Podcast

🎙 Podcast: Cats Need Better PR with Erin Simpson of Wild Cat

Haley Young

12 Oct

2024

Episode #13: Why Cats Need Better PR with Erin Simpson of Wild Cat

Erin Simpson is a self-taught designer who started her journey in marketing and PR. But if you asked her to describe herself today, she would use two words: “cat person.”

As the founder of Wild Cat, Erin creates feline furniture and accessories that cats would design for themselves. How did she go from PR at start-ups to creating our favorite cat products of all time? In this episode, we chat about:

Erin’s cat-loving origin story
The importance of curating your cat’s environment to encourage positive behavior
How Erin turned DIY cat products into a full-blown business
The inspiration behind Wild Cat’s instantly recognizable branding
Advice for pet brands on how to improve your PR
And more!

Tune in for a dose of Big Cat Energy. Then join the Juniper Community to meet more pet parents like you!

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Stream The Podcast Here:

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Highlights from the episode:

8:38 — Cats have a PR problem — Cats have a PR problem in a lot of ways, you know, and I'm a PR person. So these are things that I'm constantly thinking about. The perception is that cat people are so weird and offbeat or especially the the stereotypes tied to women where it's like you're the the crazy spinster that's gonna end up with like 1,000 cats. I'm like, that's like my dream.
10:16 — The magic of bonding with another species — I've always just felt a very deep connection to cats and and a reverence, a fascination where you're like, they're just the coolest creatures ever to me. They have this magic. And so when they they choose you, you know, as these, wild things that live in our house with us, I mean, that's the greatest thing. And honestly I believe that we can form such a deep, meaningful connection with cats.
16:51 — Environment impacts on cat behavior — I think if I was the PR person hired by the cat species, you know, it's like my humble honor for them. [I want to] help people understand: Like, we're not like mad at a squirrel for not being a bird. We can't be mad at cats for behaving like cats and doing the things cats do and reacting to their environment. And so just understanding how much the things in their day to day—their routines and their territory—they are such creatures of habit and and their physical surroundings are so critical to their well-being. That was the moment where I was like, okay, I have to do this because it's not just about having something prettier than what's out there. I can make things that are designed for cat behavior and to maybe solve for some of these things before they become a problem.
36:19 — Pet brand PR — People don't realize that a lot of these journalists, they love to hear from founders themselves. They love to hear from the person that's the voice of the brand, that's the direct source of this information. You are the expert. You are that trusted source. So they're not having to hear from an intermediary. There might be a PR person who maybe has a relationship, so the person's more likely to respond to their email. But at the end of the day, they're looking for something that's really interesting and relevant. So if you have that and if you do the homework to find the right people, you know, that's that's half the battle can be kind of figuring out who your story is gonna resonate with. But we're having to do that anyway, whether you're trying to find the right way to speak to your customers or to potential brand partners. It's it's really not that different, but I think that a lot of people because it's not so openly talked about, they think that PR has to kinda go through this PR ish process, but you can just do that yourself.

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