GroomPod 494 Dave Campanella and Shofur transcript
Susy the Groomer Producer (00:15)
Hi groomers, welcome to GroomPod episode 494, where I will be playing the part of Barbara Bird. And Dave Campanella will be playing the part of Dave Campanella. Yay!
Dave Campanella (00:25)
Hey, I could do that.
Susy the Groomer Producer (00:28)
So we're just gonna do a we're gonna do a really fun interview with Dave today because they have a new product and that does not happen every day. So I'm pretty excited about it. And of course, Barbara and I were the lucky recipients of the delicious new stuff, but we're gonna talk about it. I'm gonna tell you a little
bit about what it is and perhaps what it's not and why it is. And Dave, how are ya?
Dave Campanella (00:52)
I'm doing great. I'm doing great. You know, I'm enjoying the fall weather. There's no snow on the ground here in Kentucky and the weather's been decent. You know, I can, I can deal with this. If this is global warming, I'll take it.
Susy the Groomer Producer (01:05)
I love El Nino, which if you were a Saturday night fan live fan means the Nino. Um we have El Nino here and it means warmer and nicer weather for our winter, so we haven't even been below freezing yet. So I'm pretty happy about that. More
Dave Campanella (01:21)
Yeah.
Susy the Groomer Producer (01:21)
horse riding for me. Yay!
Dave Campanella (01:23)
Yeah.
Susy the Groomer Producer (01:25)
So Beshot is primarily known for products that are sold for the grooming industry, the pet industry, the equine industry,
Dave Campanella (01:32)
Yeah.
Susy the Groomer Producer (01:33)
but basically business to business. But you guys have stuck your toe into the consumer line, haven't you?
Dave Campanella (01:43)
We have and uh it's actually something that's not totally foreign to us because some, your audience may not be aware. We do a lot of private label, uh most of it in the grooming industry and professional services, but we've done different projects and things that I've seen on the retail end. after, gosh, it's well.
After 35 years of the company, know, we really thought there's an opportunity to try to expand a little more into independent pet retail. I monitor all that stuff anyway. And it's kind of boring out there when you go to
a PetSmart, Petco, I mean, it's all the same stuff. It hasn't really changed. And we thought, hey, let's have a crack at this. But to do that, you got to have something and you got to start knocking on doors. And it takes time.
So, our chauffeur is what we came up with uh and uh glad to share it and maybe help your audience understand what it is we're doing and know we're not getting away from professional. And this might be a good opportunity to explain what we're doing and people can see it and you get to observe over the next two, three years as that product grows hopefully, or it doesn't.
Maybe someday you wake up and where did chauffeur go? I mean, that's a possibility, but I don't think that's gonna happen.
Susy the Groomer Producer (03:11)
So what's the difference between this and the professional lines? Like for instance, the sentiment line, which seems to be kinda similar but kinda different. Tell me about that.
Dave Campanella (03:21)
Well, the sentiment spa line uh actually dates back to uh many decades ago, except we've stuck with it. If you remember years ago, Tropicline came out with a spa line and then a bunch of other people came out with spa lines, you know, uh just a little more exotic ingredients and stuff that was marketed more for, uh had a little more of a human appeal to the product. The products, you know, looked more human than they did pet.
And that is a big trend in a lot of pet related products because people treat their as kids and family. if you can more personalize it or humanize it, so to speak. And the Sentiment Spa for us was, man, we just got so many scents and so many different flavors, you know, and over the years. It's funny when we came out with that product, you know, it was like we don't want to have any more than three products. Now there's over 24 different scents.
You know, and not everybody can carry it, but it's it's very tailor made. Sentiment spa for like a a chewy or an Amazon and select retailers. There's something there in in both assortments and facial washes and sense. But again, it's more of the it's more of a humanized product when you get in the chauffeur. It's all about fun. And when you think
about the pet parent, you know, we all, can all agree, Susie, we can all acknowledge that the first thing people do when they get a uh shampoo is, oh, what's it smell like, you know, and woo, you know, and, uh you know, we're going totally pet. But the other thing we do with this is it's for at home, but it's also for the self washes because a lot of these independent pet retailers, while they may not have pet grooming,
full service pet grooming, have a pet wash. So we're going for scents and colors and kind of breaking all the rules, you know, that, you know, opposite of what we do in professional.
Susy the Groomer Producer (05:28)
How did you choose the surfactant agent? Like does the fact that it's for consumers make different choices for you guys in the formulation?
Dave Campanella (05:39)
Um, yeah, what we were doing, thinking ahead, kind of going a little more of a, uh, the grooming audience might understand something a little more of a true tearless or as more gentle or, you know, type of base. Um, you know, just thinking ahead with retail, uh, you know, the funny thing about
retail is there's a lot of still a lot of fear marketing and a lot of misinformation. Some of the buyers at retail don't know as much as your audience does.
if they have their way, gosh, I hope this doesn't come across a buyer's desk, but but what happens is they're looking for, you know, if they could have something.
picked from trees and stomped on in 100 % natural, which does not exist other than soap, true soap, and that's not a good option in washing pets and in bathing. ah That's what they want. with, uh I'm digressing now, with Shofar, we kind of are playing a fun game. You see a lot of products, and I won't name names, but your audience will immediately think of them.
They'll have a name of their product that suggests it's a rainforest or they'll you go to their website and it looks like the uh produce section for Whole Foods, which has nothing to do with the surfactants that are in shampoos. You know they're playing that game and then they they you know and we're all natural and we're all this and that at one point we weren't even going to put the we were fighting do we even put the ingredients?
on the website, but then I was like, well, we don't have to on the bottle. And then I know in talking with you guys and on you and actually here's an example of you guys wagging the tail, you know, somebody posted something and says, Hey, what about this product? What do we think about ingredients? Which we're not hiding. But then as I was going through the exercise, I'm like, you know what? We need to put the ingredients on the website, you know, because I don't think most pet parents are even going to care, you know, but it's there.
And what happens is in this industry, everything sugar coated. The competitors are all, you know, coconut, all natural coconut derived and earth derived. And you've heard me say it in the past, earth derived, yeah, as opposed to the moon, Mars or Uranus, you know, that was my funny little joke stick. And what we're doing here is we're telling people, chauffeur
Susy the Groomer Producer (08:11)
Yes.
Dave Campanella (08:13)
is made from the best stuff on earth.
That sounds familiar, Susie. That's something you used to say in some of your ads.
But it is. When you think of Tesla and SpaceX
Susy the Groomer Producer (08:24)
Indeed.
Dave Campanella (08:26)
and Neuralink and all these other things, that's made from the best stuff on Earth. So we're playing, we're kind of being the anti-establishment marketing. Everything we say is true. We choose the best botanicals and natural and...
Refined ingredients, if you look in our marketing, we sneak the word refined, which how dare they, but refined doesn't sound horrible. Refined sounds like hoity-toity, you know? So we're, having fun.
Susy the Groomer Producer (08:58)
It's elevated.
Dave Campanella (08:59)
Yeah. We're being truthful in our marketing and we're taking 35 years of doing this. And Susie, we know the fireworks. We know what.
gets the results that everybody likes. But for consumer, back to your point from 10 minutes ago, um as I ramble on, um what we're doing with this is we're focusing in on what the consumer wants. They like the fireworks. They want to see a thick, milky lather. When was the last time you went to a self-serve dog wash and saw one leave completely dry?
You don't, right? They wash the dog. don't want the consumer doesn't want the
Susy the Groomer Producer (09:44)
Yeah, never.
Dave Campanella (09:47)
headache. They want something that smells good, that does a good job. And eventually when they get home and an hour or so
later, when they look at that dog, they're going to say, gosh, that looks really good, better than what I was doing. And that's all we're going for because we figured we have the magic. We just got to get somebody to come in a store and pick it off the shelf.
Which is why you see that fun thing that we do where we. Yeah, go ahead.
Susy the Groomer Producer (10:14)
Is this gonna separate back out? How long do I have to
Dave Campanella (10:17)
Good.
Susy the Groomer Producer (10:17)
leave it sit before it turns two colors again? Will it ever turn
Dave Campanella (10:20)
No, well.
Susy the Groomer Producer (10:21)
two colors again? Because that is such a bizarre draw. I mean, I don't even care. It doesn't make any difference on how the shampoo works, right? I just want it to turn colors again.
Dave Campanella (10:32)
Yeah, that's something there's actually a name
for that and gosh, I forgot what we call that, but that's actually a thing where you pour two different layers and eventually they're going to fuse together. takes about, it can take anywhere between 11 and 15 months for it to merge together. We also know that people are going to look at it and what are they going to do? They're going to shake it up, you know? And it's just like, people look at it and they're like, what did we do?
It's too difficult. Do we use it? Do we shake it up? And we're like, just let it go. Let it go viral. Let people figure out what they want to do. Most people, when they get it home and use it, shake it up really good. But on the shelf, there you see it. It's just like, wow, what is that? And of course, hopefully these things won't be sitting on a shelf for three years. Because then they're just going to blend together eventually.
Susy the Groomer Producer (11:27)
It's very appealing.
Dave Campanella (11:29)
Yeah.
Susy the Groomer Producer (11:30)
Right. It's very appealing when you're
Dave Campanella (11:30)
Yeah, it's very different.
Susy the Groomer Producer (11:32)
looking at it. I like the top of these.
Dave Campanella (11:37)
Mm-hmm.
Susy the Groomer Producer (11:38)
I like the way you've chosen the top. It's very user-friendly for for one use kind of thing. the names of the fragrances.
Dave Campanella (11:48)
yeah, I gotta give a shout out to Mike Gallagher. Cause we've been toying with this for awhile and playing with different things. We actually thought about a conditioner shampoo, actual conditioner shampoo, and it's like that doesn't work. You know where you have part of the conditioner part of it shampoo and it's like you're never going to get to the to the mix. So we took two conditioning shampoo bases.
you know, kind of all in one and they're complimentary and we go complimentary fragrances. And yeah, we're trying to get taken off the shelf. So we want somebody to walk by and go, huh, what is this? And we know that in retail, there's a thing called a one-off where they'll buy it once and it's kind of like screw me once, you know, I ain't buying it again. And then, but we know.
We make a good product. So
Susy the Groomer Producer (12:40)
Right.
Dave Campanella (12:40)
the idea is they're going to get it and they're just going to absolutely love the results. And right now the big thing we're doing is trying to get uh user generated content and self-serve content. And we're building up a library to start pushing that viral thing just to get people to try it and have some fun with it. The pet parents, ah you know, and I don't mean to keep talking, but you know me by now, your audience knows me by now.
But if they had groomers, brought it to All American, we brought it to Groom Expo just because people were seeing it. And a lot of the people, a lot of the groomers work at a pet store that has a self wash or they sell retail. So we're trying to get it out there so we can talk about it and help get the word out. And the whole thing with it is
to get it out there and get people talking about it. It is on Amazon now. You'll see it on Chewy next year. And uh hopefully you'll see it pop up in some regional stores. We're going for that, like I said, that national pet specialty avenue targeting the pet owners and the self washes.
Susy the Groomer Producer (15:09)
I think the names were really creative. Did you guys sit around in a writer's room and come up with these things?
Dave Campanella (15:14)
yeah.
Susy the Groomer Producer (15:14)
It's blueberry marshmallow fizz, peachy clean cherry bubbles, zesty lemon mandarin swirl, and carefree peanut banana tide. I love the names. They're just fun. They're fun.
Dave Campanella (15:27)
Yep, yep.
When we were going for sense, we were going for fun. And because we were combining two complimentary. You end up with a rhythm in a long name, so the trick was that they all had to be about the same syllables when you say them when they roll off the drum carefree. Well, how is that carefree peanut banana tide is the same amount of syllables as peachy clean cherry bubbles, you know, and it just and it just.
Different and it's fun and the whole point of this We're having fun. We want the stores to have fun. We want the people using it to just have fun I mean, you know if if if you're sticking a shampoo is the the botanical in it that you dig out of the earth and some goat eats it and this and that and there's a whole thing nobody cares about that They just want to smell it. They want to have fun
And, and smells and yeah. So to your point, we, just experimented a lot and we, we came across a couple good names that we saw out there that we actually got in sourcing some of them. And then as I was looking at like the, the carefree peanut banana tide, that one I came up with. Um, and then a blueberry marshmallow fizz. added the fizz at the end because I needed a syllable. but there's, you know, swirl tide.
Susy the Groomer Producer (16:54)
Hehehe
Dave Campanella (16:54)
bubbles,
you know, it's just fun. And, uh, and it just, again, it makes you pick it up. and then we did a lot of research and looking at it and it's, making sure everything was consistent. And the whole important thing to the marketing is that everything tracks, you know, when you buy it, you know what you're getting, you're getting something that's fun. You're getting something that's an all in one.
You're getting something that has really good ingredients from a company that's been working with professionals and making quality products for over 35 years. uh We're trying to position it as, hey man, this is a sure thing. Kind of like the old days of tide and ancient Chinese secret. Well, when you buy in chauffeur, you're getting something that's a little better than everything else. So we're kind of putting it all out there.
And seeing how it tracks and how it goes. And
so far the response has been very positive, but these things don't happen overnight. You know, it's all deliberate, a lot of planning and consistent advertising, things like that.
Susy the Groomer Producer (18:03)
I went from a vet groomer to
a mobile groomer with nothing in between. I never worked in a regular retail shop. We had some boarding, we had we did some boarding baths and things like that, but basically veterinary products for retail, but no grooming products for retail. Barbara on the other hand
Had a mixed result with retail in her salon. And how do you sell this to your existing people who might want to put a shelf of shampoo up there without people getting buried in when I got to Barbara's house, thousands of dollars worth of scissor inventory, shampoo inventory, stuff that she never sold, never marketed, never put out there. Some stuff sells itself, but in the case of retail shampoo, retail liquid products, you
Dave Campanella (18:55)
Yeah, and you bring up something that's interesting too. The first thing I heard in my uh busy mind, my busy head, was if you're a grooming salon thinking about retail, it can be done, but I'm convinced not everybody can do it. When my wife and I owned our self wash
Susy the Groomer Producer (19:19)
That's right.
Dave Campanella (19:19)
and
retail,
We build uh a nice little retail area in front of the self wash, which was on one side. And then we had the full service, the original side that we had. um We sold some retail, but we really weren't successful. And the reason why was because we were professional groomers. Some people have a knack for selling. Some people are in a good location. I always marvel.
for one example, the Alexandria, Virginia area. mean, money, you know, and people spend money. I mean, there's some of these dog hotels and things you look at them and it's just like they're spending twice as much than you and I would spend on our own hotel. And they're selling stuff, you know, so there's a lot of variables. um So is this product designed for a groomer's retail? Well, that's not our audience. I guess it could be done.
There might be some groomers in your audience that work for a pet store with a self wash and this could maybe work. But retail, you know, when somebody walks into a true retail pet store, they're going to that pet store to buy supplies. When you walk into the groomer, you're walking in for grooming or if you're walking into the vet, you're walking into the vet. And the same thing with a boarding kennel or daycare.
So any retail is an afterthought or an impulse and you really got to know what you're doing and not everybody's successful. In fact, most places that I see in Kentucky, the boarding kennel I go to, they have a retail section and it's kind of sad. You could probably guess how long the product's been there. So it is a challenge. ah This particular
Susy the Groomer Producer (21:03)
Yep.
Dave Campanella (21:04)
product, so your audience knows, and I'm not here trying to plead to get groomers to bring this in and retail it.
Some may be successful at it, some may not. This is targeted for a retail store. And if you're in the retail business, that's where your head is because you live and breathe based on that clientele and the people coming in. that's kind of the best way I can answer that question.
Susy the Groomer Producer (21:35)
it's often advantageous to have
a little bit of retail, like a shampoo product that you trust that you can sell to people when they're asking about it or something that actually comes up in a common conversation. Ear cleaner is another one. You could carry the one of the ear cleaners, you could have a detangler spray, you could have a fragrance spray and possibly a shampoo. But
That's taking up space. You have to keep it clean. You have to be able to sell it. If you don't believe in it, you can't sell it. But what I love to do personally is to refer my clients to a particular product. So I can say, Hey, go on Chewy or go to Amazon.
Dave Campanella (22:17)
Mm-hmm.
Susy the Groomer Producer (22:18)
Best Shot has this product. If you take this one, you'll be supported by a really good company, a company that I use their products here in my professional shop. And I like to have that.
kind of an option for my people because it is about convenience for them.
But I think it's great to have the opportunity
to say, hey, this company, these are the products in my salon. This is a consumer-friendly
Dave Campanella (22:42)
So.
Susy the Groomer Producer (22:43)
product. You'll love the way it smells. I know it's safe for your pets. I know that you probably can't f it up. So yeah.
Dave Campanella (22:51)
Yeah.
Susy the Groomer Producer (22:52)
That's what I was thinking where it would
really be a great asset to us. So what would what
would be your ideal client then? Is your
Dave Campanella (23:02)
The target is the pet owner and there's a lot of confusion. My theory, what I'm banking on is there's a lot of people that they buy what the vet tells them or they went to the store and they buy what's on the shelf. They weren't happy with the results and they bounced around. They maybe go to Amazon, they maybe go to whatever and they haven't settled on anything because my personal opinion is most of the marketing on pet shampoo to retail.
is either, you know, buy this product and so much percentage goes to help, you know, super buddy, you know, rescue organization. There's a lot of that and people get tired of it. You
Susy the Groomer Producer (23:44)
There is a lot of that. Yep.
Dave Campanella (23:48)
know, I mean, I mean, who doesn't want to help the puppies, right? But for a shampoo, it's just like, give me a break. I'm one of those guys when I go through the drive through and they're trying to bump me up. I sound so terrible. No, thanks. If they ask me if I'll donate the,
babies who are being tortured by people right at this very moment. And I'm like, no, thanks. You know, you feel guilty, it's, it's like a fear marketing thing. And then, you got these other products that, without getting in trouble, if I've said this before, so we'll see how good your audience is. If the scientific.
claims are being outpaced by the marketing. You know it's bullshit. So there's a lot of that out there. And then you got a lot of stuff that just blatant
watered down. Tell them what they want to hear. And that goes back to, I think, from COVID and... um
I don't know, I gotta be really careful. um There were
Susy the Groomer Producer (24:44)
Mm-hmm.
Dave Campanella (24:45)
narratives out there, know, everybody was just so out to save the planet. And when it comes to Pet Shampoo, um in this person's opinion, don't hold my word at it. You be the judge, you know? But I personally feel there was a lot of blatant lying on the label just to get a sale. You know, they're playing up to save the planet and everything like that.
And people are tired of it, you know, so anyway, I digress.
Susy the Groomer Producer (25:12)
Well, not to not to shit on
anyone's point, but Barbara just came across an ingredient that was a supposedly a claims ingredient on a shampoo product. No, on a on a spray on product.
Dave Campanella (25:26)
Mm-hmm.
Susy the Groomer Producer (25:26)
The ingredient they're claiming that is the effective part isn't even on their label. They've got this story made up about this ingredient that they're not even including in their lay in their product. Or if they're including
Dave Campanella (25:39)
Well.
Susy the Groomer Producer (25:40)
it, it's certainly not on the label.
Dave Campanella (25:42)
Yeah,
and what's interesting is you see a lot of laziness and marketing and assumptions. uh if one was a true manufacturer of the product,
think you would see the, I could be wrong, I don't know who this is and I don't wanna know, uh at the risk that they got lawyers with deep pockets that are deeper than mine. But uh you know.
Susy the Groomer Producer (26:07)
Indeed. Mm-hmm.
Dave Campanella (26:10)
But you know, the thing of it is, I think sometimes when you see things like that happen, I think it's being, the product's being made for somebody and somebody's trying to sell something. Whereas if you're a manufacturer, the manufacturer should at least have the integrity to try to put the information out there and keep the claims in line. So when I make a claim, something, I've made, Best Shots made some pretty funky claims over the years.
For our max detangler, we call it a miracle detangler.
Miracle is a subjective term,
Susy the Groomer Producer (26:42)
Well it is.
Dave Campanella (26:42)
but most people who use that will say hell yeah. So that's kind of having fun with it. So I'll push that claim because I can back it up,
Susy the Groomer Producer (26:49)
Yeah, held to the air, yes.
Dave Campanella (26:53)
if you're buying the product to wash a dog or for it to smell pretty, why are you talking about XYZ? That's not what the customer is looking for. If it's a veterinarian product.
the person's buying what they were recommended or referred to use specifically. You know, it's different things. So you see a lot of lazy marketing still out there. Unfortunately, there's a ton of lazy marketing and a lot of bandwagon marketing, cruelty free, silicone free, um sulfate free. um Gosh, there's so many frees you think it was free. You know, they're giving it away for, you know what I'm saying. And you see a ton of that. So.
Susy the Groomer Producer (27:33)
Yes.
Dave Campanella (27:35)
And then everybody, you know, they make the claim
and they assume that, oh, well, this is better or there's something wrong with all these other products. If in marketing your product, you're telling everybody what it's not.
then you're diverting attention away from your product. Tell them what it is. Shofar, by the way, looping back in, we're all about fun. That's
all we're trying to do. Good, clean, fun. You know, so.
Susy the Groomer Producer (28:04)
When you're talking about a pet parent, as you say, or a a customer at a retail store
what pet problem are you trying to solve? I mean, w when you're talking as a groomer in a professional product, we're looking for a specific finish, we're looking for a quality of the coat afterwards, we're looking for ease of rinsing, we're looking for different
Dave Campanella (28:23)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Susy the Groomer Producer (28:25)
things than a pet parent may wear. What did you adjust to make it for the person who's bathing their dog at home or the self wash?
Dave Campanella (28:33)
Thank you. When you look at pet retail, I've listened to a lot of buyers and I look at how they market in the old days. You you had puppy, you had anti itch, you had shedding, you had flea, had, they had these categories. But when you break it down, it's all about pain. My dog's itchy. Make it stop. My dog has fleas. Make it stop. My dog stinks. Please make it stop. My dog is shedding. Please make it stop.
Okay, um so with chauffeur, the first thing is fun. The second thing is to self wash. But then when you deep dive it and if you were to go and look at some of the Amazon advertising that we're doing, think we've got a pretty good, we're testing a lot of things on Amazon, getting a lot of good reviews. Some of it's paid reviews or not paid reviews, know, people trying to stuff, um but good organic reviews.
And they're even saying, boy, this helps with shedding. And of course, if you've listened to my discussions about close, further close, fully close, you know, it's all about method. Close, close, close, or close,
Susy the Groomer Producer (29:43)
Close, close, and close. Yeah.
Dave Campanella (29:46)
open, close, whatever. But the bottom line is if you're de-shedding a dog, you want to close the cuticles. um And to a pet parents, that's a miracle when they see that happen.
If they were buying some brand name that's just looking for price, there's a lot of $9 shampoo out there. You get what you pay for. There's not a lot in it. Well, they'll use it. It smells pretty. Scent doesn't last. They wash the dog. And then, you know, the next day, a week later, eh, doesn't, you know, doesn't look good. It's not exciting. Or the dog's back to itching or shedding or whatever. You know, so we're targeting that.
that customer, we know that the majority of pets shed. We know that people have had itchy dog syndrome, you know, from washing with shampoos. We know if we're using conditioning and things like that, our products are going to be more friendly, easier to rinse. They're going to help with the shedding. You know, a lot of these benefits they're going to see on the back end ah to exceed their expectation because they were buying it because
Wow, that looks different. Smells wonderful. They use it. It lathers really nice. And then they rinse it out. And then when the dog's finished or eventually dry, if it's a pet parent, they don't have a dryer like you and me, Susie, in most cases, or the patients at the self wash to totally
Susy the Groomer Producer (31:15)
True.
Dave Campanella (31:16)
blow it dry. But once it is finished, they're like, ah. So we're targeting this the general category and hoping that people see all the added benefits of the product.
So I guess you could just say we're targeting general purpose and shedding because you've heard me say there's no such thing as a shedding shampoo. It's all method and technique. The right shampoos are gonna help.
Susy the Groomer Producer (31:42)
Right.
Dave Campanella (31:43)
Heck, if your dog shedding and you're a pet parent who never bathes your dog, if you take it to the self wash, you're gonna benefit the dog because that's gonna help with shedding. Kinda like duh, this is stuff that professionals know, but
Susy the Groomer Producer (31:52)
Yeah. Definitely.
Dave Campanella (31:55)
the general public doesn't know. So we're kinda...
We're kind of giving them a Tesla, know, mean, you know, take this for a spin, you know, and they're like, wow, this is really great. Look what it does. That's that's the marketing. That's the genius behind the product.
Susy the Groomer Producer (32:10)
Yeah.
Dave Campanella (32:10)
It's good. It's not a one off. we're just having a lot of fun doing it while everybody else is saying, look at this ingredient. Look what we do for the skin biome. Oops. Look what we do here. You know, look at our name, you know, and then use it and they're disappointed.
because it didn't do anything.
Susy the Groomer Producer (32:28)
And I think in this bottle with the pretty colors, it is the shampoo that's doing the selling because there's not a lot of words on there. Just a little bit of words, but
Dave Campanella (32:36)
Nope, that was by design.
Susy the Groomer Producer (32:38)
a lot of visual.
Dave Campanella (32:40)
A lot of visual and getting people to go to the website. And what do you notice on that bottle too is, uh do you see the word best shot on that bottle anywhere?
Susy the Groomer Producer (32:50)
I do not. Well
Dave Campanella (32:51)
Yeah, they they you
know they have chauffeur pet. And it takes him to the best shot warehouse, but we're not trying to undermine weren't
Susy the Groomer Producer (33:00)
Yeah, nope.
Dave Campanella (33:02)
were were sticking in our lane on this as a retail product. We're making sure there's no confusion with what we do for professionals and Ultramax and even the other brands like one shot or sentiment spa. This is something different and there is a plan.
Probably by spring, you'll see some colognes, not some coat mists like the body sprays, but actual cologne, you know, that match, that complement uh each of those four products. And then down the road, I'm kind of getting ahead of myself. If the self wash thing takes off like I think it will once it gets some legs and by taking off, it may take 18 months, it may take 24 months, you know?
but there's a lot of self washes out there. ah
Susy the Groomer Producer (33:51)
Mm-hmm.
Dave Campanella (33:52)
Once that happens, you'll see this available in some bulk sizes, you know, and if a groomer wants to have some fun with it. But what I'm waiting for is, but Dave, I went to one of your seminars at GroomExpo and you said that if you're looking for results, you should have a separate shampoo, conditioner and spray for better results. And my response,
would be you're a professional, you have a forest dryer. If you're operating along that principle and method, you're going to save time, you're going to get things done more efficient. The consumer.
They don't have the patience, they don't have the skill set, nothing against them. may, but most don't. And good luck trying to market something professional
to the general public. That can be a nightmare, in my opinion. Case in point would be Ferminator.
Susy the Groomer Producer (34:53)
right. That's a good one.
So my experience was I used it on a couple dogs yesterday and one dog the day before. I have not used it on myself. That's coming up because I always test everything on myself. I have a recirculating bathing system, as everyone knows. I used it in the recirculator. It did not choke my pump with f foam. So I was happy about that. I thought, well, the first time it I I had an I Love Lucy moment where I had a lot of foam, but I had put too much shampoo in there for what I needed.
Needed and mostly because of the way my tub was tipped on that particular stop. But when I used it yesterday, I didn't find it to be excessively foamy. I found that it infused my van with the lovely scent of the shampoo, which in reality
Dave Campanella (35:43)
you
Susy the Groomer Producer (35:45)
for me, I want the dog to be clean. I don't know how much scent is gonna stay on there. It is entirely for my benefit that this thing smells like cherry or whatever or pina color.
uh I've
Dave Campanella (35:56)
Yeah, totally different target.
I was going to say, what's amazing
Susy the Groomer Producer (36:04)
I loved it.
Dave Campanella (36:05)
is you're a professional. You know you don't need a lot of shampoo. The consumer isn't working with the research. They'll put it in their hand, they'll work it in and they'll get it lathered up, really thick lather.
quarter of what that consumer's using you can put it in a racer do it and How is the finish left behind on the dog? When you when you used it?
Susy the Groomer Producer (36:30)
Loved it. It was great. Totally a best shot finish. I mean, it obviously had all of the best stuff on earth in it because it worked like the other shampoos did. I was expecting.
like it might not have cleaned but using a recirculator it just did as any other shampoo did. It was great. I um found it to leave the hair nice nicely slick and straightened just fine and um I like the fragrances. So the fact that you're gonna make doggy perfume um not doggy perfume, hair perfume. 'Cause now Amazon keeps sending me hair perfume because I
Dave Campanella (37:06)
Hahaha.
Susy the Groomer Producer (37:07)
was like, hair perfume, what's that? And then I realized it's just dog cologne. But
Needless to say, I look forward to trying all that stuff out. I personally
Dave Campanella (37:15)
Yeah.
Susy the Groomer Producer (37:16)
really appreciate that this is a t kind of a two-in-one, that there are conditioning ingredients in here and it's formulated so that the pet parent doesn't have to do a conditioner following. I also appreciate that it does not say to wash twice.
I did think it was interesting that you had a little five minute three to five minute thing on there, but I think that's just to move the surfactant through this the hair coat, I'm assuming. But yeah, I like it. It's a good product.
Dave Campanella (37:43)
Well, that
was uh in kind of focus grouping and putting things out there. You get people who have this thing that if I let the shampoo sit on the dog for 30 minutes, hey, see, we were talking before the show. I have a ghost in my house. But anyway,
Susy the Groomer Producer (38:01)
It's crazy.
Dave Campanella (38:04)
my stuff is falling off. But anyway.
The day my guitars fall from the opposite wall, then I'm going to have a really fit and then I get an exorcist in here. But anyway, let me get back on here. um But yeah, we're, you know,
Susy the Groomer Producer (38:18)
Definitely.
Dave Campanella (38:19)
you know,
the whole thing with the, with the pet parent is to keep it simple to a professional because there was a period in time where a lot of retail products were crossing over.
There was a point, believe it or not, where there were not a lot of professional products for groomers. So you had a lot of product coming in from retail. And two in one is nothing new. But what it does is then you get this mindset oh amongst some business owners of, want to save money. It's the same thing as like, we don't condition dogs because conditioners are too heavy and we want to save money.
Well, conditioners have changed. We want a two-in-one shampoo because that'll save us on a step. Well, we know by science that if you break down the methods as a professional, you could probably get the dog done more efficiently and fast. We know that there's going to be some people, we are going to get a certain percentage, not our target. But as this thing grows, we know we're going to get some professional groomers that are going to use it. They love the smell. They're going to fall in love with it.
They've got good methods. They're not going to waste it just like you didn't waste it with your research and they'll buy it. That's great. Not our target though. But who are we to say no? What are we going to say? No, you can't do that. We're to be like, sure, whatever.
Susy the Groomer Producer (39:46)
You can't
smell that way. That's not okay.
Dave Campanella (39:50)
That's not okay.
it's fun to talk about this and, and, and, and just, you know, share what we're doing. We're not, I suppose there might be one or two people behind there and that'll, that'll say, you know, what's Bush out doing? they don't want us to come out with a retail line. Well, we're not selling that to you. We're, we've already been doing retail line and we private label and we're a manufacturer. So we're looking at what do we do to keep, you know, keep ourselves growing?
The other thing is if your audiences get online and look at the ingredients on that product, you know, there's a particular ingredient that I'm sure Barbara saw in the surfactants that we're bringing in and we're testing in this line that makes it a little milder. If this thing gets some legs, we'll probably roll that out into some of our other products, you know, just economies of scale, you know, just to conceptually looking forward at a more milder.
you know, product possibly overall. So there's benefits, you know, when you do something like this. And, but most importantly, we're a business and we have an obligation to our employees to give them stability. And we just want to keep busy, keep, we don't want downtime, man. We want to keep making stuff, you know, and have people calling in. We don't want to have people say, nothing, nothing to do today. Head back home. That doesn't happen. But you know what I'm trying to say is,
We're looking for our future and just to keep ourselves growing and staying relevant. And this industry has been pretty boring at retail for a number of years. There's an opportunity to bring back some fun and hopefully bring back the truth. ah I think in some weird way, if you guys know me, I'm kind of trying to shake things up. One of the logos in some of our retail ads.
to the buyers is shake up your department, shake things up. And that's what we're trying to do here is the first question we get is it all natural? And I'm like, hell no. But it's made from the best stuff on earth. And that opens it up for me to give them truth and I can show them what it is and people are gonna use it. And hopefully within a year, you'll see a lot of good. ah
The goal is TikTok and Instagram user generated, you know, content of people just having fun with their animals. And that's what's going to help sell this product. So, but it takes time. It doesn't happen overnight. And that's another thing to share with your audience is boy, what a whole different animal. You know, it's not the same. Actually selling professionals
is a harder gig because, you know, you guys are building your livelihood on this. You don't want itchy dogs. You want to see results. You want performance, you know. And I think over the years, the point was let's make something cheap so we can make a lot of money and sell it to the consumer. And that's not fair to them. I don't think people look at the consumer market right.
You know, anyway.
Susy the Groomer Producer (43:29)
Cool. Well, I'm pretty happy with all of this. I wanna I did want to cover something that we talked about last week on the show, and that
Dave Campanella (43:37)
Okay.
Susy the Groomer Producer (43:38)
is in a recirculating bathing system when you're finished with the bath and you wanna do a conditioner run through the recirculator, how much of the suds do you actually have to get out of the bottom of the tub? This was something that
Barbara was like, you need to get all those suds out. And I went, well, wait a minute. How much surfactant is actually left in what the foam is? So I looked it up and did a little research, and there is very little active surfactant that is left in the foam. Just a little bit of active surfactant. Most of the surfactant that is left in the foam is holding on to a piece of dirt already. And most of foam is air. So
Don't you don't have to like grab a bottle of fabric softener and spray your tub down or in my case lift my grate up so I can get underneath it and make sure that all of those suds are gone. It's mostly foam and used up surfactant with a little dirt attached to it. It's not going to really mess with your conditioning treatment. What do you think, Dave?
Dave Campanella (44:44)
There's some truth to that, however.
Better to err on the side of caution. Particularly, I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying, but if you're a groomer and you have 12 groomers working for you, or a multi-chain, and you do, like my wife, she's semi-retired, she'll do maybe four dogs three, four days a week, just to keep her chaps at it. And then there's people who do...
12 a day just themselves. Okay. So my point would be, you know, try to rinse, but if you, if there's a little bit in there, you know, if, you're doing a mindful job of just trying to rinse it out, don't be concerned about a little bit. But if you're one of these people that, I'll leave a little bit, there are some folks that'll be like, ah, I won't even rinse it out. I'll just go right to the conditioner. I wouldn't recommend that.
ah The likelihood is low, like you said, but
in a chain, err on the side of caution, just because there's a lot at stake for the folks doing lots of animals. Does that make sense?
Susy the Groomer Producer (45:53)
Yes, absolutely. I've got a basket strainer now. I used to have a three inch pipe and I just unplug it and everything would go whoosh and I never had to deal with a sud or a foam or a bubble or anything like that.
Now in my wagon tails, it's got a basket strainer and a uh and a grate. So the foam gets stuck under the grate and the foam gets stuck in the basket strainer.
Dave Campanella (46:17)
Yeah.
Susy the Groomer Producer (46:17)
And if I have to use a bunch of water to wash it away, it is not efficient for me. So I wash as much as I can while I'm rinsing the dog off. So I've emptied the tub, I'm rinsing the dog. More water is flushing as much as it breaking apart the foam as it can, then I'm shut.
Cutting the tub off, filling it, putting the conditioner on, and doing it that way. I felt like my
dog was conditioned just fine.
Dave Campanella (46:44)
Yeah,
and some tricks to keep in mind too, if you're having a such problem. If you're doing a conditioned shampoo condition or close, further close, fully close, which is essentially conditioning shampoo, conditioner, conditioner, like with a spray. ah
That's gonna help, that should help desuds. If you're using conditioners and you're still getting a lot of suds from the conditioners, you're using too much conditioner and that's an opportunity to scale back. in every one of these new trends, which I agree with, you know, the close open close and then, you know, and what we've always done, you know, you're using conditioners. And if you're finishing off with a conditioner, that conditioners kind of like a
In fact, we'll take one of the ingredients that's in our sprays or finishing sprays and we set it aside in a bottle and if we need it as a defoamer in production, that's what we'll use. So yeah, can, so there's truth to what you're saying. And I'm not,
Susy the Groomer Producer (47:58)
Okay.
Dave Campanella (48:00)
but it's.
It's just not black and white, but I don't think it's as big of a concern as some would say.
You have to look at the context. If you're a mobile groomer, that's different.
Susy the Groomer Producer (48:10)
I
right. And I would say that leaving a bathtub full of shampoo and adding conditioner in, that's a no go for me. But if I'm emptying everything out I can and what's
Dave Campanella (48:20)
You're pouring money down to drain.
Susy the Groomer Producer (48:22)
left is some foam with some exactly. Exactly. All right, cool. Well thank you, Dave, for being here as always, and we so so appreciate you.
Dave Campanella (48:27)
I didn't mean to. Well, yeah. Well, yeah, this was fun. And I want to encourage
your viewers to share some feedback. This was different. thought, you know, we were talking about this and it's just like, hey, people are starting to see it. Let's tell them what we're doing and get their feedback. you know, we're happy to hear your feedback, good, bad or indifferent. And hopefully this was kind of a fun discussion for everybody.
something different.
Susy the Groomer Producer (48:57)
I I definitely learned some stuff. So all right.
Dave Campanella (49:00)
Good.
Susy the Groomer Producer (49:01)
Well, thank you for supporting us. Thank you for going to the website and clicking on that donation button or joining us on Patreon. Importantly, thank you for supporting our sponsors because they make it possible for us to do all of this good work. And happy grooming, everyone. See you next time on the groom pod. Thanks, Dave.
Dave Campanella (49:18)
Thank you. See you later. See you next time, Barb.