The Kula Ring

Jim Lauria is here to talk about some strategies that have worked well for him and Mazzei around content creation and marketing. Adding value to not only his own company but to Mazzei’s partners as well. Jim brings a ton of knowledge and experience on what content looks like done right, and how an AI will never replace the human touch.

Jake Jevric joins The Kula Ring this week to discuss how deep relationships and technical know-how are incredibly important in industries where customers have options when it comes to picking suppliers. We get into what it takes to be a leader in technical sales and marketing. We also get into how both a top-down and bottom-up approach can be employed to ensure a unified customer experience.

Many aspects of our lives changed in the COVID era. B2B marketing was no different. This week we sat down with Nick Baranowski from Keystone Technologies to discuss how the pandemic era solutions have fueled huge success with mobile showrooms that now tour the US all year. This is a super cool idea and Nick shares some of the successes and pitfalls to avoid.

Lauren Scott of Acuity Brands and host of The Resilience Report is on the show this week giving us some significant insights into how the landscape of sustainability is evolving. We cover the new regulations and guidelines that are coming into effect as well as the need to ditch greenwashing and get into the real impact that our sustainable practices are having. Plus, Lauren sneaks in a nod to Arn...

Manufacturing marketers can face a lot of pressure to do more. Include more. Say more. Sometimes it seems like the favourite word in marketing is “and’... there’s always an excuse to add this, and that, and this thing too, and.. well, you get it. In this episode of The Kula Ring, Jeff and Carman discuss why you should often choose to do less.

This week we are going guestless! Jeff and Carman sat down to have a conversation around the B2B effectiveness ladder and how that translates into creating a Big Long Idea. Sorting out how B2B manufacturers with long sales cycles and intricate offerings can build an idea that will inform their marketing for years to come, not quarters. This is a super informative conversation where we dive deep in...

Over the Holiday season, The Kula Ring is bringing you a few conversations between Jeff and Carman, the hosts of The Kula Ring and founders at Kula Partners. Agile Project Management is not something that typically comes to mind when discussing marketing. But, when clients discover that is how we manage marketing work at Kula Partners, Jeff and Carman often find themselves answering curious questi...

This week The Kula Ring is looking into something that a lot of manufacturing marketers think is a bad word: commoditization. Matthew Seymour of Hyperion Materials & Technologies is joining us this week to breakdown how he has tackled this issue. We get into a few tactics that have proven fruitful for Hyperion in dealing with a post-commodity world. We look at capitalizing on your value added prod...

This week on The Kula Ring, we pulled up a comfy chair with Evan Hargreaves to discuss the changing landscape in the office furniture industry. With so much of the workforce remaining hybrid or at home full time, the B2B furniture space looks a lot different than it has in the past. Evan walks us through how MillerKnoll is handling this new challenge and how they are adopting some inspiration from...

Adam Fray, the Senior Director of Global Marketing at Packsize, is on the show this week. We had a chat about challenging the status quo. Packsize offers a new way to think about sustainable packaging and packaging efficiencies. That offering means they are combatting the ‘this is how we have always done it’ mentality. Furthermore, Packsize has recently changed how the marketing department exists...

The Kula Ring has discussed staffing issues in B2B manufacturing quite a few times now. However, this week we are sitting down with Hallie Haupt from IQ Manufacturing, she walks us through what it really looks and feels like to be a young person in the B2B manufacturing space. She shares some insight on how IQ has been able to catch some fresh, young talent on their shop floor and some of the diff...

Taylor Smith of PSNERGY is on the show this week having a chat with us about getting the next steps that manufacturing can take. We cover the harmonious nature of how sales and marketing can work together in the future. And also tackle some methods to get the youth of today and beyond invested in manufacturing in general. Taylor is a wonderful voice in the space and is bringing some fresh perspect...

Jonathan Quinn from Accredo Packaging is on the show this week talking with us about packaging, sustainable packaging. We peel back the layers, as Carman says, on some of the challenges around being sustainable in an industry that is so front and center in the conversation around sustainable practices. Jonathan is a super knowledgeable guy who has been around packaging for, quite literally, his wh...

This week on The Kula Ring, we are having a chat with Chris Moody from Demandbase. We talk about a lot of stuff! Chris is very knowledgeable in the ABM space and walks us through some of the tools that we can use to get more out of our ABM efforts. If this episode is something you are into and you want to hear more exactly like it, you can catch these three having another chat on Demandbase’s Sunn...

We are pleased to republish this episode with Allison Wagner. The topic is even more present for a lot of manufacturers.| Video marketing is not new, but many B2B manufacturers are still searching for a strategy. In this episode of The Kula Ring, Allison Wagner, Marketing Communications Manager at Morrison Container Handling Solutions, shares how she helped make video the company’s biggest marketi...

On The Kula Ring we love a niche market. The varied and interesting challenges that marketers face in these highly specialized markets never ceases to amaze. This week we are joined by one such marketer. Mike McCormack is the VP of Marketing and Strategy with the Appleton Group, a division of Emerson. Mike and his team market to customers that are secluded, both physically and technologically; wit...

This week on The Kula Ring we are joined by Jay Suggs. Jay has spent a considerable amount of time investigating what makes an effective team. He was the head of Johnson Controls’ diversity and inclusion initiative, and he gives us a look at what it takes to create an inclusive work team where everyone feels supported and brings something unique to the table; assembling the Avengers as he calls it...

So we do stuff digital now, that probably isn’t news to you. But, what if your ICP isn’t sitting at a screen all day? How do we make sure that the marketing content we are creating is going to get in front of them and be effective when it is? Jon Star of Methods Machine Tools tackles this problem head on. Method’s buyer persona is, more often than not, an operator or technician that isn’t stuck at...

Like many B2B manufacturers, ARCA sells to a small number of very specific niche markets. Targeting a small list of banks and credit unions who could benefit from ARCA's cash automation and recycling solutions, their marketing team crafted highly personalized one-to-one account-based marketing campaigns and successfully generated awareness and opportunities within key accounts. Learn how ARCA succ...

The Kula Ring is back! This week we have the distinct pleasure of talking with Floyd Blaikie. Floyd is the Director of Strategy here at Kula Partners. She has been working on literally writing the playbook on Google Ads recently and we took this opportunity to sit down with her and pick her brain on the nuance of this ubiquitous medium. We cover some of the pitfalls that B2B Manufacturers face in...

The Summer Spotlight Series is back. We are going to be taking a second look at a great chat with David A. Stark: Legacy manufacturers that previously dominated their verticals now have to contend with new entrants who know how to create focused messaging in digital spaces. In this episode of The Kula Ring, David A. Stark, Digital Marketing Transformation Growth Leader, talks about the value of sh...

In this week’s episode of The Summer Spotlight Series, we look back on our conversation with Ashley Riley. We talked about the power of process and alignment, specifically referencing the RACI setup to keep team members informed and accountable on where they fit into the organization. She dove deeper to talk about how she kept her workforce connected through the power of technology, process automa...

Sales and marketing alignment is huge, and historically, sales and marketing haven’t been best friends. Steven Nghe, Head of Marketing and Communications at Kloeckner Metals, discusses when Kloeckner Metals realized that sales and marketing had changed, and they needed to change with it. He discusses the digitalization of more multidimensional and complex marketing practices that need to be enhanc...

Using asymmetric marketing can help you stay agile in a highly competitive market, says David Koerner, the VP of Global Marketing for 75F. He and his team have found success by applying an asymmetric lens to their marketing efforts to attract and convert their customers. David believes that marketers need to think outside the box—he talks about examples from Burger King, Five Guys, and Southwest A...

This week on the Summer Spotlight Series we are digging into data and exploring technology to undercover insights in your organization. We are featuring Ryan Knox, Co-founder of Bridge Digital explores the use of digital tools to create efficiency in all areas of an organization from IT, Marketing, Sales, and more. He discusses the benefits of extracting data vs. using specific tools to help organ...