Building Brands That Last: How Understanding Customer Psychology Creates Business Growth with Jim Cobb

JLD introduces Jim Cobb, founder and chief brand strategist of The Bloodhound Group, which helps companies use behavioral science, customer insights, and brand strategy to drive long-term growth. Before launching Bloodhound, Cobb spent 35 years in advertising, working in account management, research, and with creative teams. He says the central purpose of that work was understanding clients and customers well enough to create messages that formed an emotional connection. Asked what he believes about success that most people disagree with, Cobb says failure is the foundation for success. In his view, nearly every successful person has had to learn how to cope with failure, put setbacks into perspective, and keep pursuing a larger vision. He identifies perseverance through the low points of the journey as his biggest personal lesson. Cobb says he moved from brand strategist to entrepreneur after the creative side of advertising became increasingly generic as technology allowed more people to produce marketing work from home. In 2017, after 35 years, he closed the formal agency and focused The Bloodhound Group on helping businesses build emotionally engaging brands in specific, strategically chosen markets.

JLD points out that businesses spend billions of dollars on marketing, yet much of that spending fails to move the needle. Cobb says he regularly sees campaigns and wonders, “Who in the world are they talking to?” Although not every campaign is meant for him, he says marketing problems almost always reveal a deeper problem: the company does not understand its customer well enough. Cobb recommends spending substantial time and money at the front end to define the problem the customer is actually trying to solve. Once the problem is clear, the brand can develop an execution and proposition that feels relevant to that person. He warns that feature-driven messages often miss the mark when the customer is really seeking meaning, identity, or another emotional benefit beyond functional value. Brands that address the emotional reason for a purchase tend to achieve stronger engagement and response rates, better margins, and more room to charge premium prices. He also cautions that customers cannot always articulate their subconscious motivations. Asking people directly how they feel about a message may produce an answer, but it may not reveal the deeper drivers of their behavior. Cobb says specialized research, including work by trained neuroscientists or people skilled at uncovering lower-level motivations, can reveal which propositions truly resonate. Even testing should begin with hypotheses about the emotional appeal the brand is trying to create.

Cobb explains that customer psychology matters because every brand has to fit into an individual’s personal story. Most people are moving toward a better place in life—greater pleasure, happiness, satisfaction, or another desired outcome—and brands play a role in that journey. His work looks at the customer’s current state of life and asks which archetype the brand can provide so it can be naturally woven into the person’s story. When a brand connects with that story, customers are more likely to remember it and at least consider trying it. Cobb emphasizes that emotional positioning does not replace product performance. The product still has to deliver on its features and benefits; when it does, the emotional connection can support long-term purchasing and customer value. The brand becomes more than a functional solution because it represents something meaningful in the customer’s life. This is why Cobb argues that features and benefits alone are insufficient for a distinctive brand. Functional claims explain what a product does, but psychological insight helps explain why the product matters to a particular person. The strongest positioning links both: it gives customers an emotionally relevant reason to choose the brand while ensuring that the actual product performs as promised.

JLD asks why entrepreneurs should view branding as a strategic business asset rather than simply a marketing expense. Cobb says branding and advertising have historically been treated as closely related expenses, with advertising often regarded as a below-the-line cost. He recommends looking instead at the end point: a strong brand contributes to balance-sheet goodwill that goes beyond the immediate value recorded on the profit-and-loss statement. Cobb says a well-positioned brand can act as a catalyst for financial performance. Premium brands can earn better margins, while brands in high demand can generate higher sales and revenue. When the brand’s meaning, market position, and investment are connected properly, the company gains financial leverage on both the top line and the bottom line. The brand is therefore not merely an expense used to promote products; it can influence pricing power, demand, profitability, and long-term company value. He adds that the business still has to spend enough to make the brand meaningful to customers. An underfunded effort may never reach the level of awareness or emotional resonance needed to produce those financial benefits. The value comes from investing at the right rate and connecting the brand promise to what customers genuinely value.

Cobb identifies a common mistake among founders: misunderstanding how much money it takes to get a proposition through to customers and then spreading limited resources across too many markets or channels. Entrepreneurs may expect broad results from a small investment, but the money is too thinly distributed to move customers to action or generate meaningful sales data. His recommendation is to focus on the best customer in a small geographic area or tightly defined market. The company should learn how much investment is required to move that customer toward a transaction and establish a measurable sales result. Cobb advocates retaining the early earnings generated by that focused effort, then using those retained earnings to expand the proposition into additional markets. For him, the biggest error is expecting too much with too little. Concentration allows a company to build value in one area before expanding, while a scattered launch can consume precious entrepreneurial capital without creating enough awareness or customer response anywhere. The practical lesson is to prove the brand’s ability to create demand in a focused setting, understand the economics, and scale only after the initial investment has produced evidence.

Looking ahead, Cobb says rapidly changing technology—especially artificial intelligence—creates both a challenge and an opportunity. Companies must understand how AI affects what people perceive about their brands. In the past, marketers could exert more control through tactics such as online keywords; today, visibility into a company is much broader and more difficult to manage. Because of that, every brand needs its core story and central tenets clearly defined. A weak or mismanaged foundation can expose a company to greater risk, while a strong story can make increased visibility work in its favor. Cobb also challenges the idea that brands should try to be everywhere. Although companies need to maintain a presence, he recommends focusing on the three or four communication channels that matter most to their particular customers. Understanding customers’ media habits can make a fragmented media environment more cost-effective rather than merely more complicated. Cobb says the future of branding will continue to center on meaning: what the brand means to people and how precisely it can deliver that meaning to the right audience. Even store labels and commodity products are ultimately branded, so their makers still need to understand the relevant value they provide and price and market accordingly. His conclusion is that branding will not diminish in importance; it may become more important as technology increases both competition and public visibility.

When JLD asks for one branding lesson, Cobb says, “You cannot learn enough about your customer.” He has seen businesses become somewhat successful and then fail after their leaders assumed they understood the customer and stopped listening. As customers’ circumstances and needs change, a brand that remains fixed can lose its relevance even if its original strategy worked. Cobb recommends maintaining constant, honest conversations with customers, whether the business sells to consumers or other businesses. Those conversations should reveal how customers are evolving, what new needs are emerging, and how the company can satisfy them more effectively. He considers the customer the most precious part of the business and says ongoing learning is necessary to remain relevant. The Bloodhound Group’s call to action is aimed at companies facing a business or brand challenge they have tried unsuccessfully to solve. Cobb says the firm was built to tackle difficult problems and invites listeners to discuss their situation to determine whether Bloodhound can help. JLD closes by directing listeners to the episode page at eofire.com and noting that Jim can be found by searching for “Jim.”