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.

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.

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 and pain points, Irina says marketers are setting themselves up for failure—but the path to B2B marketing success becomes clear in this episode of The Kula Ring.

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 attendees can look forward to at this year’s conference.

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.