Catherine Conroy is a classically trained business to business (B2B) Marketing professional who has spent the last 35 plus years, working for four market leading corporations (Wesco International, Panduit, Cabot Microelectronics/Entegris, and Ecolab/Nalco) that operate within the Data Center, Communications, Security, Electrical, Industrial Automation, Semiconductor, Specialty Chemical and Environmental Services (water, hygiene, energy) industries.
Catherine is a strategic Marketer accustomed to selling solutions and services into fast paced industries, with demanding, sophisticated & technical customers, where quality, consistently and performance are mission critical and cost of ownership an essential driver of value.
Catherine’s extensive global experience, fluency in multiple languages and communication styles has been gleaned through decades of studying, living & working abroad. She is a valued advisor to senior leaders and “go to” person to create and launch strategic Marketing Communications platforms that enable organizations (ranging from start-ups to billions in sales), to achieve their next level of growth in highly competitive global markets.
She is respected for driving awareness, breakthrough thinking, disruptive marketing strategies, superior communication skills, collaborative leadership & alliance-building. Her functional expertise includes: Creation of customer-specific marketing strategies, branding [corporate, product & employee], digital communication [web & social], event marketing, lead generation, marketing operations and management of external agencies.
Catherine now heads up the Marketing, Communications, Marketing Operations and Brand Strategy team at Wesco International, a $22 Billion dollar global corporation.
Some examples of Catherine’s work in the Semiconductor industry are featured below:
Digital Portfolio
Corporate Branding
“I AM Cabot Microelectronics” Video Series – Dozens of videos featuring Cabot Microelectronics’ employees talking about their roles at the company and how they add value to customers and the company. Campaign goals were many, including: Corporate Brand Building, Employee Engagement, Recruitment and Customer Satisfaction. Campaign results exceeded all established metrics as measured by customer and employee surveys as well as the recruitment of key staff members
The second example of Corporate Branding was the complete renovation of the global world headquarters entranceway. The Corporate Discover campaign was utilized as the artistic element. The “Discover” theme originated as a value proposition for all stakeholders (i.e. When you work with Cabot Microelectronics you “Discover – Innovation, Partnership, Experience & Knowledge”). The entrance was redesigned to reflect the global market leading and innovative nature of the company and included an artistic rendering of the company history. Jumbo TV screens were also installed, with a sophisticated communication system where high definition video messaging could be changed instantly or video streamed live.
Trade Show Videos
A series of looped videos with music, subtitled in several languages featured at Cabot Microelectronics’ trade show booths throughout Asia. The goal was to provide a visual understanding of the company’s global capabilities and leadership. Result: Well received by a multi-lingual audience who were able to capture the intended message in a large noisy trade show venue
Digital Product Marketing & Social Media
Semi-Sperse™ W2000 Video celebrated the 200th million gallon sold of one of the company’s most successful products. The video was but one element of a broad integrated marketing communications campaign. The second example demonstrates how the company’s social media platform (Twitter, LinkedIn Facebook, etc.) was leveraged as part of another integrated multi-level promotion to launch the iDiel™ D9225 product line (Banner ads were featured).
Marketing Operations
As a life longer learner Catherine enjoys leveraging cutting edge tools to support the revenue growth strategies of the business. Catherine has owned and implemented the following:
Corporate Web Site – www.cabotcmp.com
Password Protected Customer Extranet – MyCMC
Digital Asset Management System
Market Intelligence System
Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)
Customer Satisfaction Survey Process
Sales Force Value Selling Training
Customer Training
A series of technical videos showcasing Cabot Microelectronics’ Application Engineers who address the top ten most requested customer pain points related to the mixing and handling of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurries. The goal of the training was to reaffirm the company’s technology and market leadership and provide customers with an audio/visual description of best practices for use in their training programs. Result: Videos were so popular that our largest customers (i.e., Samsung and TSMC used them to train their engineering staffs).
Employee Engagement Campaign
The Corporate Discover campaign was leveraged to support the goal of improving employee engagement. Large high resolution images of many Cabot Microelectronic employees, from all over the world, were created and featured in major hallway traffic areas of all company office buildings worldwide. Images were changed every four months with new employees and design. This campaign was tremendously successful with employees. It was also an extremely effective external branding campaign as visitors (customers and suppliers) often commented on the images.
Summary of Achievements
- Revenue & Brand growth: Supported double-digit revenue growth by developing dozens of global branding/sales campaigns that also increased customer brand awareness by 40%.
- Strategic Communication: Championed revision of Corporate Mission, Vision and Brand position strategy and launch to customers and employees worldwide.
- Global Savvy: Valued C-Suite advisor on doing business globally. Expat experience, international education, and Bilingual fluency. Extensive experience in the creation and execution of country specific Marcom strategies to launch and grow products & services in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Europe.
- External Communication: Revitalized corporate website and created customer extranet utilizing a “self-service” model and improved customer satisfaction scores by 25% within a 2 year period.
- Digital Marketing: Architected social media/digital strategy that resulted in SEO improvement moving company’s top 25 key words from Google page 5 to owning page 1.
- Voice of Customer: Designed/implemented “Voice of Customer” survey/measurement strategy and improved customer satisfaction scores by 25%.
- Internal Communications: Developed 50+ courses linking corporate brand goals with intercultural communications awareness and presented to more than 1,000 employees in 7 countries.
- Talent Acquisition: Leveraged social media platforms including brand recruitment videos to meet aggressive hiring goals for “world class” scientists, saving company more than $300K in one year in recruitment fees.
- Marketing Stack – Selected, designed and Implemented CRM system (Oracle). Refined Marketo implementation by documenting process, training and alignment to CRM system – improving MQL to Sales win time by 40% and increasing pipeline by 70%.
- Education: MBA, International Marketing, Thunderbird; & BS/BA International Finance/Spanish, University of Illinois & University of Barcelona, Spain
- Fluent in Spanish; Proficient in Portuguese, Six Sigma Green Belt; Multiple Patent Award Innovations; team recipient for Malcolm Baldrige Award, Marketing & Communications.
Who is Catherine Conroy?
I am an Expert Communicator.
I like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. Communication is my theme at work. I feel a need to help communicate a company’s value – to bring it to life, to energize employees, engage customers and create excitement!
I am a Strategic Thinker.
Marketing is the glue that holds a company’s long term strategy on track. A well-focused marketing strategy allows you to sort through the clutter and find the best route to value creation. Strategic thinking is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large, one that has allowed me to see patterns where others simply see complexity.