The Kula Ring

Getting outside your comfort zone takes strategy and today’s guest is a pro at doing just that. Bob Lennon, Co-owner and President of ThermalWood Canada explains how he uses indirect marketing strategies to connect with people and create a digital footprint. He provides examples of product storytelling and marketing strategies to get your company recognition and its values exposed.

Flexfab is an industrial B2B manufacturer who designs and manufactures highly-engineered products in a wide variety of materials and designs for the aerospace, automotive, rail, and heavy-duty truck industries. In this episode of The Kula Ring, Ryan Knox, Director of Marketing & Innovation at Flexfab, talks about the company’s initiative to connect innovative startups with industrial companies to...

When word-of-mouth is how your product is marketed the most, what are the keys to influencing the messaging among peers? In this episode of The Kula Ring, Matt Fiddes, Founder and CMO of Agility Technologies, explains how they develop their products with the specific needs of their rescue worker customer base in mind. With their FIRSTLOOK brand, they build relationships to introduce the product at...

Marketing to solve problems for your customers is the highlight from today’s episode. Kristi Flores, Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer at Tektronix, explores how she uses marketing strategies to understand her customers' challenges and create customer connections. She explains why customer obsession is one of Tektronik’s core values. By understanding which digital marketing strategies to...

Website transformations have helped manufacturers get more products online and seen by potential customers, but how do you form a lasting online presence with customers in 2022? Adam Krumbein, Marketing Director at Outward, shares his marketing expertise with us in today’s episode discussing how manufacturers can benefit from using E-commerce. We explore the advantages of connecting to your custom...

Building a storytelling program takes time and patience for an organization to understand their purpose and brand. In today’s episode we welcome back Kristin Fallon, Vice President of Brand and Digital Marketing at GE Healthcare. Kristin walks us through the planning process behind a captivating and long-term storytelling program and her experience working in the healthcare industry during COVID....

Growing your marketing team means new strategies and most often, new skills. Mike Zimm, VP of Marketing at Kris-Tech Wire talks about his experience working on both agency and in-house sides of marketing by examining their key differences. He explores how to think through the process of choosing which marketing support will be beneficial to your organization's goals and teams long-term. Explore th...

Marketing is critical for your customers to understand the value of choosing your product. In this week’s episode, Syndi Sim, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Diamon-Fusion International, Inc., discusses how she supports her customers with marketing agency services and end-user support to help their customers thrive. Learn the importance of customer marketing, product education, and cus...

As online education becomes the norm and companies like Google no longer require a degree as a job prerequisite, what will educating the manufacturing workforce look like beyond 2020? In this episode of The Kula Ring, Mike Nager, Business Development Manager for the Festo Didactic Solution Center, talks about the role of niche technical education in providing hands-on training for manufacturing te...

How can manufacturers with various product portfolios gained from mergers and acquisitions ensure their products are discoverable both on their website and third party domains? In this episode of The Kula Ring, Cynthia Kellam, Global Head of Digital & Enterprise Customer Experience at TE Connectivity, shares how customer experience research led her team to standardize product data in order to impr...

How can manufacturers better serve customers of various sizes? In this episode of The Kula Ring, Melanie Virreira, Director of Global Commercial Enablement at Ball Corporation, talks about how her team created a digital self-service portal for multiple customer segments. She shares lessons learned from mapping customer journeys on the self-service portal, and how her team integrated the portal wit...

Before diving headfirst into a website redesign project, what are the moving parts a B2B marketer or other internal stakeholders should consider? Christina Wegner, Vice President of Marketing for The Vollrath Company, joins Jeff and Carman on The Kula Ring to talk about building the right foundation for your manufacturing company’s website redesign. She talks about developing a “listen-first” appr...

In this episode of The Kula Ring, Jeff and Carman talk with Tina Hart, Vice President of Marketing, Labels and Packaging Materials North America at Avery Dennison Corporation about finding value for marketing initiatives in a conservative, sales-driven manufacturing company.

John Eklund, Vice President of Marketing at ProMach, joins Jeff and Carman on The Kula Ring to discuss his playbook for integrating multiple companies into their house of brands after they are acquired. From collateral updates and cross-selling to websites and a centralized tech stack, learn how ProMach brings their acquired companies into the fold.

Creating a brand made for loyal customers requires passion and high standards to drive continued success. Klein Tools has been manufacturing tools made for trades people for over 165 years. In today’s episode, we sat down with Greg Palese, Vice President of Marketing at Klein Tools, to discuss how they continue to grow engaged customer relationships. By speaking directly with end users, Klein Tool...

Connecting with your channel partners as a manufacturer is vital for every step of the buyer’s journey. Are you a manufacturer looking for new ways to improve your communication with channel partners and customers? Then this episode is for you. Joshua Rich, President and CEO of Bullseye Software, has been supporting manufacturers with location technology for over twenty years. Learn why location t...

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 has changed, and they needed to change with it. He discusses the digitalization of more multidimensional and complex marketing practices that need to be enhanc...

When all the players in the industry are using the same visuals, how do you stand out? In this episode of The Kula Ring, Monique Elliott, SVP of Global Marketing at Schneider Electric, Industrial Automation, discusses their challenger approach to bring industrial automation to life through different visuals that also appeal to the end-user. She also discusses how core campaign pillars are used to...

In this episode of The Kula Ring podcast, we're joined by marketing leadership expert and organizational psychologist Thomas Barta. He's worked with hundreds of companies over his 20-year career to facilitate and lead organizational transformations. On the podcast, Thomas shares how marketers can build better relationships with the C-suite and achieve buy-in on their ideas. Diving deeper, he share...

Our latest guest on The Kula Ring is Mike Currie, the General Manager of the Desktop Printing Unit at Nexa3D. He works in the 3D modelling business, making industrial 3D printers to bring the next generation of ultra-fast printing to the marketplace. In this episode, Mike talks about how he is creating and setting up his marketing and sales teams for success through leadership, empowerment and col...

This week on the Kula Ring, we talk to Ken Novak, the owner of HATCH quantified. Ken walks us through the HATCH methodology, and how he works with organizations to understand their individual audience’s needs, drivers, motivators, and challenges in order to craft and execute strategies that will help them stand out in the market. We talk to Ken about psychology’s role in digital strategy and dive...

In this week’s episode of The Kula Ring, we talk to John Weiler, SDR Manager at Path Robotics. John talks to us about the fast-paced world of growth, experimentation, and innovation in the VC (Venture Capital) world. This episode dives into how Path Robotics has seen shifts and changes in its operations over the pandemic and how they have overcome those challenges, with a particular focus on their...

It’s all about understanding and respecting the nuances between local and global markets to stay agile, shares our latest guest, Ashley Riley, the Director of Global Marketing Campaigns and Content at Nilfisk. In this week’s episode of The Kula Ring, Ashley talks about the power of process and alignment, specifically referencing the RACI setup to keep team members informed and accountable on where...

Brian Baker, the founder of DoDecaHedron Design is our most recent guest on The Kula Ring podcast. He’s worked in the travel industry, spending time at Travelocity, owned an agency, and now has found his way into the building materials industry.

Jerry Bernhart, the Principal of Bernhart Associates Executive Search, is our latest guest on The Kula Ring Podcast. Jerry started recruiting in the marketing space in the late ’80s, but when the internet interrupted and changed the world, Jerry knew there would be a huge need for marketers so he jumped all-in and focused more on recruiting, working with organizations like HotJobs, and Monster.