3 tips from the Director Marketing Innovation at Pintys Delicious Foods

Name: Lori Fischer

Title: Director Marketing Innovation

Company: Pinty’s Delicious Foods

Years worked in current role:  1 year, 6 months

Years of experience in food industry: 16

In 300 characters or less describe your job:

Research, analyze, position, launch, promote, repeat! Interjected with a bit of fun, some travel, lot’s and lot’s and lot’s of debate and more chicken eating that I care to really admit in this posting!

Essentially, I work closely on all aspects of the product life cycle, from inception all the way to discontinuation.  I work within both the retail markets, so everything you see on shelf at your favourite grocery store, all the way to food service, yes that chicken you’re eating at your favourite pub could very well be Pinty’s!

What are the top 3 characteristics you need to be good at your job:

1. Communication
2. Flexibility
3. Creativity

Why did you decide to pursue a career in food?

Through my involvement in sport I realized I had an interest in nutrition and its impact on performance. That interest paved the way to pursue a degree in Food & Nutrition.  Through my studies, I became less focused on the relationship between food and performance and came to admire the impact nutrition had on health, in prevention and in healing.  Although, none of those things turned into careers for me, they were however, small little building blocks that would eventually turn into something much better, I just didn’t know it or appreciate that at the time.  I held on to that piece of paper the university gave me with pride. Four years of knowledge and transformational life lessons sat within the fibres of that paper. So I set out, as most graduates do, to get a job. What I wasn’t prepared for was the time it took for things to click, I stumbled around a lot looking for the right fit, I took contract jobs, I traveled on a graduate’s budget of next to nothing, taking more odd jobs, slowly gathering one building block after another. It took all these individual experiences of hits and misses to finally build the framework for something I would eventually call a career. One thing was certain Food & Nutrition became a part of each experience, sometimes a small part but always played a role somehow.

Food is such a core component to our lives, its influences are varied and run so deep, not only fueling us but connecting us to emotions, and places and feelings. The food industry is varied and runs just as deep. My path of experiences, appreciation for food, for people, for observation, led me to a career in Marketing for a food manufacturing company.

What would be your best 3 advice tips for new grads starting out in their career:

1. Be Open, sometimes we can be so particular about what we think something should look like that you can close yourself off to a great opportunity.
2. Listen, there is so much to learn from everyone around you, soak it all in.
3. Be Brave, jump in with both feet.

Tell us why your Food Job Rocks?

Aside from the copious amounts of chicken I get to eat every day, I had the privilege of working on a team that helped to develop a brand of food specifically for the Canadian market. Getting the opportunity to work on a brand from scratch, getting into the minds of the Canadian consumer and their behaviour around food and then developing something to fit those behaviours and watching it grow and succeed, has been a real highlight for my career.

Favourite quote?

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change” Brene Brown