Starting as an online business offering personalized dog bowls, the pet care brand now has physical stores as well as more products in its lineup. 

An informal survey conducted by communications consultancy Vero showed that 48% of survey respondents said that they spend from PHP 1,000 to PHP 5,000 monthly on the health and welfare of their pets. Some respondents even spend as much as PHP 15,000 monthly on pet care.

A huge majority, 82%, of respondents said that food quality and dietary needs are the top priorities when it comes to their pet budget priorities. Other priorities for pet owners are as follows:

• Veterinary care
• Grooming
• Pet insurance
• Training classes
• Accessories and toys 

These numbers show that pet owners are very much willing to spend on their pets, especially when it ensures their overall wellbeing. Given that there is a demand for pet care products on the market, entrepreneurs have launched businesses that aim to answer the need. 

One such business is Ollie Bowls. Launched in May 2021 by owner Izzy Concepcion, Ollie Bowls has been known for offering customizable dog bowls that come in many colors and sizes.

In the years since the brand’s launch, it has expanded to include other pet care products under the Ollie brand, as well as products from other businesses as well. Ollie Bowls now has physical stores as well as an online shop. 

So what caused the brand to pivot its strategy through the years?  

Seeing the Demand for Quality Dog Bowls 

For Concepcion, entrepreneurship has always been in her blood. Coming from a long line of entrepreneurs, building a business came naturally for her, and it was not something she deliberately set out to do. In fact, she ran her own cupcake business for two years at just 14 years old. 

In October 2020, she became the owner of a golden retriever she named Ollie. 

“I became completely obsessed with him and immersed myself in learning everything about caring for a pet, buying all the essentials, and more,” she told The Business Manual in an interview. “As a new pet parent, I wanted to give Ollie the best of everything, from chews to toys.”

That, however, became a challenge when she noticed a lack of variety in the market for dog bowls. According to Concepcion, Ollie was a fast eater, which meant his bowl would slide around and spill kibble and water everywhere. 

“I noticed that there wasn’t much variety in the market – or that those available were the basic bowls,” she pointed out. “They didn’t match the other cute pet items that I was buying for him.” 

Seeing the gap in the market, Concepcion decided to develop a brand that produces the type of dog bowls she needed instead. Her goal was to provide high quality, cute, and customizable bowls for other pet owners like her. 

“At first, I was hesitant to turn my idea into a business, worried about whether people would actually invest in a dog bowl,” she said. “But I realized that there is a market of people who are as significantly obsessed with their dogs as I am and would want to invest in good-quality products for them.”

Motivated to push through with her business, Concepcion launched Ollie Bowls. 

Adding More Pet Care Products to the Brand 

Initially, Ollie Bowls began as an online shop offering customizable dog bowls in different colors, just as Concepcion had wanted. Her bowls soon appeared in photos on different social media accounts devoted to pets, filled with kibble and treats. 

The Ollie brand eventually expanded to include other pet care products such as mats, slow feeders, and our pet-friendly dishwashing liquid, Ollie Bubbles. For Concepcion, she wanted the additions to her product lineup to be those that complemented her initial product perfectly.

“The expansion of our product lineup happened quite naturally,” she said. “From there, we decided to create our own ‘Ollie’ versions of popular pet items like balls, collars, and leashes for the same reasons we started Ollie Bowls in the first place: to offer high-quality, aesthetically pleasing products that bring joy to both pets and their owners.”

“When people see the Ollie brand, they know the product will resonate with that vision,” she added. At present, products like Ollie Balls and Ollie Walkies have been added to the brand. 

“For example, we created Ollie Balls because Ollie loves to fetch, but I noticed that most balls on the market were the basic fluorescent green tennis balls. So, I thought, why not make them colorful and cute like our bowls?” Concepcion explained. “For Ollie Walkies, we wanted to capture the excitement and joy that dogs feel when they’re about to go out for a walk. And, of course, in true Ollie Bowls fashion, we offered them in adorable colors.”

Expanding her product line might have taken time and a lot of careful thought, but Concepcion believes that adding products has been “a positive step” for the business. 

“It allows us to cater to more dogs and meet a wider range of needs,” she shared. “By offering more than just bowls, we’ve been able to attract new customers and keep existing ones engaged with our brand.”

Stepping Outside the Ollie Brand 

In addition to products under the Ollie brand, Concepcion’s partnership with other businesses has allowed them to sell their products on her platform. It has become a goal for the business “to bring our favorite trusted products from international brands to the Philippines, making them more accessible to pet owners here,” according to her. 

“We carry brands that align with our ethos of high quality and aesthetics, and that share our love for dogs,” she explained. “Many of these companies were inspired by their own pets, just like Ollie inspired us.”

For Concepcion, pivoting and taking on this approach has allowed her product lineup to expand yet again. As a result, customers now have more products to choose from when they shop for pet care products. 

Opening Physical Stores

Ollie Bowls may have started as an online brand, and it continues to maintain its presence on the internet through its official website and social media pages. However, for Concepcion, choosing whether or not to limit her business to the online space eventually became another pivot in her strategy as she eventually decided to open physical stores.

“The decision to open physical stores came in response to changing trends as the economy reopened and people began to go out more,” she said. “For me, it was an opportunity to connect with our customers, who mainly know us online.” 

Opening physical stores has had a positive impact on the business as it allows customers to experience our products in person, which she believes is important to them. 

“More importantly, I wanted to offer a tangible interaction with the brand that goes beyond what they see on social media,” she said. 

Pivoting at the Right Time 

Pivoting or changing strategies is important for businesses to stay competitive and profitable. However, for Concepcion, there is no set timeline for when businesses should pivot because the right time can vary. 

“For a brand like Ollie Bowls, it often comes down to spotting shifts in what customers want or changes in the market. In our case, we started during the pandemic,” she pointed out. “The external environment was very different then—the ways customers would shop, what they would spend for etc. We were very focused on just bowls and selling online.”

As for when she decided to change her strategies, she said, “We decided to pivot once we saw a change in consumer behavior with shopping and changes in what customers were buying for their pets.”

There are signs that can point you toward the right direction when it comes to pivoting your strategy. These signs include a change in customer needs, the presence of new opportunities, and the realization that your current strategy isn’t delivering the results that you want. For Concepcion, these signs may point to a need to change strategy. 

“You always need to review, evaluate, and be ready to adapt when they come up,” she said. 

Learning from Ollie Bowls 

When pivoting strategies for a business, Ollie Bowls’ story shows how crucial it is to pay attention to changing trends as well as customer needs and behavior. These can help you decide what needs to be added, removed, or even modified in the business. 

In Ollie Bowls’ case, paying attention to customer needs allowed Concepcion to determine what products to add to her lineup. Paying attention to changing trends in pet care, on the other hand, led her to open physical stores in order to provide a more tangible experience for her customers. 

It is also crucial to always regularly review and evaluate your performance in order to get a better and clearer perspective on how the business is really doing. Pivoting strategies will not always be a smooth experience as strategies may either work or fail. When growth pains and learning curves happen, these should be taken as lessons that will help further the growth of the business.