As marketing evolves at breathtaking speed and the lines between B2B and B2C marketing continue to blur, leaders are rethinking how they build brands, engage customers, and build their teams for the future. At a recent Marketers That Matter® Forum hosted by Cargill in Wayzata, Minnesota, five marketing executives shared practical strategies for driving innovation and growth in an increasingly complex landscape.
Our expert panel included:
- Jennifer Patel, VP Marketing & Communications, Cargill
- Dave Schneider, CMO, Red Wing Shoe Company
- Heather Teskey, VP of Marketing, Andersen Windows & Doors
- Margaret Murphy, Founder & CEO, Bold Orange
- Maria Hokanson, EVP Marketing U.S. and Canada, International Dairy Queen
Moderated by Kathy Hollenhorst, Chief Community Officer of Marketers That Matter®, the leaders discussed humanizing B2B marketing, building authentic influencer relationships, balancing brand and performance investments, AI experimentation, and developing adaptable teams. Here are key insights from the conversation:
Rethinking B2B: It’s All Human-to-Human
The panelists emphasized that B2B marketing increasingly requires the same emotional resonance as consumer marketing, even in highly technical industries.
Jennifer Patel of Cargill described a fundamental shift in how her team markets bioindustrial products. While technical expertise and product specifications remain essential, she explained that Cargill has realized buyers need emotional connection and storytelling too. “A buyer might be in procurement or from the chemistry side, but they are still people,” she said. “We still need to tell the story to help them understand beyond the technical expertise what we’re bringing and why our products are the best.”
For Dave Schneider of Red Wing Shoe Company, the marketing challenge involves winning twice. His company sells safety footwear both direct-to-consumer as well as through a company-sponsored footwear program that seeks to protect their employees on the job site. Those employees, however, often have choice in what brand they ultimately chose to purchase as long as it meets specific safety standards. “I’ve got to win once with the safety community, that B2B buyer, but I also need to ultimately win with that consumer, the employee, at the end of the day.”
Heather Teskey of Andersen Windows & Doors described navigating a complex landscape, where products move through various dealers – from Home Depot to lumber yards to specialty retailers – before reaching architects, builders, contractors, developers, and ultimately homeowners.
This complexity requires B2B marketers to either craft messages that resonate across multiple stakeholder types or develop nuanced strategies for each audience. Teskey noted that Andersen’s national campaign featuring the famed Drew & Jonathan Scott, best known as the hosts of the hit TV Franchise Property Brothers, unexpectedly succeeded on multiple fronts: “We thought it was going to be really focused on the homeowner,” she said. “We found that the campaign actually resonated with the pro. So, we had this dual opportunity where we hit two audiences at the same time with this message around trust.”
The key takeaway: whether marketing industrial chemicals or home supplies, remember that business buyers are humans first who respond to compelling storytelling – not just product specifications.
Redefining Your Strategy Around Influencers and Customer Feedback
The marketing leaders shared evolving perspectives on working with external advocates, with an emphasis on forging authentic, long-term relationships over transactional partnerships.
Authenticity and values alignment emerged as critical factors for successful partnerships. Teskey described how Andersen connected with the “Property Brothers” through mutual involvement in Habitat for Humanity. “What we found is that our values aligned,” she said, noting the shared commitment to promoting affordable housing and sustainability.
But partnerships with celebrities or high-profile figures aren’t the only path forward. Schneider offered a more accessible alternative: build relationships with your most passionate existing customers. “Go find your super users, search for them on social,” he advised. “They’re going to comment, they’re going to be providing really good feedback about your brand. Create a collection form for them.”
He described Red Wing’s “Crew” program of about 25 superfans they’ve worked with for nearly a decade, providing these brand loyalists with advanced access to products and inviting them to share honest feedback. The program delivers tangible value beyond testimonials: Red Wing uses these superfans for product development input and even brings them on stage at major company and sales meetings to ensure that the “Voice of Customer” is represented across the company. Schneider emphasized this approach works for any brand.
But cultivating advocates is only half the equation. Success also requires staying attuned to organic customer behavior and responding with speed.
Maria Hokanson of Dairy Queen emphasized how consumer discovery patterns have changed. “Linear TV continues to decline and people now find product discovery across all generational cohorts on social media,” she said. When Dairy Queen launched its Crunchin’ Cookie Cone Dip, franchisees immediately reported customers requesting it as a parfait and mixed with Blizzard® treats. The team reacted quickly, creating recipes and social content. “We sold 710,000 of those parfaits and Blizzard treats in two weeks,” Hokanson said. The lesson: brands must balance planned influencer activations with immediate responses to customer-driven trends.
Balancing Brand Building with Performance Marketing
With marketing budgets under constant scrutiny and pressure to demonstrate ROI, the question isn’t whether to invest in brand or performance, it’s where to allocate limited resources for maximum impact.
Margaret Murphy of Bold Orange outlined a framework for making these decisions. Start by getting crystal-clear on your primary objective: “What’s the leading objective that I’m trying to achieve?” she said. “We can’t achieve everything on day one, nor do our budgets support it.”
For many B2B marketers, the answer involves shifting dollars down the funnel. Murphy noted that brands often overinvest in awareness campaigns while undervaluing mid-to-lower funnel tactics that directly drive conversions. “Sometimes in the advertising space it gets a little too high-level and it doesn’t take the working dollars and make a big enough impact on the bottom,” she said. “Maybe I will do less up here and move more into the mid to lower funnel to get that conversion.”
This shift delivers a secondary benefit: proving marketing’s value. Performance-driven results make it easier to demonstrate ROI and justify investments, which is particularly critical in B2B environments where attribution is complex and sales cycles are long.
Market position should inform these allocation decisions, according to Schneider. Dominant category leaders may need less top-of-funnel investment than brands battling for share in fragmented markets. “If you own the category and you’re dominant, then top of funnel advertising may not be what you need to do,” he said. “If it’s very fragmented and you need to capture market share then it might be a slightly different game. It’s about understanding what marketing challenge really needs to be solved.”
Hokanson demonstrated how the right partnership can deliver across multiple objectives simultaneously. DQ’s collaboration with the Superman movie included a “Superman Blizzard treat,” themed meal deals, and a charitable partnership with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals that introduced kids to the film’s cast.
“Not only was it a great brand merger – think of Americana, the Kansas roots, all of that heartland connection – but it also moved the needle,” Hokanson said. The results were exceptional in a highly competitive environment: “We had a full quarter of positive transactions, which I don’t think many, if any, companies in the category can say that.”
Heritage brands face a specific complication: aging customer bases. Teskey noted that well-established companies like Andersen, Red Wing, and Dairy Queen must continuously ask: “Are we relevant to the next customer base coming up?” For these brands, pulling back on awareness to focus solely on conversion risks mortgaging the future for short-term gains.
The key is matching your funnel investment to your brand’s specific situation. Ask yourself: Are you fighting for awareness or fighting for conversion? Is your customer base stable or aging out? Are you dominant or scrapping for share? The answers should drive where you put your dollars.
Making AI Practical and Accessible
The panelists shared specific use cases for AI implementation while emphasizing the importance of hands-on experimentation over waiting for a perfect strategy.
At Cargill, teams are using AI for practical daily tasks: translation for global teams, content creation, and helping non-native English speakers refine their writing. Patel also described a pilot chatbot “to help engineers and chemists to find the right ingredients or the right applications for whatever problem they’re trying to solve.”
Beyond personal productivity, Schneider said Red Wing Shoes uses AI strategically to monitor their visibility in AI-generated search results. The company tracks how they appear when consumers ask ChatGPT or other AI tools for product recommendations like what’s the best work boot. “We are able to understand how we’re showing up in the AI universe right now,” he explained. Using specialized tools, the team can reverse engineer which sources AI platforms are drawing from to generate their responses. They found YouTube emerged as a major factor. Armed with this insight, the Red Wing Shoes team can optimize their YouTube content strategy to improve their presence in AI-generated recommendations.
Teskey emphasized the importance of building basic AI literacy across entire teams, not just marketing. She described training sessions covering AI fundamentals and prompt writing. The impact became clear when a skeptical call center agent had an “aha moment” after watching a colleague demonstrate how AI could instantly answer a common customer question, which eliminated the need to dig through technical documentation. Teskey said the AI skeptic went from saying “This will never apply to me” to “Oh, I get it now.”
The consistent message about AI adoption: keep experimenting, focus on solving real problems, encourage building comfort through practice, and offer training programs.
Building High-Performing and Adaptable Teams
In today’s marketing environment where AI tools, social platforms, and customer behaviors evolve constantly, the executives emphasized hiring for adaptability and mindset over specific technical skills that may quickly become outdated.
Murphy stressed that marketers must thrive in ambiguous situations where challenges lack clear parameters or obvious solutions. But she distinguished between two types of curiosity: unfocused interest that jumps from topic to topic, versus strategic curiosity that drives real learning and application. “Applied curiosity makes you very valuable,” she said, referring to the ability to take what you learn, connect it to business challenges, and generate smarter questions and better solutions.
Patel reinforced this need for adaptability at Cargill, where team members must pivot quickly between digital marketing, content creation, and analytics. “You really need to be agile, comfortable with ambiguity, and collaborative,” she said. “The folks on my team that are most successful are the ones that are excited about learning and growing, and they’re okay being uncomfortable.” She frequently reminds her team: “Growth and comfort do not coexist.”
Schneider agreed that in an environment of constant change, the drive to continuously learn matters more than existing expertise. “If you think you can be an expert at any one tool, just give it six weeks and it’ll go away and something else will be that top tool,” he said. As such, he said curiosity and initiative are now non-negotiables for marketers.
Organizational cultural alignment is critical, added Teskey. She looks for candidates who embody Andersen’s core values of humility, ownership mindset, meaningful connections, and expertise before evaluating technical capabilities. She also emphasized providing broad experiences to emerging marketers: “For this new generation coming into marketing, it’s on us to give them lots of experiences so we don’t refine their path too much in the beginning.”
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Career Lessons from the Top
The panelists shared personal stories that revealed universal truths about building a sustainable marketing career: embrace discomfort as a growth signal, reframe how you think about risk, and recognize when you need to step back and recharge.
Patel shared a humbling experience from earlier in her career. When a startup she worked for closed suddenly, she took a sales role despite having no experience. “I was so bad, and I remember driving to the office everyday thinking, ‘I can’t do this,'” she said. But the experience ultimately gave her something more valuable than sales skills: the ability to better communicate and empathize with the sales teams she now partners with as a marketing leader.
Hokanson reinforced the value of roles that push you beyond your comfort zone. “There was one instance where I was voluntold to make a more lateral move to the product side,” she recalled. Her advice for marketers facing similar situations: “Trust yourself, trust your business acumen, trust that you’ll ask the right questions. Those are the points where you grow the most.” The lesson extends beyond accepting uncomfortable assignments; it’s about recognizing that your core skills and judgment transfer across functions, even when the specific domain is unfamiliar.
Schneider challenged marketers to reconsider how they evaluate career risks. Many people fixate on the downside of taking a new role or publicly failing to hit the mark. But, he noted, things often have a way of working out. He often asks marketing job candidates this interesting question: “What is the greatest risk you would take if you knew you could not fail? “
Teskey focused on finding the right culture fit. “I really wanted to be a social worker, but my dad said no, you need to get a business degree. I’ve spent my entire career in marketing, but my real passion is leading teams.” She expressed the importance of finding a company with the right culture fit where you can be your best self, do meaningful work and make a difference.
Murphy reflected on her experience taking an “adult gap year” before founding Bold Orange. “First and foremost, I let my soul catch up to my body,” she said. “I had worked really hard in a lot of dynamic environments, and I was tired. I’d lost a little bit of my zip of curiosity.” That intentional pause allowed her to rebuild her energy and perspective, ultimately enabling her to build a thriving 160-person agency.
The Path Forward
The forum reinforced that successful marketing demands both technical sophistication and human-centered thinking. Whether navigating B2B complexity, implementing AI strategically, or building agile teams, the most effective leaders are those who stay curious, embrace discomfort, and never lose sight of the people at the other end of every transaction.
About the Speakers
Jennifer Patel, VP Marketing & Communications, Cargill
Jennifer Patel leads marketing and communications for Cargill’s bioindustrial business, focusing on using agricultural feedstocks to create sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels. Her portfolio spans from Cargill Beauty ingredients found in major consumer products to industrial applications like asphalt rejuvenators and lubricants. She oversees digital strategy, brand development, and a recent extensive rebranding initiative for the company.
Dave Schneider, CMO, Red Wing Shoe Company
Dave Schneider is the Chief Marketing Officer of Red Wing Shoe Company, a 120-year-old premium footwear and PPE provider distributed in 110 countries. He oversees traditional marketing efforts and all e-commerce business in North America, including three consumer sites and a B2B platform. During his 12-year tenure, he has led a comprehensive technology stack rationalization, a major brand refresh, and website relaunch.
Heather Teskey, VP of Marketing, Andersen Windows & Doors
Heather Teskey leads marketing and digital technology for Andersen Windows and Doors, the nation’s number one windows and doors company. Based in Bayport, Minnesota, the 120-year-old family-owned business serves both trade professionals and homeowners. Under her leadership, Andersen launched the “Trust Your Home to Andersen” tagline and a national campaign featuring Drew & Jonathan Scott, best known as the hosts of the hit TV Franchise Property Brothers.
Margaret Murphy, Founder & CEO, Bold Orange
Margaret Murphy is the founder and CEO of Bold Orange Company (BOCO), a customer experience agency specializing in B2B marketing across acquisition, growth, and retention. Founded in 2017, the 160-person agency serves national and global brands from its Minneapolis headquarters. Murphy also created CX Midwest, an annual conference focused on bringing together marketers and technologists for education and networking.
Maria Hokanson, EVP Marketing U.S. and Canada, International Dairy Queen
Maria Hokanson leads marketing in the US and Canada for Dairy Queen, a nearly $7 billion Berkshire Hathaway brand operating in over 20 countries. With nearly all locations franchise-owned, she balances B2B franchisee relationships with consumer marketing. During her 20-year tenure across eight different marketing roles, she has focused on building the brand’s emotional connection with fans while driving digital transformation and food business growth.
Forum moderator Kathy Hollenhorst is a Marketers That Matter® Advisor & Chief Community Officer.
Marketers That Matter® is a community of top marketing executives coming together to pioneer the future of marketing, sharing real-time experiences, and solving current challenges.
Our parent company, 24 Seven, specializes in helping you find exceptional marketing, creative and tech talent for your teams.
