Manufacturing & Industrial B2B Marketing
Industrial marketing has a translation problem. The people who understand the product can't explain it to anyone outside the building, and the people who can write can't get close enough to the product to know what matters.
What makes industrial B2B different
Nobody buys on impulse. A specification decision can take eighteen months and involve procurement, engineering, operations, and a plant manager who has run the same supplier for a decade. Marketing's job isn't to close. It's to be present and credible across a long stretch of time when nothing appears to be happening.
The product is genuinely hard to explain. Simplify too far and the engineers stop trusting you. Stay technical and the executive sponsor never engages. Most industrial marketing picks one and loses the other.
And you're often two companies at once. A corporate brand that has to attract talent and reassure investors, and a set of product lines that have to win specifications. Those rarely get built to work together.
How I work in this space
I get close to the product first. Not close enough to be an engineer, but close enough to know which claims are load-bearing and which are marketing habit.
Then I separate the layers: what the corporate brand needs to say, what each product line needs to prove, and where those reinforce rather than compete. The corporate story earns the meeting. The product story wins the spec.
And I build for the long cycle. Content that stays useful for eighteen months, sales materials your team actually uses, and communications that hold up whether the reader is technical or writing the check.
Where I've done this
Kraton. Specialty polymers and chemicals.
Kimberly-Clark. Employer brand and consumer brand work, including the healthcare product line.
Wheels. Fleet management and mobility.
Who This Is For
Marketing and communications leaders at manufacturers, industrial suppliers, and B2B companies with long, technical sales cycles. Usually someone managing a corporate brand and a product portfolio at the same time, who needs both to work without one flattening the other.
Our product is technical. Can you market it without oversimplifying?
I get close enough to the product to know which claims are load-bearing and which are marketing habit. Simplify too far and the engineers stop trusting you. Stay technical and the executive sponsor never engages. The fix is writing for both rather than splitting the difference.
How do you market through an eighteen-month sales cycle?
By being present and credible during the long stretch when nothing appears to be happening. Content that stays useful for a year and a half, sales materials your team actually uses, and communications that hold up whether the reader is technical or writing the check.
We have a corporate brand and product lines. Which comes first?
They do different jobs, so neither wins. The corporate story earns the meeting and attracts talent. The product story wins the specification. I build them as layers that reinforce each other instead of flattening one over the other.
