What My Dogs' DNA Can Teach Us About Branding

My husband and I have two sweet rescue pups—Georgia (12), who's been with us for nine years, and Snoop (9), who's been with us for two years. For literal years, we've pondered their existence.

How did you get so beautiful?

Why are you so sweet?

Are you sure you aren't part muppet?

And finally, it dawned on me—I should get their DNA tested to find the answers to these questions! After six months of various DNA tests sitting in my shopping cart, my in-laws gifted me two Widom Panel™ Essential tests for Christmas. It was the final gift I opened on Christmas morning, and you would have thought I won the lottery. When we came home after a weekend celebrating the holidays, the first thing I did was register the tests with Wisdom Panel™ and drop two DNA samples in the mail.

The results amazed me! But what amazed me more was how much I learned from Wisdom Panel™ about branding and customer experience.

Is this post an excuse to share my dog's DNA with you? Absolutely.

Is this post also a lesson in branding and what makes a brand "stick?" Yes!

Both can be true!

This may surprise you, but I know very little about DNA and genetics. And I know I'm not the only one. When I sent my dog's DNA results to my family, there were many questions: Can DNA tell you your dog's age? What's considered a close sibling? I couldn't answer any of these questions, but Wisdom Panel™ could.

The company takes complex information and distills it into bite-sized bits I can understand. They meet me where I am (the basement level of Genetics 101) and give me everything I need to know—and nothing I don't. Because they gave me my dog's entire family tree, I can conclude the folks at Wisdom Panel™ are subject-matter experts. But they don't make me feel like I need a Ph.D. in molecular genetics (shout out to my sister, Liz, who has one of those) to understand that my dog is mostly Bichon Frise and Shih Tzu, which means his parents were likely a Bichon Frise Shih Tzu Mix and a Bichon Frise.

Rather than telling me the complex, detailed process they used to get to these results, they give it to me plain and simple: Here's what Snoop's family may have looked like.

Rather than telling me about all 78 chromosomes (I Googled that number, don't fact check me!) in Snoop's little 13-pound body, they simply tell me, "We found 3 special coat color variants in Snoop's DNA."

If I want to learn about those special variants or the actual process of getting Snoop's DNA, Wisdom Panel™ makes those resources accessible and easy to read, but they're not necessary for me to understand that my dog is 100% good boy (maybe closer to 75%...).

You probably know a lot about the work you do and the brand you're building. And no one will ever know as much about your business as you do—and you need to come to terms with that. So meet your audience where they are and speak to them in words they understand. Sometimes that means giving varying degrees of content that don't isolate any particular audience. Break complex ideas into simple, key takeaways for everyday consumers ("We detected 7 breeds in Snoop's DNA.") and expand upon those concepts for your technical peers in the form of white papers and essays ("BCSYS: An Accurate and Scalable Local Ancestry Classifier"). 

To know how to speak to your audience, you have to know who they are. Understand where they are in their journey to finding the solution to their problem and slow down to ask yourself, "I understand this, but does my audience?"

Don't get me wrong, when I sent their DNA away with USPS, I was excited to get Georgia and Snoop's results. But when I found out that Wisdom Panel™ would connect Snoop and Georgia to their relatives, I was ecstatic! I've always thought Georgia probably has children out there, considering she wasn't spayed at age three when we adopted here, and I assumed Snoop has lots of adorable fluffy siblings roaming the Southeast.

It turns out, I may have been correct in my assumptions. While I'm guessing not every one of their relatives has taken a DNA sample with Wisdom Panel™, 7 of Snoop's extended relatives and 1 of Georgia's close relatives have!

If there's one thing Wisdom Panel™ got right, it's assuming that dog people love other people's dogs as much as they love their own. And they've built a community of dogs and their humans to facilitate connection. And while you can choose to reach out to a close family member's pawrent (see what I did there?), sometimes just knowing there's a bigger picture out there is all you need to get the warm fuzzies from a community.

Humans are inherently social creatures and we're all craving some form of connection. Building this connection in your brand doesn't have to mean building a huge network of dog lovers nationwide. It can be as simple as spotlighting user testimony, sharing user-generated content, or showcasing reviews of your product. On a larger scale, it can mean building membership features that allow your customers to connect or hosting in-person events for super fans.

Approximately two weeks after I shipped Georgia and Snoop's DNA away for analysis, I got exciting news...

🐕 Snoop's DNA results are in! 🎉

I yelped and ran to find my husband so we could project the results on our television. Our family (me, my husband, and our pups) gathered around and made a big show of revealing the results. We drum rolled, we read, and we gave lots of belly rubs. Learning our Sour Patch Kid of a dog (he's sweet and sour!) was not a wiener dog bichon as we'd guessed, but a Bichon Frise and Shih Tzu was shocking (that's a little dramatic, but we're a dramatic bunch over here).

And a few days later...

🐕 Georgia's DNA results are in! 🎉

When we found out Georgia was 100% Mini Schnauzer, you would have thought we just watched a Maury Povich paternity reveal.

We gasped and my eyes watered as I looked at my sweet Georgia girl and gave her a big hug.

Now, I'm guessing that Wisdom Panel™ delivers hundreds, if not thousands of these emails every day. For them, it's another automation, another day at the office. But for their customers, it's a big deal! Their long-lingering questions about their rescue pup are answered and it makes you fall in love with your pooch even more. Their simple subject line and empathetic language that speaks to me as a dog person who did, in fact, cuddle up with my dogs to read the results, made me feel so seen—and that's all we really want in life, isn't it?

When you're in the trenches of your business, an order can sometimes feel just like that—an order. But for your customer, that order can be a big deal! They may have saved money specifically for your service, they may have been gifted your product by a loved one, or they may have admired you from afar for years—and it's important you acknowledge that. Because if your customer is anything like me, they've looked at the tracking number and status no less than 50 times since they placed their order mere seconds ago. Join in on the excitement and make the delivery (of results, of a physical product, of a simple email) a big deal!

Use exclamation points!

Send gif confetti!

Sound the drumroll!

No matter the form of excitement you choose, focus on making your customers the star of the show and give them this moment of happiness and joy.

So, how did my dogs get so beautiful? Their beautiful parents.

Why are they sweet? They were bred as lap dogs hundreds of years ago.

Are they part muppet? The jury's still out on that.

But, what I do know is Wisdom Panel™ has built a brand that I'll never shut up about. As you build your own brand, take a page out of the Wisdom Panel™ book and remember that simplicity speaks volumes, we all crave community, and every customer interaction is a cause for celebration.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to throw a tennis ball for my Bichon Tzu and cuddle with my Miniature Schnauzer until they get tired of me.