Suzi McNicholas, Director of Marketing for Residential & Light Commercial HVAC at Johnson Controls, discusses her career in B2B technology marketing. She talks about how marketing in the industrial sector has changed, the challenges of getting stakeholders to understand what marketing really is, and what B2B companies can learn from consumer marketing.
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About Johnson Controls
Johnson Controls transforms the environments where people live, work, learn and play. As a global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, Johnson Controls’ mission is to reimagine the performance of buildings to serve people, places and the planet.
Building on a history of nearly 140 years of innovation, Johnson Controls deliver the blueprint of the future for industries such as healthcare, schools, data centers, airports, stadiums, manufacturing and beyond through OpenBlue, a comprehensive digital offering.
About Suzi McNicholas
Suzi McNicholas is Director of Marketing for Residential & Light Commercial HVAC at Johnson Controls. She leads the marketing team to support new product introductions and integrated marketing campaigns.
She has a 25+ year career in progressive B2B marketing roles including digital marketing campaigns, lead generation, branding, public relations, new product introductions, content creation, events, communications, and budget management. Prior to joining Johnson Controls, McNicholas built an integrated marketing team at Honeywell in the Industrial Safety Products division.
McNicholas holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC and a Post-Graduate degree in English and American Literature from the University of Hull in England. She currently resides in Charlotte, NC.
Time Stamps
[00:47.5] – Suzi discusses her 25+ year career in marketing.
[05:32.7] – What are the differences to marketing to a channel partner versus an end user?
[08:55.3] – How do you manage short term and long term goals? Suzi discusses.
[13:28.2] – Suzi discusses how audiences reliance on sales is shifting.
[15:31:9] – Suzi talks about what she sees being the biggest changes in marketing over the next five years.
[18:50.8] – Suzi shares some advice to those looking to get into marketing.
[19:58.8] – Suzi’s contact details.
Quotes
“Don’t get emotionally attached to the outcome because your budget’s going to get cut… maybe your campaign isn’t going the way you’d want it to… that’s ok, you’re going to learn from what’s happening… you’re going to spend a whole lot of time frustrated and upset if you’re emotionally attached to these outcomes.” Suzi McNicholas, Director of Marketing for Residential & Light Commercial HVAC at Johnson Controls.
“People aren’t going to buy until they’re ready, and that 70% of the time that they’re spending before reaching out is research.” Suzi McNicholas, Director of Marketing for Residential & Light Commercial HVAC at Johnson Controls.
Follow Suzi:
Suzi McNicholas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzimcnicholas/
Johnson Controls website: https://www.johnsoncontrols.com/
Johnson Controls on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/johnson-controls/
Follow Mike:
Mike Maynard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemaynard/
Napier website: https://www.napierb2b.com/
Napier LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/napier-partnership-limited/
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Transcript: Interview with Suzi McNicholas at Johnson Controls
Speakers: Mike Maynard, Suzi McNicholas
Mike: Thanks for listening to Marketing B2B Tech, the podcast from Napier, where you can find out what really works in B2B marketing today.
Welcome to Marketing B2B Technology, the podcast from Napier today, I’m joined by Suzi McNicholas. Suzi’s the marketing director of Ducted Systems, Residential Light and Commercial at Johnson Controls. Welcome to the podcast, Suzi.
Suzi: Thanks very much for having me.
Mike: It’s great to have you on the podcast. What we like to do is get all guests to you know, give us a bit of an introduction and really tell us about themselves. So can you give us a little bit of background about your career and how you’ve got your current role?
Suzi: Sure. So I’ve been a B2B marketer for 28 years. The vast majority of them have been in industrial manufacturing.
Mike: What is it you like about industrial manufacturing that’s got you to stay there because you’ve been in some other industries as well.
Suzi: Yeah, I like industrial manufacturing because I find it interesting to try to make things that may not be super exciting, really exciting. And it’s also been unchallenging in that if you say the word industrial from a marketing perspective, it can sometimes imply, you know, this sort of old style thinking, you know, sort of like, oh, we have a new product. Let’s make a brochure and go to a trade show. And it’s very different now. And so bringing these environments into, you know, what you and I would consider modern marketing, is actually a lot of fun for me, and it’s a great challenge.
Mike: And so tell us a little bit about this. You know, maybe not so exciting area working at the moment, ducted system. So is that HVAC type equipment?
Suzi: It is, yes, for residential, ultimately, our products go into people’s homes and and also some light commercial up to, we call it up to 150 tons, so a variety of buildings might use our rooftop units.
Mike: And, you know, having moved into industrial systems, you mentioned that industrial as a category is seen maybe as being perhaps a little bit behind the times when it comes to marketing. I mean, do you think having experience in other sectors has really helped you move forward when you’ve moved into industrial.
Suzi: Yes, and in fact, I use consumer examples all the time when I’m educating my stakeholders and others in the business about what marketing really is. That’s an ongoing challenge. I think for all marketers. I saw a meme once that said all marketing job descriptions should come with a bullet point that says, must be willing to spend at least 50% of your time explaining what marketing is to non marketers. So it’s an ongoing conversation. You know, I’m constantly educating people on what marketing really is.
Mike: I mean, I couldn’t agree more. I think it’s super important, particularly within the organization, to explain what you’re trying to do and what you’re trying to achieve. I mean, one of the things you mentioned, and I think some of the listeners on the podcast who are very much B2B would have definitely picked up, was the fact that, you know, a lot of your products get sold to consumers. So I mean, presumably that’s through a sales channel. So are you actually doing elements of consumer marketing, or is it really a pure B2B play?
Suzi: Well, we are not targeting the consumer ourselves directly, because we don’t have the money or the resources to try to do that. So typically, we’re two levels away from the actual consumer. We sell our equipment to distributors, and then the distributors then sell to the installers or dealers or contractors. Those are we use those words interchangeably. What we will do is provide assets that speak to the consumer and give those assets to the contractors so that then they can take that information and use it to market to their audience, which is the consumer, so we’re sort of three layers away from the actual homeowner, but that’s what we do, to try to empower the contractors to be more effective in their markets.
Mike: That’s interesting. I mean, is the product? You know, perhaps the brand is more important to those installers, those contractors, because they’re the guy’s going to get a call if it breaks down, then maybe it is to consumers who don’t feel able to differentiate. Is that a reasonable summary the market, or is it somewhat different?
Suzi: Yeah, that is a reasonable summary in general, and there are always exceptions, but I would say in general, consumers aren’t researching the actual brand of the air conditioning unit that you’re going to install. The consumer’s primary concern is, is my contractor certified? Do they know what they’re doing? You know, really, the consumer is just thinking, please make me comfortable in my home, right? That’s really all they want. Just make sure it works and that my contractor knows what they’re doing, and then I can go back to my contractor if I ever have. Issues or problems. We do get some homeowner inquiries directly on our website, but in in general, those are folks looking for support, not necessarily, you know, looking to speak to a salesperson about the actual unit. They use their contractors for that.
Mike: That makes a lot of sense. And so that’s why, you know, in your role, it’s very much B2Be but it’s marketing to a channel, rather necessary marketing to an end user. Is that really different? You know, trying to persuade a channel partner to take a product rather than an end user? Or do you see it as being very similar?
Suzi: It’s different because, particularly with the contractor, they want to know that they can install this product and it’s going to work, right? They don’t want to be called out to make repairs or change things. They want to sort of set it and forget it, right? So it’s important to them that the quality is there, but also the serviceability. So how can they access if there is need for a repair? How easy is it to get into the unit? Things like that. These are the things that we think about when we’re engineering the products themselves.
Mike: That makes a lot of sense. But looking at what you do, I mean, you’re obviously somebody who’s looked at integrated marketers across the whole of marketing, in many of your roles, what do you think the key is to creating campaigns that really work across, you know, multiple channels and multiple tactics?
Suzi: Well, first and foremost, you know, I think the mark of any great marketer is the ability to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. So the message is critical, and I’m sure that’s no surprise to anybody who is listening, from a marketing standpoint, right? The very essence of marketing is to try to create an emotional connection to the person doing the buying, but an integrated marketing campaign, once you get the message down and it’s the right message for your target audience, in my mind, includes a mix of tactics, and you have to reach people in multiple ways. And for me, you know where they live is majority online these days, so it has to you have to hit them from every direction that you can. It has to be email, it has to be social, it has to be some digital advertising on the websites that your target audience may spend time on, even in our case, radio ads. If you think about those contractors who are out in their trucks all day long, right? They’re they’re listening to the radio. Radio works great for us, and to some extent, in person events, to kind of supplement those digital tactics. So I’d say marketing is more complex than it’s ever been before. I mean, when I started, marketing was really advertising and nothing more, but that’s when the internet was a baby. So to me, it’s a mix of tactics. And then the other piece that’s so critical is the technology. If you don’t have the right tech stack, you can reach your audience, but measuring becomes very, very difficult, so it’s important that you’ve got the right marketing automation platforms, that your website and landing pages have the right technology, so that you can kind of watch the user, you know, click on an ad from social and go to the landing page, and then what do they do next? And so on. So it’s a it’s the message, it’s the mix of tactics, and it’s having the right technology.
Mike: In my mind, that’s fascinating. I mean, I love the example of, you know, radio advertising reaching your audience really well, because I think a lot of people wouldn’t. They normally assume radio advertising is really pure consumer, but you’ve clearly got a market there that, as you say, is listening to radio a lot.
Suzi: Absolutely and even sometimes billboards, you know, we will provide the the asset, you know, needed the graphics and the design needed if somebody wants to put up a billboard in in their market. So, yeah, you know, every audience is, is different, and some tactics work with some audiences and others, not necessarily, but in our world, it’s an interesting mix, for sure.
Mike: And does that mean you’re continually experimenting and trying new tactics? I mean someone at some point must have said, Hey, we could try the radio. And I guess there was some pushback there. Is there always experimentation.
Suzi: Absolutely. And in fact, the most recent campaign that we ran was the first time that we actually added radio in, and it worked. And so it’s it’s great when you introduce these new sort of tactics and find out what works, but also important is what doesn’t work. You know, there if a campaign isn’t going the way that you want, that’s okay, because you’re still learning from it. Now you know kind of what not to do. So yes, we’re always testing. We’re always trying different things. It’s important that you do that. And you know, with the way that technology is changing, I’m sure we’ll be doing things in the next five years that we haven’t even thought of yet.
Mike: That sounds really exciting. I mean, one, one question, you know, as a marketing leader, how do you balance this requirement for, you know, short term returns through lead generation, for example, and then this longer goal of building brand and establishing reputation. I mean, do you have an approach that lets you balance your activities and your budget?
Suzi: That’s a great question. You know, all marketers go through this, right? We are to. Day more than ever before, forced to do more with less. And so, yes, it’s an interesting balance. You know, leads are very, very important, and generating those leads are very important for us as marketers to be able to justify, you know, the work that we’re doing. But we do also pepper in thought leadership and other types of, you know, content creation that we know will live for, you know, a year or more, let’s say, on our website or somewhere on the internet that people can access. And those are the activities that I think help build the brand over time. Because when you when you focus on thought leadership, you’re positioning yourself as an expert in your field, which we absolutely are, in our industry in particular, but it’s a balance, particularly when you’re trying to convince those who hold the purse strings to invest in something that may not be seen as direct lead generation, but more of a strategy for the Long Haul.
Mike: I mean, you’re obviously not afraid to try things. I mean, you’ve mentioned radio. Are there any other sort of innovative campaigns you’ve run recently that have been, you know, particularly successful, or, you know, maybe leverage something new?
Suzi: So what I will say is, you know, we are doing what today, what I think you would define as, you know, standard integrating marketing campaigns. But I have been looking, I look all the time at the competition and see who’s doing what out there that’s different or new. And I will say that, while it’s somewhat controversial, Tiktok is a very interesting marketing platform in my mind. Now, most people think of Tiktok as, you know, the fun dances, or, you know, whatever it may be. That’s why I joined, right? Just to watch my kids do cute things. But I have done a little research, and there’s a competitor that has a branch in Austria. I won’t name them by name, but they they did a campaign over the holidays where they featured cartoon characters interacting with their products. And it was basically like Santa Claus and all the elves were interacting with their products, you know, around the holidays. So it was set with, you know, snow and there’s a fireplace and there’s a Christmas tree. And it was just an, a real interesting way to promote themselves, you know, in a seasonal type of campaign that people may not necessarily associate with HVAC or comfort, but if you think about it, you know, if you think about Christmas and the fireplace and the tree, you know this is kind of warm, cozy, very comfortable type of feel. So I just thought it was a very interesting way to engage with their target audience, you know, around the holidays in this kind of feel good way.
Mike: I love that. I think that’s a great idea. And, you know, I think it’s been really interesting, Suzi, because you’ve talked about a lot of things that I suspect other marketers in between would be quite afraid to try. So, you know, I really hope you’ve encouraged marketers to try something new, try something different. In terms of talking to you on the podcast, I’d really like to talk a little bit about some of the things that are changing in marketing and some of the trends. And in particular, we’re seeing a lot of research that suggests that customers are spending less time talking to salespeople and more time interacting with marketing content with your industry, is that the case are you seeing the same thing? Are your contractors and your distributors spending less time with sales?
Suzi: Yes. And interestingly enough, I just recently saw a statistic that’s relevant to this question, from a study in 2023 called the B2B buyer experience report that was published by a company called six cents. The statistic is that 70% of the buyer journey happens before the very first conversation, and it’s 83% of the time that the first contact is initiated by the buyer. So what that tells me is people aren’t going to buy until they’re ready, and that 70% of the time that they’re spending before they reach out is research, right? Think about it. As consumers, we behave in the very same way. Let’s say you’re going to buy a, you know, pick anything, you’re going to buy a new camera. You’re probably going to spend some time online, you know, researching and and looking at recommendations and referrals and things of that nature, it’s exactly the same way in B2B, those, those lines between B2B and B to C are starting to blur a little bit. So, yes, that 70% is all marketing. It’s the content that marketers put out on the web. You know, it’s the trying to get, you know, our content in front of people on social or digital advertising or email, you know, that kind of thing. So, yes, that initial part is very, very important, because, again, they’re 70% of the way through their buyers decision before they ever reach out to a salesperson. Yeah.
Mike: I think that’s a great stat. And, you know, I wish a lot of people in charge of allocating budgets would recognize how important marketing was. You know, it’s been a big trend, and I think covid has really impacted how much people want to talk with salespeople.
Suzi: Don’t you absolutely, totally agree with you?
Mike: I mean, I think looking forward, I’m interested to know. You know, there’s a lot of technology out there. Ai probably is the thing people talk about most, or I’m not sure it’s the biggest thing. What do you think is going to be the biggest thing changing marketing in the next five years?
Suzi: I do think it’s going to be AI, but I don’t necessarily think that AI is going to take anybody’s jobs away. I think that it will become a wonderful productivity tool for marketers to pull information down and help develop business cases for what it is that we are trying to do. So I see it as a I see it as a positive, even though I will tell you, personally, I’m still kicking the tires, and I’m not exactly sure how it’s going to work, but we’re looking into some of those platforms now as a company to determine, you know, which is the right one for us to start down this, you know, AI journey, if you will.
Mike: I mean, it is fascinating, and AI certainly is going to be a factor. It’s gonna be interesting to see, I think, how it changes. I think we’re all looking to try and wear that out at the moment. I mean, with this amount of change, how do you think the role of marketing leaders, and maybe your role particularly, is going to move over the you know, next few years?
Suzi: Well, I’m coming, I’m going to come back to my education piece. Because if you and I as marketers are kind of looking at this like not exactly sure how this is all going to play out, then I can assure you that anybody outside of marketing doesn’t know. So it’s going to be again that continuing education helping you know our stakeholders and leadership understand the benefits of it and how we will apply it. And there are some concerns around security when it comes to AI, you know, and making sure that whatever we upload that might be proprietary company information, you know, how does all of that work? These are some of the things that we are trying to work out now. So as a marketer, how this is going to impact me and my role is going to be twofold. It’s going to be, you know, continuing that education and just adding one more topic to the level of marketing education that we have to give but also, how exactly are we going to use it? How will AI be kind of a helper or an assistant to me, these are the questions that I don’t necessarily have answers to, but those are the two things that pop into my mind when you ask that question.
Mike: That’s fascinating. I mean, it’s been really interesting talking to you, and I’m aware you’re very busy. So before you go, there’s a couple of standard questions we’d like to ask everyone. So one of the things I’d like to say, you’ve given us lots of advice. But Suzi, what’s the best marketing advice you’ve ever been given?
Suzi: Don’t get emotionally attached to the outcome, because that you know your budget’s going to get cut, right? And that’s frustrating, right? And maybe your campaign isn’t going the way that you want it to. And like I mentioned earlier, that’s okay, too. You’re going to learn from what’s happening. And even with things like budget cuts, you know, it gets frustrating, and a project that you really want to do gets, you know, put on the back burner because of budget cuts, you’re going to spend a whole lot of time frustrated and upset if you’re emotionally attached to these outcomes. So in my mind, it’s you got to roll with it. Things are changing all the time. Disappointments happen, so try to stay as objective as possible and do your job to the best of your ability.
Mike: I love it. That’s great. The other question I want to ask you is, if you were talking to a young person about to embark on a career in marketing, what advice would you give them?
Suzi: The first thing I would say is, go for it. I love what I do. I think marketing is a fantastic career, and you have to be able to balance your sort of right part of your brain and your left part of your brain. So it gives you an opportunity to be really creative, which is the fun stuff, but then you also have to be able to look at the numbers and start to put that together in a way that can continually educate and convince your stakeholders that what you’re doing works and that you are positively impacting revenue. So it’s a balance between the creative side and the analytical side. So if you think you can do that, jump on in the water’s warm.
Mike: That’s awesome and a really positive way to end. I love that. I’ve really enjoyed our conversation, Suzi, I think particularly, I’ve loved the way you’ve talked about some very different tactics and had the courage to try those, and also talked about the importance of educating people about what you’re trying to do in marketing, it’s been really enjoyable getting to know you. So thank you very much. If people have any questions, you know what’s the easiest way for them to contact you?
Suzi: Well, you can find me on. LinkedIn, it’s Suzi, S, U, Z, I, and the last name is Mick, Nicholas, and that’s m, c, and then the name Nicholas, N, I, C, H, O, L, A, S, and you’ll find me. I’m currently employed at Johnson Controls, but we did just get sold. My business unit just got sold to Bosch, so we’re in a transition period, but I’ll be with Johnson Controls here for the next 10 to 12 months.
Mike: I think sounds like there’s a whole new set of challenges for you to face over the next couple of years. I wish you the very best for that. Maybe we should have you on once you’ve made that transition to talk about it, that could be a great discussion. Suzi, thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Suzi: Thank you delighted to be here, and thanks again for your time. I appreciate it.
Mike: Thanks so much for listening to marketing B2B Tech. We hope you enjoyed the episode, and if you did, please make sure you subscribe on iTunes or on your favorite podcast application. If you’d like to know more, please visit our website at napierb2b.com or contact me directly on LinkedIn.
