The SaaS Brand Strategy Show
by DRMG
As marketing team and agency leaders specializing in B2B and B2C category creation, your co-hosts Dustin Robertson, and Mike Geraci talk all things SaaS. We dive deep into in our software experience with brand and business strategy, fundraising with the right story, strategic narratives, the voice of the customer, and anything in service of SaaS business leaders owning the brand that drives demand.
Episodes
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Ep. 57 - From Cannes to Chaos—CMOs, Creators & the AI Tension
In this episode of the SaaS Brand Strategy Show, DRMG welcomes Winston Binch, Chief Brand & Experience Officer at Gale, for a frank conversation about the shifting ground under marketers’ feet. We unpack: Why Cannes has shifted from a creative director’s festival to a CMO showcase What 70% of…
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Category Design vs. Positioning: Why Story Beats Spin
This episode’s a cross-post from Content Blocks, hosted by Joe—who we first met while he was leading content at Mosaic, one of our early DRMG clients. We worked with their team on the Strategic Finance category strategy, and in this conversation, Joe talks about how that work gave him a real...
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Episode 54 — The “Modern” Trap: Why It's a Lazy Differentiator
Too many SaaS companies are leaning on “modern” as their go-to positioning—modern data stack, modern payroll, modern analytics. In this episode, we break down why “modern” isn’t a meaningful differentiator, how it fails to connect with what customers actually care about, and what to use instead…
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What SaaS Startups and Home Builders Have in Common
Last week, Dustin traveled to Texas for a round-table discussion at a publicly-traded real estate development firm's retreat. The panel's topic was (TBD). What Dustin discovered was that the very same dynamics that push SaaS startups to seek greater clarity and alignment on their positioning…
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Ep. 52 - Building Brands that Stick: Lessons from the Rise and Sale of Backcountry.com
This episode of the SaaS Brand Strategy Show goes back in time for timeless truths. A discussion with Backcountry.com's employee #3 and first and former CMO on the rise and sale of outdoor retailer Backcountry.com, a company that deeply immersed itself in its target customer communities to drive...
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Ep 51 - Category lessons from the Supreme, Luxottica, Meta deals
On last week's Meta earnings call, Zuckerberg reported that demand for the Ray-Ban 'Smart Glasses' was “...still outpacing our ability to build them.” Either demand is through the roof (not seeing it), or the capacity to produce them is still developing (likely). Regardless, it appears...
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Ep. 50 - Why Category Strategy Scares the Sales Team
In this episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy Show, hosts Mike Geraci and Dustin Robertson are joined by Adam and Teymour from DashLX to discuss the challenges and successes of introducing a new category into the market, specifically focusing on the concept of "Lived Experience (LX)" data in the…
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Apple Delivers A Master Class In Category Design with Apple Intelligence
Apple recently made some big waves in the AI space. We'll discuss their strategic positioning with "Apple Intelligence AI" and the introduction of a privacy-focused "Personal Intelligence System." We'll explain what this means for the future of AI and what it might tell us about Apple's vision…
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Can Ai Be Strategic? Do You Have a Small Language Model?
Remember when machine learning was supposed to change how we did business? Machine Learning within an organization never materialized except for the largest enterprises with the largest data sets. Large Language Models (LLM) are delivering what machine learning never could. Build a Small Language...
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Ep. 47 - Hubspot Acquires Clearbit: Will Their Category Change?
On this week's episode of the SaaS Brand Strategy Show, Ryan, Mike, and Dustin delve into HubSpot's recent acquisition of Clearbit. A move that is part of what's been a significant shift in HubSpot's strategy over recent years, from a focus on inbound marketing to a broader customer management...
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Ep. 46 - Unpacking Humane's "AI Pin" Launch & New Tech Category Lessons
On this episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy show, we kick off a critical analysis of the world’s first “AI pin” introduced this month by Humane. Not just the pin itself, but the launch, and the combined praise and ire it’s drawn within the tech community. We’ll be discussing features, design, and...
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Ep. 45 - From B2C Psychology to B2B Category Design (with Eddie Yoon of Category Pirates)
In this episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy Show, Eddie Yoon, a renowned author, B2C and B2B marketing consultant, and category design expert, joins us to share his experience in consumer psychology and growth strategies. He highlights the importance of category creation for companies of all…
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Ep. 44 - Klaviyo's Rise From Shopify App to Juggernaut IPO
On this week's episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy show, we dive deep into the captivating story of Klaviyo's decade-long journey to transform the ecommerce landscape—culminating in what's expected to be a massive IPO next week. Today's episode unveils the intertwined relationship between Klaviyo...
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Ep. 43 - Building Up & Tearing Down Front's $200 Million Category Strategy
Strap in, SaaS fans. On this week's episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy show, we're taking a ride into the heart of Front’s category strategy around their Customer Operations Platform. We love finding interesting and well-executed category strategy in the wild, and Front has made waves with…
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Ep. 42 - Democratizing AI? Databricks' Billion-Dollar Bet on MosaicML
In this episode, we dive deep into Databricks' recent acquisition of MosaicML, a staggering $1.3 billion transaction that aims to democratize AI and bring its services to, well... everyone? We'll explore their before and after messaging, the key elements of category strategy in play, and the role...
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Ep. 41 - "Remote Work" is old and so are you. The implications and expectations inherent to an antiquated category term.
When evolution occurs, previously accepted nomenclature can become obsolete. So it is with "Remote Work," that charming idea of a distributed office, freed from the constraints of traditional office bureaucracy and politics. But remote from what? With the majority of business meeting invites...
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Ep. 40 - "I Am Not A Fraction" (with Bridgio CEO Paul Jones)
This is the first discussion about what we have termed "Headless categories", category names that have just appeared and been adopted without any really heavy strategic thought behind them. On this episode we discuss the "Fractional Leadership" category. Fractional CMOs, Fraction CIOs, etc... Is...
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Ep. 35 - Where Do Community and Category Collide?
The word community is thrown around a lot when it comes to SaaS companies. Sometimes it's mentioned as a trendy growth tool. Sometimes it's used synonymously with social media. Sometimes it's used to refer to a group of developers coding in the same language, or against the same software. So with...
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Ep. 34 - Your Brand Is Not Your Branding (And Vice Versa)
Brand and branding have the same root word, but they're by no means synonyms. And yet the number of times we hear people conflate these two words is sometimes astounding. Today we tackle a pet project and pet peeve of ours, which is the nuanced but crucial difference between these two words.…
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Ep. 33 - Perfecting Your Pitch in Uncertain Times
As recession fears continue to muddy the waters of progress, your story is more important than ever. Your narrative—what you tell and sell in the market—will be responsible for the interest and investment you get in your next round—or unfortunately for some, the interest and investment you don't...
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Ep. 32 - The Trap of Domain Expertise (When Your Focus Ruins Your Focus)
It's common to want and need domain expertise, when you're problem-solving. We all look for experts who've solved problems like ours before, to help us solve our own problems. But is there a point where your problem is so niche or specific, that the domain expertise simply doesn't exist? Do we...
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Ep. 31 - Strahl Lightning Strikes to Prove Their Glassware "Unbreakable" | 2022 B2B Cannes Lions Minisode #4
Identify your customer's problem. Create a category that solves it. Assign an enemy to the conversation. Then design a creative lightning strike that proves your category is the solution to your customers problem, and will help them defeat that enemy. Easy to say in a few sentences, but...
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Ep. 30 - Heineken Goes Green(er) with "Unwasted Beer" | 2022 B2B Cannes Lions Minisode #3
When the pandemic hit, and the world went into quarantine, bars and restaurants were saddled with product they couldn't sell. Heineken decided that instead of letting their beer go to waste in bars and restaurants all over the UK, they would buy it back from their customers, and try to do…
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Ep. 29 - Spotify's ABM Campaign Targets CMOs with Custom Hits | 2022 B2B Cannes Lions Minisode #2
How do you tackle account-based marketing (ABM) when you're the largest music streaming platform in the world? If you're Spotify, you make custom music for the CMOs at individual accounts to showcase the power of audio advertising on your platform. And you use it to thank those marketing leaders...
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Ep. 28 - Dole Creates a Category with Piñatex | 2022 B2B Cannes Lions Minisode #1
Today, on The SaaS Brand Strategy Show, we kick off a new four-part series on what SaaS companies can learn from this year's first-ever B2B Cannes Lions awards. In partnership with LinkedIn Think Tank, the B2B Institute, this year's Creative Lions celebrate creativity in B2B marketing. With all…
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Ep. 27 - "UnNew Outdoor" - A B2C Category Success Story (with Aaron Provine, President of Geartrade)
Category creation isn't reserved for B2B folks alone. And we've talked at length how much B2B SaaS businesses have to learn from their B2C counterparts. Today, on The SaaS Brand Strategy Show, we take a heaping dose of learning from today's guest, Aaron Provine, President at Geartrade—an UnNew...
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Ep. 26 - Punching Up By Selling Different (An Intel Messaging Teardown)
Bad messaging can only survive at scale. On this week's episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy Show, we examine an example of bad messaging from a company that has more reach than 99% of businesses in the world: Intel. An Intel display ad touting the promise of saving you time and money came across…
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Ep. 25 - How To Socialize Your Strategy (And How Not to...)
Your brand and business strategy aren't created in a vacuum—but not everyone who needs to know it inside and out is there for the creation process. That means at some point, your strategy needs to be relayed from the few who created it, to the many who need to know it, live it, and breathe…
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Ep. 24 - Which Marketing Role Should A SaaS Hire First?
If your SaaS business is growing, your team probably is too. And in the early stages, it's most likely growing without a full blown marketing team. In fact, it may be growing without anyone in the marketing seat at all. But at a certain point; in an effort to grow more and grow faster—you're…
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Ep. 23 - Creeping on the Competition (with Russ Somers, CMO of Lytho)
When it comes to monitoring your competition's marketing activities, there's a Goldilocks-like conundrum of finding the just right amount of time, effort, and influence. Spend too much time obsessing on the competition's latest market moves and risk chasing tactics unaligned from your strategy.…
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Ep. 22 - Kill Advertising to Conserve Cash?
When capital markets get puckered (that's a technical finance term), CEOs and founders second instinct, after cutting headcount, is to cease advertising as most CFOs and even CEOs treat advertising as a cost rather than an investment. While that might seem like a good idea in the short term, in…
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Ep. 21 - The Clubhouse "Social Audio" Category Conundrum
What the hell happened to Clubhouse, the world's first Social Audio app? Instead of owning the Social Audio category, Clubhouse has surrendered category queen space and made Social Audio a product-feature on every other social media and technology app (Twitter Spaces, Facebook Audio Rooms…
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Ep. 20 - PR: FTW or WTF?
Four of our current/recent clients that have established market traction and are realizing message-market fit from our work with them are now plotting next steps to activate their category and their positioning into the larger market. Driven by their need to increase awareness among a larger…
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Ep. 19 - When the Brand Strategy Rubber Hits the Road (with Bridget Quinlan, CRO at PFL)
When an early stage company pursues a new category design strategy, leadership in the Sales, Product, Marketing, CS, and Development departments response can be summed up as, "Great, now what?" Now What is the gap jump between strategy and tactics, between idea and action, and it can feel massive...
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Ep. 18 - Mosaic's Co-Founder on the Road to their Series B Round
Finance people are notoriously skeptical when it comes to anything associated with the word brand. In their world view, something as esoteric as brand had better be supported with concrete KPIs to back up the investment. As veterans of Palantir's FP&A department with a big idea for a new SaaS...
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Ep. 17 - Product Positioning Will Never Build a Brand
Positioning your company through the lens of your product is limiting. It creates a narrow focus for your customer to approach your company through; one that over-indexes on product features and benefits but never raises above that level. Product positioning is crucial for product marketing, but…
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Ep. 16 - B2B Super Bowl Ad Strategies - The Best & The Rest
Last month's Super Bowl featured more new advertisers than any Super Bowl before. And of those new advertisers, we saw the most B2B companies we've ever seen, ponying up the cash for their first ever ad in the big game. On this week's episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy show, we take a look at a...
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Ep. 15 - Has the Startup Culture of Collaboration Gone Too Far?
We've worked inside, outside, and all around organizations of varying sizes for a combined several decades. And in recent years, particularly in the world of software, we've witnessed firsthand a continued rise in a culture of collaboration. In software, it makes sense. Many organization start…
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Ep. 14 - Our B2B Brand Strategy Crystal Ball for 2022
Strategic thinking requires looking into the future. We're no savants or soothsayers, and we (unfortunately) don't actually have a crystal ball. But at DRMG we're always looking ahead and keeping our ears to the ground, in an effort to continually help our clients skate to where the puck is...
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Ep. 13 - Saving Time and Money Aren't Superpowers...
A series of tweets from a young SaaS founder made its way across our desks this past week, and we couldn't help but comment. Because in that series of tweets was a declaration that product market fit comes from saving people time and money. An emphasis on efficiency as the best way to frame,...
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Ep. 12 - The Baggage of Titles and the Future of Marketing - With Winston Binch of GALE Partners
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...
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Ep. 11 - Finding Product-Market Fit In A Lightning Fast World
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. On this week’s episode of The SaaS Brand Strategy…
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Ep. 10 - Strategy Isn't Marketing's Problem (Or is it?) - With Mike Troiano of G20 Ventures
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…
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Ep. 9 - What The Hell Is "Product Led Growth"?!
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...
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Ep. 8 - Strategy Isn't Marketing's Problem
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…
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Ep. 7 - "Liquid Death" Murders Their Message (And Your B2B Brand Can Too)
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...
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Ep. 6 - What Can B2B SaaS Marketers Learn From B2C Marketing?
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......
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Ep. 5 - Why Did SurveyMonkey Rebrand As "Momentive"?
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...
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Ep. 4 - Category Benefits Go Beyond Just the Bucks
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…
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Ep. 3 - Category Creation: Unlocking the Attention Economy with Hybrid Experience
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...
About this show
As marketing team and agency leaders specializing in B2B and B2C category creation, your co-hosts Dustin Robertson, and Mike Geraci talk all things SaaS. We dive deep into in our software experience with brand and business strategy, fundraising with the right story, strategic narratives, the voice of the customer, and anything in service of SaaS business leaders owning the brand that drives demand.
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DRMG
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