Does the outdoor industry overindex on brand? Alex Maier, President of OnWater, joins the show to challenge one of the outdoor industry's biggest assumptions: that brand marketing alone drives growth. Drawing from his experience in SaaS and outdoor, Alex breaks down why product marketing is the missing link for many brands, how listening to customers actually fuels innovation, and what outdoor companies can learn from software when it comes to adoption, retention, and trust.

We unpack the difference between brand and product marketing, why emotion still matters in utility-driven storytelling, and how ignoring customer pain points leads to "zombie brands."

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This podcast is produced by Port Side, a creative production studio creating content strategy + production for active brands, rooted in emotion.

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