The SaaS Brand Strategy Show

General Mills recently introduced their new "Chief Brand and Disruptive Growth Officer" after doing away with the CMO title internally earlier last spring. The oddity (and length) of the title gave us some thoughts—and we knew our friend Winston Binch would have some too. With a storied career in creative, brand, marketing, and experience, Winston works with some of the biggest B2C brands in the world as the Chief Brand and Experience officer at GALE Partners.

We took time to consider the impact on the B2C space of the ever-changing marketing leadership title, as well as the implications it has in the B2B space. Do the additions of words like "brand" or "growth" or "disruption" and more, signify that something about marketing as we know it isn't working?

We debate the merits of it all and a whole lot more, on this week's episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy Show.

Listen to Winston's podcast at GALE Partners here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/is-this-thing-on-the-gale-audio-series/id1566626637

About DRMG:

SaaS Brand Strategy (SBS) isn’t about the colors you use, or the typeface you choose. It’s about the category you design and the story you tell.

DRMG exists to help SaaS businesses find their magic bullet, load it, and fire it into the market.

The companies we work with come out the other side with differentiation, defined categories, and the messaging to back it up. They’re organizationally aligned, inspired, and ready to tell a better story—and win.

Own the brand that drives demand. With DRMG.

Send us an email at: [email protected]

Learn more at: drmg.co

Product-market fit. The perpetual pursuit of any SaaS company. Make sure your product matches the needs of your market—and you'll see predictable, repeatable, and scalable revenue as a result. Easy to talk about. Not always so easy to achieve.

About DRMG:

SaaS Brand Strategy (SBS) isn’t about the colors you use, or the typeface you choose. It’s about the category you design and the story you tell.

DRMG exists to help SaaS businesses find their magic bullet, load it, and fire it into the market.

The companies we work with come out the other side with differentiation, defined categories, and the messaging to back it up. They’re organizationally aligned, inspired, and ready to tell a better story—and win.

Own the brand that drives demand. With DRMG.

Send us an email at: [email protected]

Learn more at: drmg.co

Two weeks ago, we talked about strategy belonging to the CEO—not marketing. A listener and friend of the show found himself yelling at that episode, and told us so on Twitter. We loved it. Enter Mike Troiano. Mike is a graduate of Cornell and the Harvard Business School. He's a TechStars mentor, a Board Member of Hometap, RippleMatch, Fetcher, and Hack Diversity. He's a venture capitalist at G20 Ventures. And he's also our guest on today's show.

In this episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy Show, we air out our friendly disagreement with Mike Troiano, and cover a whole lot of ground. We talk about marketing, brand strategy, storytelling, differentiation, the line between CMO and CEO, venture capitalists, and a whole lot more. Join us for the ride as we banter with a likeminded soul from the east coast to solve the world's problems (and some SaaS ones too).

Learn more about Mike Troiano here.

About DRMG:

SaaS Brand Strategy (SBS) isn’t about the colors you use, or the typeface you choose. It’s about the category you design and the story you tell.

DRMG exists to help SaaS businesses find their magic bullet, load it, and fire it into the market.

The companies we work with come out the other side with differentiation, defined categories, and the messaging to back it up. They’re organizationally aligned, inspired, and ready to tell a better story—and win.

Own the brand that drives demand. With DRMG.

Send us an email at: [email protected]

Learn more at: drmg.co

A buzz-phrase echoing the Zoom halls of many (if not most) software companies today is "Product Led Growth." It's a phrase, an acronym (PLG), and a directive that many of our clients are running into and up against. So on this week's episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy Show, we meet the topic head on. We answer the question of exactly what the hell Product Led Growth is, and discuss whether it is in fact a new trend, or maybe just an old idea that's been reimagined.

We also dive into the pros and cons of SaaS companies that decide to lead with a Product Led Growth model, what some of the alternatives might be, and how all of this is related to a solid and differentiated SaaS Brand Strategy. All that and more, this week, on The SaaS Brand Strategy Show.

About DRMG:

SaaS Brand Strategy (SBS) isn’t about the colors you use, or the typeface you choose. It’s about the category you design and the story you tell.

DRMG exists to help SaaS businesses find their magic bullet, load it, and fire it into the market.

The companies we work with come out the other side with differentiation, defined categories, and the messaging to back it up. They’re organizationally aligned, inspired, and ready to tell a better story—and win.

Own the brand that drives demand. With DRMG.

Send us an email at: [email protected]

Learn more at: drmg.co

A LinkedIn comment section caught fire this past week, as Drift's Chief Brand Officer Dave Gerhardt posted his take on a proper order of operations: First you develop your strategy. Then you create your positioning. And last you write your messaging. And while we here at DRMG agree wholeheartedly, this order of operations unfortunately falls into Marketing's lap in its entirety. And it shouldn't.

Our very own Dustin Robertson responded: "Don’t confuse strategy as a marketing problem. It's the CEO’s job to drive this. We often hear, "We need better messaging." But the root cause is the lack of a strategy on how to be different." This week on The SaaS Brand Strategy Show, we talk about exactly what we mean when we say that, and why Dustin's response was so universally liked by other viewers of the post.

We discuss how and why this happens, and how to ensure the proper order of operations cascades from the proper place inside your SaaS business.

About DRMG:

SaaS Brand Strategy (SBS) isn’t about the colors you use, or the typeface you choose. It’s about the category you design and the story you tell.

DRMG exists to help SaaS businesses find their magic bullet, load it, and fire it into the market.

The companies we work with come out the other side with differentiation, defined categories, and the messaging to back it up. They’re organizationally aligned, inspired, and ready to tell a better story—and win.

Own the brand that drives demand. With DRMG.

Send us an email at: [email protected]

Learn more at: drmg.co

What do Tony Hawk's blood, vegan cannibal restaurants, pop punk bands singing hate mail songs, and killer baby names all have in common? They're brilliant lightning-strike-level marketing and messaging brought to bear by B2C canned water brand, Liquid Death. Last week, on The SaaS Brand Strategy show, we were clear that B2B marketing has a lot to learn from B2C marketing. This week, we deep dive on exactly what we mean by putting Liquid Death's strategy and tactics under the microscope.

While not all B2B brands can (or want) to take their positioning to such an extreme level, there's still gobs to learn from the genius strategy, marketing, positioning, and creative ideas that Liquid Death has implemented (and continues to implement). So tune in this week, as we break down what exactly they've done, why we think they do it, and how your B2B SaaS brand can learn a thing or two, too.

Questions, comments, or suggestions about the show? Send us an email, at [email protected]

Liquid Death: https://liquiddeath.com/

Tony Hawk Blood Deck: https://liquiddeath.com/pages/hawkblood

Greatest Hates Album: https://open.spotify.com/album/35MCONvg1s2g8KqgxEEnAw?si=WBidTQbWTyWQYTSyJlZx-Q

Cutie Polluties: https://liquiddeath.com/products/cutiepolluties

Killer Baby Namer: https://liquiddeath.com/pages/killer-baby-namer

About DRMG:

SaaS Brand Strategy (SBS) isn’t about the colors you use, or the typeface you choose. It’s about the category you design and the story you tell.

DRMG exists to help SaaS businesses find their magic bullet, load it, and fire it into the market.

The companies we work with come out the other side with differentiation, defined categories, and the messaging to back it up. They’re organizationally aligned, inspired, and ready to tell a better story—and win.

Own the brand that drives demand. With DRMG.

Learn more at: drmg.co

This past week, the SaaStr conference returned. And we couldn't help but notice the event felt a bit quiet. Great content that attendees enjoyed—but no marketing lightning strikes that made headlines (or even made their way to social media). It got us thinking—why isn't B2B marketing more... exciting?

In this week's episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy Show, we dive into our combined B2B and B2C experience to compare and contrast the types of marketing that do and don't happen in their respective worlds. We discuss some reasons why those things do or don't happen, and ways that B2B marketers can learn from B2C, to bring those strategies to life when marketing a SaaS company.

About DRMG:

SaaS Brand Strategy (SBS) isn’t about the colors you use, or the typeface you choose. It’s about the category you design and the story you tell.

DRMG exists to help SaaS businesses find their magic bullet, load it, and fire it into the market.

The companies we work with come out the other side with differentiation, defined categories, and the messaging to back it up. They’re organizationally aligned, inspired, and ready to tell a better story—and win.

Own the brand that drives demand. With DRMG.

Learn more at: drmg.co

A big part of branding is what we call things. We're the first to admit that names are important. Whether you're deciding what to call your brand, your product, or your category, there's a lot that goes into a name. On this week's episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy Show, we talk about everything that does (and sometimes doesn't) go into names.

Through the lens of the recent rebrand by SurveyMonkey, transitioning into their umbrella company Momentive, as well as companies like Dunkin' Donuts, Burlington Coat Factory, and more, we talk about how and why brands change their names. What's the reason? What's the value? What's the risk? When and why does it work? And when and why does it sometimes... not...

Forbes article: SurveyMonkey Rebrands As Momentive To Fuel Its Growing Enterprise Business

About DRMG:

SaaS Brand Strategy (SBS) isn’t about the colors you use, or the typeface you choose. It’s about the category you design and the story you tell.

DRMG exists to help SaaS businesses find their magic bullet, load it, and fire it into the market.

The companies we work with come out the other side with differentiation, defined categories, and the messaging to back it up. They’re organizationally aligned, inspired, and ready to tell a better story—and win.

Own the brand that drives demand. With DRMG.

Learn more at: drmg.co

We're no stranger to the benefits of building a category. And the primary benefit we see most businesses seek, when it comes to developing a SaaS Brand Strategy, is the dollars. Straight up growth. But over the years, we've seen the results of category design expand far beyond the bucks.

On today's episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy Show, we take a rapid fire approach and dive a layer deeper to delve into the benefits of category design that aren't just growing your business. Everything from organizational alignment to recruiting efforts, product roadmaps to investor conversations.

So buckle up, as we jump into the benefits of building a category across the board (and as always, a whole lot more).

About DRMG:

SaaS Brand Strategy (SBS) isn’t about the colors you use, or the typeface you choose. It’s about the category you design and the story you tell.

DRMG exists to help SaaS businesses find their magic bullet, load it, and fire it into the market.

The companies we work with come out the other side with differentiation, defined categories, and the messaging to back it up. They’re organizationally aligned, inspired, and ready to tell a better story—and win.

Own the brand that drives demand. With DRMG.

Learn more at: drmg.co

A first for The SaaS Brand Strategy Show, we bring on guest Nick Runyon, President at former DRMG client PFL. On today’s episode, we get into the category creation process with Nick, and unpack PFL’s business. We talk about their progression and evolution through the years, the category they started with, and the category they ended up with after their engagement with DRMG.

You’ll hear about the major unlock the teams encountered through interviewing PFL stakeholders and customers: that today’s world is an Attention Economy. And that the best way to gain people’s attention is a combination of online and offline interaction. The perfect blending of what PFL does. And hence, the Hybrid Experience was unveiled.

Strap in for a ride through the PFL’s SaaS Brand Strategy process with DRMG, and what it means to nail your messaging and positioning in a way that intuitively resonates with your market.

We’ll also talk about the recent news that PFL adjacent company Sendoso recently received a $100 million investment. And we ask Nick what this means for their category and their business.

Learn more about PFL here.

About DRMG:

SaaS Brand Strategy (SBS) isn’t about the colors you use, or the typeface you choose. It’s about the category you design and the story you tell.

DRMG exists to help SaaS businesses find their magic bullet, load it, and fire it into the market.

The companies we work with come out the other side with differentiation, defined categories, and the messaging to back it up. They’re organizationally aligned, inspired, and ready to tell a better story—and win.

Own the brand that drives demand. With DRMG.

Learn more at https://drmg.co