Case Study: Griffin Fluid Management | Transforming an Industry Leader with Modern Marketing Leadership

“Anka understood our business, our culture, and the depth of our approach, translating that expertise into a compelling strategy that reflects our mission and values. The energizing, collaborative process delivered exactly what we needed to modernize our brand.”

Stuart Porter, CEO, Griffin Fluid Management 

Griffin Fluid Management, a 90‑year‑old dewatering and fluid management industry leader, needed modern marketing to support its expanded solutions and PE‑driven growth goals. Chief Outsiders Fractional CMO, Anka Twum‑Baah, built the company’s marketing function from the ground up—creating compelling brand messaging, repositioning services, refreshing digital channels, and establishing scalable processes and infrastructure. With a fully operational marketing engine, improved alignment across teams, and stronger market presence, Griffin now enjoys a foundation for accelerated growth and forecasts a double-digit top-line improvement this year.

Business Background

Established Fluid Management Expertise

One of the most established names in the dewatering and fluid management industry, Griffin Fluid Management (Griffin) is known for its engineering expertise, specialized equipment, and national footprint. The company has long been the partner contractors trust to keep complex projects on schedule and compliant.

In 2024, the company announced a major rebranding to reflect its expanded capabilities across dewatering, water treatment, sewer bypass, pipeline integrity testing, and turnkey project services. “Our rebranding represents our commitment to providing comprehensive fluid management solutions,” said CEO Stuart Porter in the announcement.

A True Marketing Function Needed

Despite its legacy and technical strength, Griffin had never built a true marketing function. Often fragmented and heavily technical, existing marketing efforts reflected its engineering‑driven culture but not the needs of the modern buyer.

Across digital channels, outdated messaging failed to communicate Griffin’s full value. As a PE‑backed company with aggressive growth expectations, Griffin needed scalable marketing infrastructure, clearer positioning, and marketing and sales alignment to support revenue and valuation goals.

PE Recommended Chief Outsiders

On a recommendation from PE management, CEO Stuart Porter brought in Chief Outsiders to lead the transformation. Fractional CMO Anka Twum‑Baah partnered with Porter and the leadership team for a 10‑month engagement to build the marketing function.

What began as a marketing assignment quickly became a broader advisory relationship—one that reshaped how Griffin showed up in the market and how its people saw the future of the company.

Strategy

Comprehensive Assessment

The engagement began with a comprehensive assessment of Griffin’s brand, messaging, digital presence, customer perceptions, and competitive landscape. This included a full SWOT analysis, customer interviews, mystery shopping, and a competitive review.

The findings were clear:

“Griffin’s engineering excellence and reliability were unmatched, but the market still perceived the company as just a dewatering provider, limiting cross‑sell potential and undervaluing its broader capabilities,” reported Twum-Baah.

And customers repeatedly emphasized that dewatering was “mission‑critical,” that they “didn’t need flashy—just flawless,” and that trust and predictability mattered more than anything else. These insights became the backbone of the new brand direction.

Trust and Cultural Alignment

To build trust and cultural alignment, Twum-Baah spent time on site early in the engagement. Highly technical, deeply experienced, and passionate about their work, Griffin’s teams needed help translating their expertise into market‑ready messaging.

“Their campaigns often felt like white papers,” Twum-Baah noted. “Their incredible ideas just needed packaging that the market would receive.” Her role quickly expanded beyond marketing into a translator, coach, and strategic thought partner for the CEO and leadership team.

“Chief Outsiders quickly became an extension of our leadership team,” explained Mr. Porter. “Anka understood our business, our culture, and the technical depth of our approach.”

“Stuart is super sharp and a thoughtful decision maker,” added Twum-Baah. “And he has a clever way of balancing his thoughtfulness without being overbearing or a bottleneck.”

Brand & Messaging Rebuild

Chief Outsiders executed the transformation through several coordinated workstreams:

• Developed a new brand house grounded in customer insights and Griffin’s reputation.
• Repositioned Griffin as a trusted, engineering‑driven solutions partner that prevents risk, protects schedules, and delivers peace of mind.
• Refreshed brand standards, tone, and multi‑channel messaging to reflect expanded capabilities.
• Built a content framework to support consistent storytelling across channels.

“Anka helped us translate our expertise into a compelling strategy that reflects our company mission and values,” summarized Mr. Porter. “The energizing, collaborative process delivered exactly what we needed to modernize our brand.”

Product & Service Positioning

• Reframed Griffin’s offerings as an integrated solutions suite.
• Validated segmentation to ensure messaging resonated with buyer types and industries.
• Positioned Griffin as a full‑scope partner rather than a commodity provider.

Digital & Demand Generation Foundation

• Executed a website refresh to fix broken navigation, improve ADA compliance, and modernize visuals.
• Updated messaging across the site to reflect Griffin’s new positioning and customer‑centric value propositions.
• Established the foundation for SEO, search, and demand generation programs.
• Began building a scalable content engine to support ongoing lead generation.

Marketing Infrastructure & Team Development

• Guided Griffin through the evaluation and early implementation of Salesforce to support marketing and sales alignment.
• Built the marketing infrastructure needed to support long‑term scalability, including processes, playbooks, and collateral workflows.
• Hired and coached a new Director of Marketing to take ownership of the function after the engagement.
• Ensured the marketing organization would be sustainable after Chief Outsiders stepped out.

Lift and Excitement

Throughout the engagement, Twum-Baah became a trusted advisor to Porter and his leadership team. He regularly sought her perspective on decisions beyond marketing, reflecting the high‑trust, collaborative culture that developed.

The engagement not only modernized Griffin’s marketing but also energized the organization. “There’s something about the lift that’s generated—culture, morale, excitement—when Chief Outsiders partners with leadership to accelerate a company’s growth,” she said.

Results

Structural and Cultural Transformation

As a result of the 10‑month engagement, Griffin transformed from a company with no formal marketing function into an organization equipped to support an accelerated growth phase.

“In less than a year, we went from having a fragile marketing function to a fully built, scalable engine to support our growth strategy,” stated Mr. Porter. “We now have the messaging, infrastructure, and leadership in place to compete at a different level. It’s already changing how customers see us.”

A Scalable Foundation for Growth

• A fully built marketing function where none had existed before.
• A refreshed brand and market positioning aligned with Griffin’s expanded capabilities and customers’ expressed relationship drivers.
• A modernized digital presence, improved website, and the foundation for SEO and demand generation.
• Improved alignment between marketing and sales supported by the implementation of Salesforce.
• A cultural lift across the organization, with increased collaboration, clarity, and confidence in how Griffin presents itself to the market.
• A scalable foundation for PE‑driven growth supporting Griffin’s multi‑year revenue and valuation goals.

“There wasn’t much marketing infrastructure in the company before,” Twum-Baah summarized. “The fact that we were able to quickly build out that function, hire someone to run it, and turn it over with a transformed market presence is remarkable.”

Double-digit % Topline Lift

With a scalable marketing infrastructure, Griffin is looking at double-digit % topline improvement this year. “The work we did with Chief Outsiders didn’t just modernize our marketing—it changed the trajectory of the business,” Mr. Porter reported.

“We’re already seeing measurable lift in pipeline quality, customer engagement, and revenue momentum,” he continued. “Hitting double-digit % topline improvement this year is a direct result of having the right messaging, structure, and leadership in place.”

Long Term Value Creation

For Griffin’s PE owners, the Chief Outsiders engagement positively impacted value. “Chief Outsiders delivered exactly what we needed—fast, strategic progress that strengthened the business and positioned it for long term value creation,” concluded Mike Sullivan, Partner, Crossplane Capital. “The impact on clarity, alignment, and commercial readiness has been significant.”