Todd Dittman is the Executive Director of IndiePet, a trade association that supports independent and neighborhood retail pet stores and manufacturers and the service providers that serve them. As the inaugural Executive Director of IndiePet, Todd is responsible for educating board members, defining manufacturing standards, providing competitive operating tools, and raising consumer awareness of the benefits of patronizing independent pet businesses. Before joining IndiePet, he served as a board member and Executive Director of Shop! Association, where he assisted the largest global nonprofit in the retail space as an expert resource for retailers. Todd has also led popular brands such as PAVE, Dairy Management, Arby’s Restaurant, and The Wendy’s Company.

In this episode…

IndiePet is the first company to fully support the network of independent and neighborhood pet stores and owners in North America. The association collaborates with pet retailers working harmoniously to maintain a robust, sustainable, and burgeoning community at the center of the pet industry. If you are a small pet store owner, how can you benefit from being an association member?

Large pet store conglomerates such as Chewy.com, PetSmart, Petco, Amazon, and Walmart often overshadow small, self-reliant markets. Todd Dittman, a leader in the pet space, explains that IndiePet sets out to give smaller chains a voice through competitive marketing campaigns like the Neighborhood Pet Store Day. Regarding support, IndiePet conducts conferences — or Indie chats — with retailers on issues like inflation, employee turnover, best practices, and industry trends. The association also supplies member-to-member promotions, product-information catalogs, and supplier referral pages. Through the efforts of IndiePet, independent retailers in the space can pool resources to become better merchants and operators and grow and thrive.

On today’s episode of Marketing Tails, host Mark Bevington interviews Todd Dittman, the Executive Director of IndiePet, about the association's mission. Todd addresses the inspiration for founding IndiePet, the annual event “Neighborhood Pet Store Day,” and the benefits of being an association member.