PlatinumBlack’s video series, Platinum Standard, spotlights technical B2B brands that are effectively integrating strategy, marketing, and creative to accelerate growth.
In our third episode, we turn our attention to Path Robotics, an Ohio based physical AI company for manufacturing working to address the welder shortage. Our Director of Strategy Ben Kleckley and Integrated Marketing Manager Lisa Stauber break down what Path Robotics appears to be doing well, from positioning to defining their market, and more.
Follow along for the full conversation and future episodes.
PlatinumBlack has no relation to Path Robotics. All insights reflect our professional perspectives and positive assumptions based on publicly available information.
*Transcript has been edited for readability
Ben Kleckley:
I've been director of strategy here at Platinum Black. I'm here today having a conversation with Lisa Stauber, integrated marketing manager, about a company called Path Robotics. Hi, Lisa.
Lisa Stauber:
Path robotics is a company that's defining physical AI as a new industry serving the welding business.
Ben Kleckley:
They use AI together with the physical equipment to build drawings and movement types that then go into welding for large equipment, construction equipment, shipbuilding, utility poles, things that are on a large scale.
Lisa Stauber:
We've never worked with past robotics, and all of our thoughts today reflect our professional opinions on the work that they are doing.
Ben Kleckley:
Large equipment. Construction equipment.
Lisa Stauber:
I think the first way Path robotics is positioned in the market is by defining its market as physical AI. When people think of AI, they think of this cloud, computer or things in a data center, and they free to find it as a physical AI. Beyond robotics.
Ben Kleckley:
Yeah, I agree with that, Lisa. I think there's also a positioning of Path robotics as a provider of a service rather than provider of equipment. When you think about robotics, typically you're thinking about a sale of a product to a business and then using that.
Lisa Stauber:
Product.
Ben Kleckley:
AI program on their own. But I see them in this robot as a service space.
Lisa Stauber:
Yeah, I think that's really smart to to differentiate themselves both as you can buy their robotic products and have a capital expenditure that they are doing. You can do robots as a service and kind of dip your toe in the water and see if it's right for you.
Ben Kleckley:
The other thing that I saw in the robotics is their focus on like a specific set of products, so they know the problem they're trying to solve. And it's with big construction equipment, utility.
Lisa Stauber:
Poles.
Ben Kleckley:
Big things that they're working on. It's very precise, but it's not, you know, tiny products. They're using it on the scale that's so large. They know that space and they know that that's where rather big things. I think it's very big. The other the other piece is positioning themselves as a solution to the welder shortage in America right now.
Ben Kleckley:
I think there's something like 400,000 welders shortage right now. So being a an a company that can help solve that problem is a great positioning for them. Those big things. I think the I think one of the marketing programs that I noticed just looking through their content was the use of video. I think they did a really good job.
Ben Kleckley:
I mean, again, you talked about it in the physical world. This is a physical product that you can actually see. It's not a it's not a digital asset or, you know, steel product. You can see. So the use of video in the movement of the robotics in the, in the, the brightness of the, you know, the welding arc of make it come to life in a way that that really makes it makes it real.
Lisa Stauber:
One thing I noticed is that they aren't leveraging a lot of their own social media channels, which probably makes sense because their customer niche is so specific, but they are using a lot of influencer marketing, not influencers like people think of, but influencers within their industry. So, for example, American Welding Society came out to their shop and got a full tour.
Ben Kleckley:
And.
Lisa Stauber:
Exactly how everything works with the world's look like, and then gives us them a lot of credibility so they can use these other.
Ben Kleckley:
All.
Lisa Stauber:
These industry influencers for them as their social proof. Their VP, Joe, said that their biggest competitor is disbelief. So that video shows like actual proof within the market. And then the other thing they're leveraging is press releases. So they're not talking about them. They're letting other people and they're letting their partnership speak for them, which helps them overcome that disbelief.
Lisa Stauber:
Again, it's a social proof. And one of their most high profile recent press releases was about high, which is one of the biggest shipbuilders and has a lot of Department of Defense contracts. And that just gives them a lot of credibility in the space and helps with that disbelief problem.
Ben Kleckley:
Yeah. The other thing I saw on their website was a couple of case studies, and I think the case studies going hand in hand with the video proof really showing that that's surfaced.
Lisa Stauber:
Which is one of the biggest. It's like they really communicate their value by being very specific and clear on the problem, their solving. They're not solving the problem of exactly welds. They're solving the problem of needing welders, which is a shortage in the market. The average age of welder is 55 or older, and there's not a lot of new people training into a problem.
Lisa Stauber:
The other thing that they are is they're very specific and very clear on Rois. So they say it's 30% more efficient, four times more value. These are numbers of CFO can take to a budget meeting. It's not this kind of nebulous talk that we often hear about AI and cloud services, about automation or things that are difficult to pin down.
Ben Kleckley:
Or that's exactly what I was going to say. The things that I believe they're doing to effectively communicate that value is not only showing it, but telling it to and telling it in a specific way. With that 30% boost in productivity or the four for exclusive product activity, 30% cost reduction. I think 97% first pass yield. So I think some of that really proves that value and says it in a way that, like you said, can communicate with the financial people in the in the customer organization and prove that.
Ben Kleckley:
So you're not you're not just estimating and you're talking about how great it is. You're talking about it in real, real dollar value.
Lisa Stauber:
And I think that their dual mode of being able to work with them, you can either.
Ben Kleckley:
Says it in.
Lisa Stauber:
A wins their robotics hardware, or do the robots as a service really provides an entry level point that overcomes that objective objection that people can try before they buy.
Ben Kleckley:
I guess what struck me was the amount of video content on the website. So to me, that was the way that they are showing, I guess, exactly what it is that they're selling. And again, without having humans in the picture, shows that it's autonomous and shows that it runs by itself and, and can adjust and things bend, right.
Ben Kleckley:
So things in the move and it adjusts on the fly.
Lisa Stauber:
Yeah. And that's one of the ways that they're really leveraging press releases to let others tell their story. They have a lot of videos that are companions to those press releases. And they get very specific about what does this mean for the industry and who they're actually working with and who's basically giving them a vote of confidence. Another thing that I noticed on the website is very specific.
Lisa Stauber:
So if you go to their industry page, for example, it lists in bullet points. We work with these industries.
Ben Kleckley
Yeah, I think spelling it out is important. I mean, especially on a website, if that's your main assay going to market, spelling out and being very specific about what your capabilities are, say what you're working on and again, sacred your claim on those industries. And here's who we can help. And if you're not in one of these industries, then maybe you're not a right customer for us.
Ben Kleckley:
The simpler it is anyways, especially when you're communicating something that it's a very complex product, very intricate and highly engineered technical product, but that using that simplicity to communicate the value. Contact us. This is how you get in touch. This is what we do. That is conversation.
Ben Kleckley:
I would say that other B2B businesses could learn to stake their claim. Find out the one thing that they're trying to be known for and then become known for it. I think that's what Path Robotics is doing very well. I think that for other B2B businesses to get on the right path to grow, they.
Lisa Stauber:
Path robotics says it's really smart, is they own the category and made it before their competitors.
Ben Kleckley:
Needed it.
Lisa Stauber:
So they're calling it AI, which was not a category to begin with. And now they are the thought leaders of the category and they're at the forefront.
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