Brand is the Source of Untraceable Demand

When Brand Starts Working, You Feel It

Hey Shortlisters!

In the early days when I was working at Tipalti, we had to fight for every inch of recognition.

Our name was hard to pronounce. People didn't know who we were, and at events, we often found ourselves explaining exactly what we did. every. single. time.

We were lean, and everything felt like a heavy lift. But we pushed forward, refining our story, finding the right words for each audience, and building a unique brand from the ground up.

Then came a turning point.

At a small luncheon we hosted, something was different. The buzz in the room shifted. People started walking up, saying they’d heard about us, wanted to meet us, and were eager to learn more.

It wasn’t just that they’d heard our name—it was that they knew something about us.

They had trusted something about us. That’s when I realized that the work we’d put into our brand was finally paying off.

Brand doesn’t just fill the pipeline - it fills the air.

You can’t always measure it directly, but when it starts working, you feel it. The buzz. The recognition. The trust. And that’s when demand gen becomes a multiplier, not just a function.

And that’s what we’re getting into today.

The Role of Brand in Demand (and Why We Keep Undervaluing It)

Yes, most founders (especially in B2B SaaS) are product-minded. They build something great, and understandably, they believe that should be enough. If the product is strong, buyers will come. If it’s better than the alternatives, the market will see it.

And if growth slows? That must mean demand gen needs to do more.

But then the thinking breaks down.

When demand gen struggles, we rarely stop to ask: What are we giving it to work with?

We forget that brand isn’t a layer on top of marketing. It’s the foundation underneath it. A strong brand gives demand gen something to amplify, something with gravity. Without that, you’re asking campaigns to do all the heavy lifting on their own. And it shows.

Why Brand Still Gets Dismissed

In a lot of B2B startups, brand gets treated like a distraction. Something vague and unmeasurable. Or worse, something silly, like choosing the right shade of blue or debating whether the tone is “bold” or “friendly.”

And you may have noticed, marketers haven’t always helped our own case here. Brand work can sometimes feel disconnected from pipeline goals. When marketers say “we need more brand,” but can’t explain why the business should care, it’s easy for leadership to write it off.

Having a brand isn’t just about a look. It’s about definition. It’s how you become known for something specific, to someone specific. It’s how your company earns trust before the first ad impression or cold outbound ever lands. Something B2C understands!

And when it’s done right, it becomes one of your strongest demand drivers.

Not in a way that shows up neatly in your attribution model. But in the kind of “untraceable demand” that fills in the gaps between your campaigns. The buyers who already trust you. The prospects who remember you. The warm leads who convert faster because your brand did some of the work before demand ever showed up.

The Demand Team’s Job Isn’t to Build the Brand

In early-stage companies, roles blur. A demand marketer might write the homepage, define the voice, and spin up the first ads—all in the same week. That’s normal.

But the job of defining the brand - its tone, its position in the market, its visual identity and personality, that’s not a demand function. That’s a CMO-level job. Or, at the very beginning, a founder’s job.

Demand doesn’t own the brand (actually, everyone does). Demand uses the brand. It extends it, expresses it, makes it tangible. But it can’t create what doesn’t exist. And it shouldn’t be expected to fill in the blanks.

If your campaigns aren’t resonating, or your paid programs feel expensive and ineffective, it might not be the channel. It might be that the brand has nothing to say, or worse, nothing that sticks.

Character Is the Differentiator

Here’s what makes this even harder: in B2B, everyone sounds the same.

Founders are told to copy the category leaders. Marketers are shown a hundred “best practice” examples. And before long, every homepage says the same five words in a slightly different order. Optimize. Simplicity. Scale. Innovation. Outcomes.

This is where brand earns its keep.

A brand with character makes you memorable. It builds trust. It gives your sales team language they’re proud to use. And yes, it even makes your demand programs convert better, because your buyers already feel something about you.

It’s not just about logos or colors or copy. It’s about having a point of view. A tone people recognize. A presence that feels cohesive, human, and real.

Buying is hard and confusing in B2B. When your competitors are all saying the same thing, the company with a clear sense of self becomes the one buyers actually remember.

Brand Isn’t a Luxury—It’s a Lever

You don’t build a brand instead of doing demand gen. You build one so your demand gen actually works.

Not every brand expression needs to be measured. Not every awareness play needs to be justified with a spreadsheet. If the brand is doing its job, you’ll feel it in the warmth of your pipeline. In your win rates. In how often people say “I’ve heard good things about you.”

That’s the power of a brand with character.

And it’s time more startups took it seriously.

Thanks for reading. If this one hit home, forward it to someone whose brand could use a little more backbone. And if your pipeline feels colder than it should… you might not need more demand gen. You might need a brand that actually does some of the work.

See you in two weeks!

Shannon