IndustrialSage Transcript
Danny:
All right, so let's jump into today's episode. I have a very special guest here, I have Catherine Bruce here who is the VP of Product Marketing for Acuity Brands. Catherine, thank you so much.
Catherine:
Thanks for having me, thank you.
Danny:
Oh yeah, pleasure. Super excited. So, all right, for those who aren't familiar with Acuity, there's probably two people out there who don't know. Everyone else should.
Catherine:
You're very kind.
Danny:
Tell me, tell us, what do you guys do?
Catherine:
So, Acuity Brands is a technology company. I know a lot of our employees and a lot of people that are familiar with Acuity, may naturally call us a lighting company. In fact, I have to blame myself for saying that a lot when I explain what I do to my family. A lot of the base of our foundation and where we came from was a lot of lighting brands, but over the last decade, maybe 15 years, we've really turned ourselves into a technology company, combining lighting controls, electrical drivers, emergency drivers, and then building management controls, and IoT. Bringing the IoT into everything. And, how we can really create this holistic solution for the different needs of different building occupants, building owners?
Danny:
Yeah. So, I think it's a great thing because I think a lot of people, traditionally... "Yeah, well, we're a lighting company, that's what we do," but a technology company, I totally get that. That's awesome. And it makes a lot of sense, especially when we get into a little bit more of the meat of what I want to talk about today. But, before that, real quick, I just want to get a sense, we talked about a little bit before, like your background. Like how did you get into marketing? What's that story look like?
Catherine:
Right, so I actually started as a reporter and a television, local news producer. Actually, almost a little bit more than half my career now is with Acuity, which was a different realization for me. Yeah. But, for a long time, most of my career was into local television news as a producer and a reporter. And once I moved to Atlanta, I decided I really kind of wanted a break, I wanted a career change. I really enjoy storytelling. That's part of the reason I got into journalism and broadcasting. I just, I love writing, I love telling stories, I love telling people's stories. So I didn't... I wanted to do something that I could continue that aspect of my career. But I really wanted to have a weekend off, or have holidays off. So I decided I wanted to do something in marketing, and I thought product marketing would fit in cause you're telling the story of why this product is the best new thing. Whatever it is.
Danny:
Well, and it sounds like it works. So you've been there for a minute now.
Catherine:
Eight years, yeah, mm-hmm.
Danny:
Yeah. And, Acuity who's got, just a handful of products. Right?
Catherine:
Yes. Just a handful. We have, I think I counted the other day, it's 38 brands now with a recent acquisition of The Luminaires Group. So that's five new lighting brands.
Danny:
That's what I like sku-wise..how many? Any idea?
Catherine:
I believe we have about 7 million skus.
Danny:
Seven million skus?
Catherine:
I think so.
Danny:
Okay. That's...a few.
Catherine:
Right, yeah. So we have several brands spanning lots of different product categories, whether it's industrial lighting, outdoor lighting, indoor lighting, residential lighting, controls, building management controls, our brands span the entire country. We have some software and build Operating Systems technologies. Our Atrius brand is our IoT brand out in California.