When it comes to bold decisions, marketing maven Manelle Merhi of Kennards Hire, doesn’t flinch.

After two decades of brand alignment, she famously pulled the pin on a major sponsorship with Australia’s biggest reno show – a move driven by instinct, not inertia. It’s this combination of fearless creativity, data-savvy strategy, and unwavering grit that defines Merhi’s approach to marketing.

Whether she’s challenging overused industry jargon – like “journey” – advocating for brave, boundary-pushing ideas, or leading with a strong sense of purpose and collaboration, Merhi is defined by her authenticity, boldness, and deep commitment to advancing the marketing profession.

Effective marketing strategy 

Indeed, Merhi knows how to steer a brand toward high-value growth without losing sight of its roots. 

As the general manager of marketing and customer experience of Kennards Hire since April 2020, and a team member for over 12 years, she has played a pivotal role in reimagining the company’s marketing approach – especially when it comes to engaging the commercial segment.

“Historically, our brand has had a strong hold on the DIY and Trade segment; the foundation for our business success. But with the changing nature of the construction industry and increase in large scale infrastructure development, we were being overlooked within the largest segment – commercial,” she explains.  

Recognising a critical gap – Kennards had strong awareness but low consideration among high-value commercial customers – Merhi created a dedicated division within her marketing team to bridge that divide. 

“We have operated for years with high awareness within the DIY segment but didn’t appear on their consideration set [71 per cent for the commercial segment compared to an average of 87 per cent for our DIY & Trade customers]. When one commercial segment is as valuable as 148 customers in another, the opportunity to the bottom line is clear.”   

What followed was a carefully balanced repositioning. “Critical to our approach was to protect the distinct personality of Kennards Hire and ensure we are protecting our core customer base whilst still resonating with this high value growth segment. We put significant effort and evaluation into avoiding turning our brand into a clinical B2B marketing brand, instead finding a way to stretch our mass market narrative to connect with this segment to drive conversion.” 

The results speak volumes: Brand consideration jumped from 71 per cent to 90 per cent, and brand usage grew from 48 per cent to 85 per cent. 

Merhi’s bold, customer-led strategy is proof of her ability to evolve a well-loved brand without diluting its DNA, all while creating measurable business impact. At the same time, Merhi has helped shift the mindset and strategy of the broader business, highlighting her ability to move beyond the borders of marketing. 

She initiated a bold transformation in Kennards' sales operations by advocating for a dual-operating model – one that balances day-to-day execution with longer-term strategic development.

“I worked alongside the CEO to define how the marketing and CX team could work alongside the GM of sales to have a stronger contribution working ‘on the business’ whilst Sales were focusing on driving sales performance,” she explains. “The outcome was standing up a sales enablement discipline which saw us design and commence the implementation of a Sales Maturity strategy including a 3-year roadmap for changes across sales culture, training, tools, processes and technology.” 

This collaboration gave birth to a new sales enablement discipline focused on improving maturity across sales culture, training, tools and technology.

Already, she says the transformational processes are adding value to customer experience, driving growth in sales, but have also enabled a significant reduction in administration, leaving more time to focus on sales.   

“But the true value comes from the connection we’ve been able to build between Sales and Marketing. Removing the barriers and embracing a truly collaborative approach with complete alignment around commercial objectives, financial goals and service level agreements to best serve this segment.” 

Discerning decision making 

After two decades of partnership with one of Australia’s highest-rated renovation shows, The Block, Merhi made the bold call to step away. 

“Since Season one, we’ve been a key sponsor of The Block through both financial and contra product investment. The partnership had been critical in our business growth, but when our contract was up for renewal in 2024, I led an evaluation of our partnership to ensure this ongoing investment was the right thing for the business in the future,” she says.

Working closely with the executive leadership team, board, and the Kennards family, Merhi built a business case grounded in data, insights and future-facing strategy. The result: A collective decision to reallocate the investment and focus on a more targeted, multi-segment growth strategy.

“With this investment, I created tailored creative assets and a media strategy targeting the Commercial segment through mass brand messaging. This changed investment is one of the most critical areas in unlocking this segment’s growth. Our brand tracking shows this segment has the highest recall, showing the changed investment is driving results, whilst maintaining momentum in all other segments,” she says.    

Certainly, the pivot freed up the budget to develop a tailored creative and media approach aimed squarely at the commercial segment – one of the company’s highest-potential audiences. 

Business influence 

A transformational shift in the sales experience – led by Merhi’s focus on automation and customer-centric tools – has significantly reduced time spent on sales administration, delivering both cost savings and a better customer experience.

“I initiated some robust conversations for a need of a function or a team with a focus of working ‘on’ the business on our Commercial GTM approach as we are all heads down working ‘in’ the business, if we were to be effective in our commercial segment aspirations,” continues Merhi.  

As a result, her role now includes critical long-term sales strategy and planning, including contributing to pricing philosophy, data and reporting dashboards, knowledge systems, sales capability training and CX for the end-to-end sales process. 

A highlight of this strategy is creating a Sales Playbook in both print and digital format alongside an account portal for commercial customers with useful tools and resources to streamline sales administration, allowing the sales team to connect in real time into business data whilst on the road. 

The playbook and portal are standout innovations under her leadership – tools purpose-built to streamline the sales process. 

“Early reports for this system provide intel that there is a 15 per cent increase in sales efficiency to process customer orders and manage their accounts, freeing up significant hours in the day for them to focus on building closer customer relationships and drive growth with more sales time,” says Merhi.  

Customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. With faster, more accurate data flowing through the system, customers now have greater visibility and control over their transactions, improving their experience and reinforcing trust in our service.

“I genuinely believe the process of shifting sites and creating a function focused on the business has helped to shape our strategic agenda,” she says. Her influence now touches pricing, data dashboards, knowledge systems, and CX across the full sales funnel — a clear sign of her leadership beyond marketing.

Data-driven decision making

For Merhi, data and creativity don’t compete, they complement. “I sometimes prefer to be creative first - don’t shackle the dreams, the out-of-the-box thinking, the opportunity to scare yourself and be challenging,” she says. “Harness the freedom to let creativity soar, but then definitely lean into the data to ensure the strategy is aligning to the insights – basically leave  room for experimentation then use data to guide.” 

That ethos guides her on many of her daring decisions. “With the competitive landscape intensifying, we knew change was coming and we needed to have a strategy to fight against the competitive pressures. I knew the marketing and CX team would play a critical role in driving change and protecting our base.”  

Merhi began with the rigorous groundwork: Extensive research, competitor analysis, market projections, and insights drawn from frontline teams, customers, and suppliers. Armed with data, she made a conscious decision not to compete on price and proximity – areas the competitors were using to differentiate. Instead, she doubled down on the strength that has long defined its brand: exceptional service.

“Using human centred design, we reviewed, optimised and extended our service capabilities to make sure we protected our leadership standing in the service of tradies. The culmination of this journey was a suite of 10 transformational service benefits to make tradies’ jobs easier.”  

One standout initiative was the introduction of a coded after-hours drop-off system, enabling tradies to return equipment outside of regular hours. It’s a direct response to their business pressures and a key factor in maintaining our premium market position.

This service-led transformation is delivering results. “Our dedication to making the job easy is being rewarded with a larger share of wallet and loyalty, with a 30 per cent increase in average customer value,” she adds. 

Commercial delivery 

Under Merhi’s leadership, alignment of marketing, sales, and customer experience strategies has fundamentally reshaped Kennards Hire’s commercial segment, delivering standout results in an industry facing broad decline.

While Oxford Economics forecasts a 1.8 per cent downturn across key construction and infrastructure sectors, Kennards Hire has sustained year-on-year growth over the past two financial years. This growth follows three consecutive years of double-digit expansion, particularly in the top-tier commercial markets.

“Whilst our current projection for FY25 may not be double digits, what makes me proudest is the consistency in growing all the four customer segments Kennards Hire operates in,” comments Merhi. “This is testament to making strategic choices that allow for sustainable, quality growth whilst maintaining superior customer experience across all personas and geographies, staying true to their core value proposition of superior service, maintaining a CSAT rating of 9.4 for years in both legacy and new markets.” 

What sets this performance apart is not just the growth itself, but its consistency. Even as macro-economic headwinds intensify, Merhi’s strategic focus has enabled quality, sustainable growth across all four customer segments Kennards Hire operates in. By making deliberate choices around where and how to invest, the business has maintained momentum while safeguarding its reputation for service excellence.

People leadership 

Under Merhi’s leadership, marketing at Kennards Hire has evolved into a customer-obsessed, insights-led function that balances bold creativity with operational excellence. Her team of 20, spanning marketing and CX, thrives under a leadership style she describes in three words: “Passionately authentic, bold, and a servant to the profession and my people.”

That servant leadership mindset is evident in how she empowers her team to be resilient, creative and commercially-minded.

The one attribute Merhi expects from modern marketers? “Grit! The ability to persevere through challenge –only people with grit can really break through the mediocre level of marketing,” she says.

But admittedly, recent years have been challenging when creating positive momentum in team culture and performance. 

“I’ve learnt a lot and adapted my style and focus to find new ways of connecting with my team and increasing performance, whilst accommodating health, safety and flexible working requirements,” says Merhi. “As a people-first leader, I believe my team should be personally recognised for their contribution, and I seek to nurture each of them so they can perform to the best of their ability.” 

Bringing this philosophy to life are a range of people-focused programs that promote belonging, growth, and flexibility. These include a back-to-work coach for returning parents, no-meeting Fridays, monthly lunch-and-learns, and flexible work arrangements. She ensures recognition is personalised – through gifts or team lunches – and invests in tailored development opportunities like expert coaching in strategic brand planning.

“I’ve focused on planning, communication, training and collaboration principles that are at the heart of our marketing function and extended these principles to invest time and efforts to embed a measurement culture into the team over the last two years.” 

This deliberate and values-driven approach has not only strengthened team performance but also elevated marketing’s credibility across the business. 

By embedding a culture of accountability, continuous learning, and care, Merhi has built a high-performing team that feels connected to purpose and empowered to drive results. 

Her leadership is a reminder that great marketing doesn’t just come from strategy – it comes from people who are inspired, supported, and given the space to thrive.