SELECTED WORK / 02
Balto: one brand, many buyers
Scaling an Italian orthopedic brace brand across North America and Europe, and growing 40% a year without letting channels eat each other.
Balto Dog Braces · DTC and marketplace sales and category management · North America and Europe · Veterinary distribution, direct e-commerce, Chewy, Amazon
The situation
Balto makes ready-to-wear orthopedic braces in Italy. They serve dogs who aren’t surgical candidates and dogs recovering alongside surgery. As Balto’s global distribution partner, KVP’s job was to scale the brand across North America and Europe. Fit has to be perfect, and customers rarely buy twice, so every sale is won from scratch.
The insight
Balto doesn’t have one customer. It has several, and they live in different places. A veterinarian recommending a brace after an exam is a different buyer from a pet owner researching on Chewy at night, who is different again from someone who finds the brand directly. Treat them as separate customers and every channel adds new ones.
What I did
We expanded channel by channel, and gave each one a distinct job and a distinct buyer. The veterinary channel stayed the home of the clinical recommendation. Marketplaces reached owners already shopping for a solution. Direct e-commerce served owners who came looking for Balto by name. Then we managed the channels as a system, so growth in one didn’t come out of another.
The work
Marketplace listings and A+ content / Image to come
Product photography and fit content / Image to come
Veterinary-facing sales materials / Image to come
Results
40% year-over-year DTC and marketplace growth · 2 continents scaled, North America and Europe
My role: I own DTC and marketplace sales for Balto and oversee its category management, including channel strategy and creative.