Ep. 052 - The Life of a Food Marketer with Eric Dunn, Director of Marketing & Innovation at Nutrifusion

Mar 8, 2017

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Today we dive in the life of food sales and marketing expert, Eric Dunn, who is the director of Marketing and Innovation at Nutrifusion, a patent-pending super fruit and vegetable powder.

Sales and Marketing have always interested me. In college, it wasn't really talked about yet, but if you're in product development, it's half the battle! Sales and Marketing is the lifeblood of a company and paired with a great product, it becomes an unstoppable force. I really enjoyed this interview with Eric because this is a type of job that not many food enthusiasts are aware of.

If you are interested in sales and marketing in the food industry, then Eric does a great job explaining the difference to me. He also talks about where to find the best food news and why packaging is so important in this industry.

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About Eric

Eric Dunn is the Director of Marketing at NutriFusion®. He attended Clemson University (Your 2016 National Champions) for his B.S. in Marketing and M.B.A. in innovation. Eric's day-to-day role is to help connect the marketing and sales teams. He works on website updates, social media management, PR, email campaigns, and more to help NutriFusion® reach their customers. Over his past few positions, he found a passion for the food industry and is focused on helping companies develop healthier products that meet new consumer expectations.

NutriFusion® leading innovation in plant-based ingredients for the food, beverage, supplement and pet industries. NutriFusion® developed the GrandFusion® product line to stabilize and concentrate the naturally occurring vitamins and minerals in fruits and vegetables. GrandFusion® enables companies to add natural vitamins without impacting the flavor or texture profile of their products. For example, with the GrandFusion® 12 fruit and vegetable blend, you can deliver 50% daily value of 12 vitamins with only 225 milligrams of powder.

Question Summary

One sentence or Less: Help innovative food companies sell and market products Difference between Marketing and Sales: Sales is more account management to ake the customer happy. Marketing promotes an captures the customer. They work hand in hand. Sales and marketing is a process: linkedin lead generation, be genuine, visit expos, cater your message to the role (business developer or product developer), go for the long run. Career path: Clemson Marketing undergrad, unpaid sales position by communicating with food marketers, graduated from Clemson MBA program Most important skill for Sales and Marketing: Communication and who you communicate with Food Trends or Technologies: Clean Label, we’re trying to do better In your opinion, What is Clean Label?: No artificial ingredients, can be Organic and Non-GMO, Premium, Simple ingredients Are sugar alcohols clean label?: Every consumer might have their own definition of clean label Biggest challenge the food industry has to face: Food Waste What in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: the process to improve technical sales Trifecta of skills: lab, manufacturing, marketing Who inspired you to get into food?: a blend of multiple perspectives and it excites me Favorite Book: The Alchemist by Pahlo (by the way, I read it and it’s amazing) One meal to eat for a month: Macaroni and Cheese in a pot. Annies is great. Hummus. Kirkland has the most affordable hummus tubs What’s one piece of advice to get to your field?: If you have a food science degree, maybe minor in a business and marketing degree. We need more technical people in marketing Anything Inspiring: If you’ve come up with a good idea, go and chase it