The Kula Ring

MSTQ founder and principal product designer Yazin Akkawi discusses why he has moved away from demographics and toward a five-factor OCEAN model to build more accurate and useful buyer personas, and how user-centric design can enhance the entire customer journey.

Sangram Vajre—co-founder of Terminus, the SaaS platform for account-based marketing—discusses how ABM can transform your business on The Kula Ring. Sangram is a leading mind in B2B marketing as host of the FlipMyFunnel Podcast and author of ‘Account-Based Marketing for Dummies’ and ‘B2B is ABM’. He talks with Jeff and Carman about ABM’s strategic nature and how it aligns the goals and metrics of s...

Daniel Englebretson—Director, Growth Marketing and Demand Generation at B2B manufacturer, Phononic—shares his account-based marketing process which helped him achieve a 100% win rate in a tier one campaign over 10 months.

Tracey Rettig, Marketing Specialist at Kistler Instrument Corporation, joins Jeff and Carman on The Kula Ring to share how her journalism background has helped shape her approach to marketing and communications. She also explains why, as a B2B manufacturing marketer, it’s important to distill technical information into messaging that fits each audience and where they’re at in the buying cycle.

Michael Blake, Director of Marketing for KM International, joins Jeff and Carman to discuss his company’s ecommerce launch, the evolution of their trade show strategy, and how he thinks video will be the differentiator between manufacturers that get ahead and ones that fall behind. In discussing these different marketing and sales tactics, Michael gets at the heart of KM International’s forward-th...

James Stanaway, Director of Marketing at Epilog Laser, talks with Carman and Jeff about how video content plays a major role in their marketing strategy. From creating how-to videos that support their customers post-purchase, to co-creating video with customers and showcasing user-generated content, James shares how Epilog has grown its YouTube channel to over four and a half million views—along w...

Greg Palmer, Director of Marketing at National Nail, talks with Carman and Jeff about how the marketing and product teams work together to use a customer-centric approach to product development. They also discuss which channels National Nail finds successful when launching products including trade shows, social media, and print.

Jen Miret, Director of Marketing at Bendheim, describes the listening strategy she uses to create marketing that resonates with specialty architectural glass and systems customers. Tools such as keyword research, social media, and public relations enable Jen to identify market opportunities so that Bendheim can better serve its customers.

As official media sponsors at ManufacturED 2019 in Chicago, The Kula Ring had the pleasure of podcasting onsite, interviewing leaders at the forefront of digital transformation in manufacturing.

As official media sponsors at ManufacturED 2019 in Chicago, The Kula Ring had the pleasure of podcasting onsite, interviewing leaders at the forefront of digital transformation in manufacturing.

Steve Miller of The Adventure LLC discusses why focusing on building strong relationships with key accounts is critical to generating ROI at trade shows.

Irina Kem, Director of Marketing at PACKPRO Systems, is on a mission to smash the glass wall between marketing and sales. With over 15 years’ experience in B2B marketing, her advice to younger marketers is to get out of their offices and into important conversations happening between the sales department and the C-suite. Without a better fundamental understanding of their own business’s processes...

D. Bruce Merrifield of the Merrifield Consulting Group and Waypoint Analytics brings over 40 years of B2B insight to this episode, in which he talks about how Amazon Business applied learnings from their overwhelming success in online consumer sales to take on legacy B2B distribution channels. Bruce says manufacturers need to radically transform their relationships with distributors—and distributo...

Paul Wellener—Vice Chairman, Deloitte LLP, and U.S. Industrial Products and Construction Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP—provides early insights into Deloitte and MAPI’s collaborative research on technology adoption in manufacturing, being released at the ManufacturED Summit happening September 16-18 in Chicago. He shares which factors are critical to success in digital transformation, along with...

In the lead up to the 2019 ManufacturED Summit happening in Chicago September 16-18, Stephen Gold, President and CEO of the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI), shares his outlook on digital transformation in manufacturing. He discusses the dynamics shaping digital transformation in the industry—including its implications for marketing and sales—along with the highlights...

Jacki Lutz, Global Head of Marketing Communications and Intelligence, talks with Carman and Jeff about how Sensata Technologies made a product portfolio change last year, causing them to pivot midway through a major marketing campaign. The campaign was centered on their legacy product, Schrader valves—a product they were no longer selling.

David Ward, Director of Public Affairs at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, brings his public relations perspective to The Kula Ring, sharing insights on how manufacturing marketers can use earned media as a source of content marketing, the importance of internal communications, and how virtual reality (VR) is being used in marketing and public affairs.

Brian Richards, Digital Marketing Supervisor at Gardner Denver, shares his insights on how he led a digital transformation in his previous role at Knapheide Manufacturing—moving from push marketing tactics to pulling customers through their distribution network.

Kellie De Pooter, Global Marketing Manager at G&W Electric, discusses her approach to redefining G&W Electric’s goals on this episode of The Kula Ring. To stay competitive in the marketplace, her new manufacturing marketing department supports product development and sales and manages new digital marketing initiatives.

Jeff and Carman talk with Google's Tarun Rathnam, Head of Industry for B2B Advertising, and Aaron Hite, Partner Lead, in this episode of The Kula Ring. With at least two thirds of B2B buyers preferring to conduct their own research online according to Google’s study with Comscore, they discuss how manufacturing marketers can adapt their marketing strategies to reach B2B buyers throughout their sel...

Mark Mitchell of Whizard Strategy, a consultancy that specializes in building materials sales and marketing, shares the keys to differentiating your manufacturing brand and winning over buyers. Mark’s advice? It has nothing to do with product features or price—rather, it has to do with how well you understand your buyer’s business and how well you can help them solve their problems.

Greg Palese, VP Marketing at Klein Tools, proves that brand-building isn’t just for B2C. He shares his experiences marketing an iconic manufacturing brand—including how to nurture brand fans and how Klein Tools is shaping the conversation around the trades skills gap, resulting in over $38 million in earned media.

Vincent Van Den Brink, Architect Partner at Breakhouse, talks with Jeff and Carman about how manufacturers can improve the ways they provide value to technical buyers and architects during the sales process by thinking beyond a free lunch.

Tom McLaughlin, US Marketing Manager at Nord Drivesystems, shares how a sales-driven manufacturing organization can enhance the ROI of their trade show presence through public relations, email marketing, and social media prior to and after the show.

Jeff and Carman talk with Emily Boland from Tayco about how to market your manufacturing brand in a crowded marketplace, how to appeal to multiple buyer personas, the ROI of creating strong dealer relationships, and her experience with rebranding.