotional products catalog," she notes.

While she values this stability, Gilbert is always looking for new ideas. But she warns, "We want the quality of whatever we are purchasing to match our pet food quality."

For now, she is concentrating on the human side of wearables. "Our focus isn't dressing dogs and cats; it's feeding them," so matching owner/pet T-shirts are unlikely.

Whatever they are and wherever they are worn, Iams' wearables in PMS 226 make a clear statement: quality clothing to call attention to quality pet food.

Barbara Ross Fruitman, CAS, is a Colorado writer and a specialist in the promotional products industry. She is a contributing editor to Wearables Business.