Episode Details

#333 | Dave is joined by Clare Schmitt, a seasoned marketing leader and a member of our CMO community, to walk through what it actually takes to lead a rebrand at a mid-market B2B company. Clare shares how she partnered with her CEO to drive a full rebrand, from hiring a naming agency and running an RFP, to managing a small decision-making council, rolling out the new brand across every department, and measuring success post-launch. If you're a marketing leader thinking about a rebrand, this episode is a practical, top to bottom playbook from someone who just did it.

Timestamps

• (00:00) - Why rebrands come up and what this episode covers
• (01:40) - Clare's role at Piedmont Global and how the rebrand got started
• (03:55) - Should you hire a naming agency? What it costs and what they actually do
• (07:23) - Running an RFP and why they chose Focus Lab
• (08:09) - Why the CEO has to own the rebrand go-to-market
• (09:45) - Keeping the decision-making council small and who was in it
• (15:25) - How to get CEO buy-in: framing a rebrand as infrastructure, not a marketing initiative
• (18:02) - Timeline: how long a rebrand actually takes ($50M+ companies)
• (19:44) - The rollout: project management, execution, and building the website internally
• (21:41) - Measurement, post-launch QA, and tracking whether your narrative is sticking

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Join the next cohort of Opal U, a live 5-day course designed for senior marketing leaders who are ready to ship more with AI, at optimizely.com/exitfive. 

Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. 

Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.

Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

• 
  They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
• Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Visit hatch.fm to learn more