Dena Mayne, marketing vice president, Uponor North America
Dena Mayne, the new vice president of offerings/marketing at Apple Valley-based Uponor North America, is working to build on the growth of its plumbing and heating-and-cooling components business while contributing to the launch of Phyn, a water conservation technology joint venture with Belkin International.
Mayne said she was bringing a traditional business-to-business marketing focus to balance the company's product- and engineering expertise-based sale approach. She is also looking at ramping up corporate marketing to build the Uponor brand. "We're at the onset of Internet of Things and data — and what that means for an industry that is in need of a big innovation leap," Mayne said.
One way that is coming into play is the Phyn joint venture, formed earlier this year between Finland-based parent company Uponor Corporation and consumer electronics giant Belkin. The goal is to develop and commercialize "intelligent water" technology to protect against leaks and reduce water waste in smart homes and commercial buildings. "If you do a little dreaming, which we've been doing here on the Uponor side, it's like, imagine a day where your house is as sophisticated from a technology standpoint as your car," Mayne said.
Mayne most recently was vice president of marketing at Ecolab, where she worked in marketing leadership roles for 14 years. She also worked in marketing at 3M. Mayne has a marketing degree from Concordia College.
Q: What are the roles of Uponor and Belkin in Phyn?
A: The joint venture with Belkin, which understands how to capture the data, and our understanding of what are those critical points through the system that we need to be monitoring and sensing and then making it actionable forms a strong partnership.
Q: What is the consumer potential for a Phyn device?
A: Where Uponor has a brand reputation and connection is at that installer, [business-to-business] level. Eventually that installer has to talk to the homeowner and gain that buy. It will be a bit of a dual approach in terms of building that awareness with the homeowner and help enable our sellers to easily sell a system like Phyn. We're certainly not going to become a [consumer] organization, though. Our continued growth with the installer is the focus.
Q: How is Uponor adapting to a more stable U.S. housing market?
A: The foundation has already been put in place through the strategy of [Uponor North America President] Bill Gray to diversify our offerings. From a marketing perspective we need to understand the where the big macro trends are heading and more importantly translate them into what that means for us, for our customers, for our industry and identifying new opportunities for growth.
Todd Nelson
