The Kula Ring

A podcast for manufacturing marketers

Mergers and Acquisitions Episodes

Episode 187

How an Industrial Manufacturer Partners with Startups to Unlock New Revenue Streams

Featuring Ryan Knox, Director of Marketing & Innovation at Flexfab.

Posted on June 7, 2022

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 leverage emerging technologies within their manufacturing processes. Ryan talks about how Flexfab draws on existing relationships and industry connections to establish new revenue streams and foster innovation within industrial industries that are often overlooked.

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Episode 175

A Manufacturing Brand Integration Playbook

Featuring John Eklund, Vice President, Marketing at ProMach

Posted on March 15, 2022

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.

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Episode 132

Building a Better B2B Marketing Strategy with New Technology

Featuring Dan Ricklefs, Vice President of Marketing at Precision Pulley & Idler (PPI).

Posted on May 10, 2021

For many manufacturers, the drive to build out their organization internally has been strong for the last five or more years in response to a rapidly-changing marketing and sales landscape. In this episode of The Kula Ring, Dan Ricklefs, Vice President of Marketing at Precision Pulley & Idler (PPI), talks about how the organization is expanding its marketing infrastructure after a series of successful acquisitions. He discusses his playbook for creating marketing strategies, how the company is evolving its marketing tech stack, and the significance of adopting marketing technology as a tool for knowledge transfer to address upcoming retirements.

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Episode 118

How a Manufacturer Leverages a Distributor-First Ecommerce Model

Featuring Jeff Bercume, Director of CX Marketing at Berry Global.

Posted on January 19, 2021

How can manufacturers leverage their distributor relationships through ecommerce? In this episode of The Kula Ring, Jeff Bercume, Director of CX Marketing at Berry Global, shares how the company’s subsidiary brand, Laddawn.com, operates as an ecommerce site with a distributor-first model. He talks about how the website’s workflow is geared towards distributors, and how this ecommerce configuration can address capacity issues across manufacturing.

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Episode 73

How to Evolve Your B2B Brand Message After an Acquisition

Featuring Cathy Dodd, Vice President of Marketing at PolyOne

Posted on March 3, 2020

Any time a manufacturer acquires new assets, the brand evolves along with their customer base. How do you manage your communications strategy to keep pace with mergers and acquisitions? Cathy Dodd, Vice President of Marketing for PolyOne, talks to Jeff and Carman on The Kula Ring about how PolyOne created a campaign called “Challenge Accepted” to bring clarity to their brand messaging across a broad range of industries using customer feedback, buyer persona work, and through consolidating their website to better serve as a solutions-driver for their customers.

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Episode 28

How to Collaborate Effectively with Former Competitors

Featuring Cori Walsh, Marketing Specialist and Jake Jeffords, Director of Marketing and Global Account at Vermeer MV Solutions

Posted on April 9, 2019

In this episode of The Kula Ring, Jeff and Carman chat with Cori Walsh and Jake Jeffords—two marketers who worked for competing manufacturers that have recently both been acquired by Vermeer. They discuss the challenges and opportunities that come with learning to collaborate with a former competitor.

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Episode 21

Managing Branding & Marketing During Manufacturing Mergers

Featuring Trish Kempkes, Director of Global Communications & Marketing at BW Papersystems

Posted on February 19, 2019

In this episode of The Kula Ring, Jeff and Carman talk with Trish Kempkes, the Director of Global Communications and Marketing at BW Papersystems, about how to effectively combine brands during mergers and acquisitions, and how it’s sometimes better to just rip off the Band-Aid.

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Episode 8

What it Takes to Be a Marketing Leader in the Digital Age

Featuring Nikki Kapilevich, Director of Global Marketing at MTS Sensors

Posted on October 1, 2018

In this episode of The Kula Ring, Jeff and Carman talk with Nikki Kapilevich, Director of Global Marketing at MTS Sensors. Nikki shares her experience leading two B2B manufacturers through the branding challenges of a merger/acquisition, and discusses the skills required to be an effective leader in the digital age.

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About Kula

Kula Partners is an agency that specializes in maximizing revenue potential for B2B manufacturers.   Our clients sell within complex, technical environments and we help them take a more targeted, account-focused approach to drive revenue growth within niche markets.

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Mergers and Acquisitions Episodes

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