The ailing Pets.com, whose stock price has
slipped from a 52-week-high of $14 to $1 11/16 in Friday afternoon trading,
has lost the vice president of marketing, John Hommeyer, under whose watch
its acclaimed sock-puppet campaign was devised and deployed.
“He resigned to go work for an unannounced start-up with a college friend,”
said Karen Gold, a spokesperson for Pets.com. Gold
denied that Hommeyer’s departure had anything to do with the company’s
sagging stock price, or the general dismal state of affairs in the e-tail
space.
Hommeyer couldn’t be reached for comment.
Hommeyer was hired by Pets.com back in May 1999, after spending 11 years
building consumer brands at Proctor &
Gamble. At P&G, he was most recently marketing director of baby care
worldwide strategic planning, where he implemented interactive marketing
strategies.
Amy Robinson, one of Pets.com’s first employees, will assume Hommeyer’s
responsibilities, but she will keep her current title of senior director of
marketing. The company doesn’t intend to search for a replacement for
Hommeyer.
Pets.com’s marketing and sales expenses decreased from $30.7 million in the
fourth quarter of 1999 to $28.9 in the first quarter of 2000. Its most
visible advertising campaign, created with Chiat/Day Advertising, features a talking
sock puppet that interacts with pets and a delivery driver.