Must Read | Suppliers new PPAI 100 High Marks this year in the Online Presence category, which counts a website’s pageviews. Stack that atop its five other High Marks, rewarded for 2023 Revenue, Growth, Professional Development, Responsibility and Innovation. It’s hard to say that the company’s social media approach is failing in any way. But the #Online18 is curated from past winners and the companies or colleagues that they and other marketing experts from the industry recommend. The simple fact is that no one nominated PCNA. And when looking at its channels, this isn’t hard to believe. That list tends to reward promo brands’ quirks, their personalities and a firm’s willingness to put itself out there and lower its guard. That’s just not PCNA. To my mind, it has always been something of a Stepford supplier. It is manicured in its presentation and perfect in its communication, a polished but faceless corporate monolith. Here I am, though, sitting at the same table as CEO Neil Ringel, Chief Revenue Officer Holly Brown and Global Chief Merchandising Officer Liz Haesler. They all have faces, and those faces even have smiles on them. These are real people, and in talking to them, one quickly realizes that they care very much about other people, too. Their strategies are built not only with sales in mind, or to grind out margin for their private equity owner, but to serve their employees, their distributor customers, their communities and people in need around the world. There’s a cultural reason PCNA is an industry leader on sustainability and efficiency, and why it is so enduringly successful. It’s the same reason, I think, it has developed this thick corporate veneer: It’s not about PCNA – it’s about what PCNA can do for others. Inspiring Pride In advance of my mid-April trip to company headquarters in rural western Pennsylvania, about 45 minutes outside Pittsburgh, I’m sent 38 • JUNE 2024 • PPAI
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