The Kula Ring podcast is essential listening for manufacturing marketers who want to grow their digital presence and compete online.
Sponsored by Kula Partners—an agency committed to helping leading B2B manufacturers craft digital experiences that transform how they engage buyers, serve customers, and outpace their competition—The Kula Ring podcast features conversations about marketing, sales, and technology with top manufacturing executives from across North America.
The Kula Ring podcast is co-hosted by Kula Partners principals, Carman Pirie and Jeff W. White, both of whom are frequently sought after for their digitally-focused B2B expertise. They regularly share their insights with audiences including conferences like B2B Online and HubSpot’s INBOUND, the Gardner Manufacturing Marketer blog, and other podcasts focused on B2B marketing and technology.
Episode 164
The Dynamics of Recruiting in an Evolving Marketing Industry
Featuring Jerry Bernhart, Principal of Bernhart Associates Executive Search
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.
Listen in to our conversation with Jerry, as he shares this 30+ years of knowledge and advice on the best recruiting practices for attracting and retaining top talent, his opinions on remote/hybrid work, and his point of view on the future evolution of the marketing industry.
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Episode 163
OKR Alignment is Critical for Successful Marketing Strategies
Featuring Matt Canter, the Director of Marketing at Greenfield Global.
Matt Canter, our latest guest on The Kula Ring, dives into the objectives and key results methodology he and his team are applying to their marketing strategies to target and grow Greenfield Global’s four main pillars: customer experience, retention, acquisition, and brand positioning. Matt has a diverse work background with unique experiences in several industries including sports marketing, cannabis, and luxury travel. He’s currently the Director of Marketing at one of America’s largest ethanol producers, packagers, and distributors—Greenfield Global. Listeners will learn how Matt uses automation and efficient systems paired with a deep organizational alignment to achieve Greenfield Globals’s marketing objectives.
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Episode 162
Niching Down is a Necessity for Manufacturing Marketers
Featuring Joseph Lewin, the Marketing Manager at CADENAS PARTsolutions & Podcast Host of The Strategic Marketer
Joseph Lewin, the Marketing Manager at CADENAS PARTsolutions, the latest guest on The Kula Ring, shares that niching down is a necessity for manufacturing marketers. He describes his unique process called The Brand Compass, which helps companies align their brand messaging company-wide. Learn from Joseph as he shares his knowledge on brand positioning and his success using highly targeted niche marketing strategies.
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Episode 161
Get Intentional With the MOVE Go-To-Market Framework
Featuring Sangram Vajre, the co-founder of Terminus.
This week on the Kula Ring podcast we sat down with return guest Sangram Vajre, the co-founder of Terminus. He chats us through his latest book, ‘MOVE: The 4-question Go-to-Market Framework,’ which was created to propel businesses forward in their go-to-market process. Sangram pulls excerpts from this book and shares his knowledge with Jeff and Carman on how marketers can approach their go-to-market to be more intentional and make better decisions for their companies.
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Episode 160
Using Niche Marketing Tactics to Build Brand Awareness
Featuring Liz Shovlin, Director of Sales & Marketing for Americas at Nicomatic.
In this episode, Liz Shovlin, the Director of Sales & Marketing for Americas at Nicomatic talks about how niche marketing and traditional sales have helped her build and expand the Nicomatic brand in the Americas. She goes into detail describing the multi-faceted marketing approach she uses that incorporates a mix of social media, content, and traditional sales to deliver the right messages to specific companies and people at the right time. Hear more from Liz on her team’s focused approach to helping customers to discover, buy, and find solutions with Nicomatic’s products.
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Episode 159
How Manufacturing Marketers Can Cut the BS
Featuring Sander Arts, CMO, Advisor, and Author of “Cut the Bullsh*t Marketing"
Hello, manufacturing marketers! Today, I’m pleased to present you with another fine episode from the Kula Ring vault. This conversation with Sander Arts, founder of Orange Tulip Consulting, author, and former VP/CMO with NXP semiconductors gets to the heart of how to tell a better narrative and stay away from the ‘speeds and feeds’ style of marketing that plagues so many B2B industrial organizations. Sander also shares how listening to customers sometimes illuminates a hinge that can be used by salespeople in telling a product’s story in a way that truly differentiates. I hope you enjoy the episode.
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Episode 158
Finding The Right Martech Mix For Manufacturers
Featuring Brittney Zeller, Marketing Technology and Analytics Manager at AAF International
Hello, manufacturing marketers! We’re excited to bring you a fresh episode from the Kula Ring vault today with a 2019 interview we conducted with Brittney Zeller, formerly the Marketing Technology and Analytics Manager at American Air Filter. Brittney is now the Director of Marketing and Communications for the Americas, and the lessons she shared are no less relevant today. Learn how AAF chooses marketing technology, how the CRM drives most of their technology selection, not the CMS platform. We’ll also dive into the important symbiotic relationship IT and Marketing need to have given that marketing and sales drive some of the most significant technology spends in most modern B2B manufacturing organizations. Please enjoy Brittney’s episode, I’m certain you will be able to relate no matter where you are in the marketing tech stack continuum.
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Episode 157
Why Manufacturing Marketers Need to Focus On Customer Experience (CX)
Featuring Augie Ray, Senior Research Analyst and Executive Advisor of Customer Experience at Gartner
Hi everyone! Thanks for joining us for another episode from The Kula Ring archives. Today, we’re excited to bring you a conversation with Augie Ray, Senior Research Analyst & Executive Advisor of Customer Experience at Gartner, Inc.
Augie talks to us about CX or Customer Experience and why it’s of such a massive importance for manufacturing marketers. You’ll learn about how understanding the overall experience of the people that buy from you can help to innovate and shape a program that improves customer satisfaction, increases referrals and ultimately results in a higher lifetime value of your customers. I hope you enjoy the episode, there’s a lot of great learning to unlock.
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Episode 156
RIP to the Marketing ‘Project’
Featuring Monique Elliott, formerly CMO at ABB Electrification Products, Industrial Solutions, now SVP Global Marketing, Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric
Hi everyone! With the Kula Ring audience growing so much over the past while, chances are Dear Listener that you might be new here! With that in mind, we are going to be periodically sharing with you some brilliant insights manufacturing marketers need now that come from Kula Ring episodes you probably haven’t heard yet.
So let’s get right to it – here’s a fabulous episode on why Products, not Projects are the future for marketing featuring Monique Elliott … formerly of ABB and now SVP Global Marketing, Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric. Enjoy the episode!
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Episode 155
Build a Manufacturing Brand Through Social Media
Featuring Jim Cahill, Chief Blogger and Head of Social Marketing at Emerson Automation Solutions
On the Kula Ring podcast this week, we had the opportunity to speak with Jim Cahill, the Chief Blogger and the Head of Social Marketing at Emerson Automation Solutions. Since 2006, Jim has been cultivating Emerson’s social media presence and digital brand. Over his 33-year career at the company, Jim has witnessed a lot of change in marketing, starting with the introduction of internet marketing in the mid-90s, ‘Web 2.0’, and most recently how the pandemic shook up the marketing industry as a whole. Listen to Jim as he shares his industry knowledge on the best social media tactics that manufacturing marketers can implement to build connections with their audience and create social media content that drives sales.
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