The Secrets Behind Building a Powerful Brand

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What is the power of a brand? In a crowded marketplace, it can make the difference between thriving and merely surviving. It’s what makes customers choose your product over a competitor’s, even if the features and price points are similar. It’s what turns one-time buyers into loyal advocates. And, perhaps most importantly, the power of a brand is what allows companies to scale without spending a ton of money on customer acquisitions.

This month on the Strategy at Scale podcast — a brand-new project I’m working on in conjunction with a book I’m writing with Verne Harnish — I got to interview someone who knows a lot about branding. Naomi Simson is the founder of RedBalloon, an online powerhouse and the largest experience network in Australia and New Zealand. Think Amazon or Alibaba but for experiences rather than just physical things. Naomi was also a judge on the Australian version of Shark Tank and is the author of Live What You Love: When Passion and Purpose Change Your Life.

I walked away from our interview with three key messages, and I’ve been sharing them in conversations with business builders ever since:

1. Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is one of the most important metrics that will determine the speed at which you scale.

2. Brand equity is the key to reducing that customer acquisition cost.

3. Your brand is a feeling.

Let’s explore each one...

Reducing Customer Acquisition Cost is Essential to Scaling

As I’ve been interviewing successful entrepreneurs for the new book, one thing has become clear: To scale, you must reduce CAC. In my interview with Naomi, that is what stood out the most as Red Balloon’s key success factor.

Naomi started out as a successful corporate marketer, but after starting a family and desiring more control over her schedule, she turned to freelance marketing. She realized that most of her clients wanted one thing: more customers. She decided to combine her background in technology marketing and travel to create RedBalloon — an experience marketplace that would create a brand for an entire industry.

Naomi recognized that one of the biggest challenges for businesses is to acquire customers without paying hefty fees. Now, instead of companies that sold experiences (think jet boating, skydiving, skiing and much more) on RedBalloon having to buy an expensive marketing plan and execute it on their own, Naomi flipped the model to let them pay for customers through an agency fee. Those companies could focus on providing great experiences and RedBalloon would do the marketing for them.

Lower Your Customer Acquisition Cost by Building Brand Equity

Understanding and managing CAC is one of the most critical factors that will determine how successfully and quickly you can scale your business. Many companies fall into the trap of becoming overly dependent on paid customer acquisition through platforms like Google and Meta. Instead of this unsustainable approach, Naomi advocates for building your own audience and assets that reduce your reliance on paid channels. This means focusing on customer retention and customer lifetime value (CLV) rather than constantly reacquiring customers whenever they start a new search, developing strategic partnerships with businesses that have complementary audiences, and investing in brand equity that naturally lowers CAC over time.

While paid acquisition platforms offer valuable targeting capabilities, Naomi warns against the common pattern of businesses becoming reliant upon paid channels without building sustainable customer relationships. She emphasizes that CAC should be treated as a core strategic pillar, not just a marketing metric. It fundamentally impacts your ability to grow profitably and create long-term business value.

Know That Your Brand is a Feeling

Naomi explained that your brand is the way people feel when they see anything that’s associated with your company.

“Brand is held in the heart of the customer,” she shared. “I had no money when I started this business, and so the only way to build the brand was through partnership and people trusting us.”

Remember this iconic Mad Men scene where Don Draper pitches the Kodak Carousel ad? The client wants him to sell the projector, more specifically a product attribute – the wheel – but Don knows that won’t be why people buy it. Instead, he pitches them nostalgia. He demonstrates the fundamental truth about powerful brands — they don’t just sell products or services; they tap into deep emotional connections.

The principle applies whether you’re B2C or B2B, though the emotional drivers may differ. Remember, there are still people inside those B’s. Think about the quote, “Nobody gets fired for buying IBM,” meaning that the brand’s professionalism and reliability speak to any manager’s desire to do a good job and choose what’s best for their company. RedBalloon isn't only selling vouchers for experiences; they’re selling a father’s 84th birthday gift for a flight on a DC-3 or a family's memorable Christmas presents.

Every element of your brand should reinforce your intended emotional connection. Color choice, for example, is a vastly underappreciated strategic tool. The colors you choose for your brand aren’t just about aesthetics — they’re about psychology. They should align with and reinforce the feeling you want to stimulate for your customers.

IBM has a whole page dedicated to its brand colors — even the reds contain a hint of “IBM blue,” known for its consistency, machine-focused, digital nature. At Outthinker, we chose a lighter blue to represent possibility — the future you have the power to create. RedBalloon red is vibrant and exciting, just like the experiences offered on the platform. You’ll find Naomi wearing it in most of her photos, a flashy reminder of the brand.

Strategic brand-building extends far beyond these visual elements. It’s about creating consistent experiences across every touchpoint. It’s about telling stories that resonate with your audience’s deepest needs and aspirations. And it’s about building brand equity that reduces your dependence on paid customer acquisition.

Building Your Brand: Questions to Consider

1. What feeling do you want your brand to evoke?

2. How does this feeling translate into visual elements like color and design?

3. What "job" are your customers really hiring your product or service to do?

These questions might seem abstract, but as Naomi's experience shows, they have concrete implications for your business's scalability and success. Her company went from a simple idea — gifting experiences — to becoming one of Australia's most recognized online brands by staying true to these principles.

Want to dive deeper into these insights? Listen to my full conversation with Naomi Simson on the Strategy at Scale podcast. In it, she shares more about building trust in the early days of e-commerce, managing rapid growth, and creating a platform that revolutionized an industry. It's a masterclass in branding and strategic thinking that you won't want to miss.