WHAT 'MAKE IT LOOK PRETTY' REVEALS ABOUT YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY

Few phrases better illustrate the misunderstanding of marketing inside a business than:

“Give it to the marketing guy to pretty up.” It sounds harmless. Maybe even complimentary, but it reveals a fundamental misconception: That marketing is primarily responsible for making things look better. As if the important work has already been done. The product is decided. The message is decided. The strategy is decided. The positioning is decided. The audience is decided. All that's left is to make it look good.

That's not marketing. That's decoration.

Pretty Isn't the Problem

Let's say someone hands marketing a flyer and says: “Here's everything we want to say. Just make it look good.” What they're really saying is: “We've already figured out what matters. You just figure out how to make people care about it.” That's a pretty significant job to casually hand off. Because getting someone to care is the entire challenge. Your prospect doesn't owe you their attention. They don't have to read your email. They don't have to stop scrolling. They don't have to open your brochure, watch your video or visit your website. And they certainly don't have to listen to another “world-class” company explain why it considers itself to be the best in the land.

Attention, mindshare and credibility have to be earned. That's where creativity comes in.

The Finished Ad May Look Simple. Getting There Isn't.

Consider a seemingly simple piece of marketing. A photograph. A headline. A few lines of copy. A logo. A call to action. What you don't see are the decisions behind it. What should the prospect notice first? What problem should we lead with? What emotion should we trigger? What assumption can we challenge? What visual will make someone stop? Should we show the product, or deliberately avoid showing it?

Should the headline explain something or create curiosity? What words sound like the customer rather than the company? How do we make this different from every other message competing for attention? What do we want the prospect to think about after they've seen it? And perhaps the most important question: Why should they care?

Those aren't cosmetic decisions. They're strategic decisions.

Marketing Isn't There to Make the Message Prettier

In fact, sometimes the best creative decision is to make something less pretty.

A clever concept might outperform a beautiful product photograph. A provocative headline might outperform a carefully written description. A humorous visual might create more engagement than a polished corporate image. A single sentence might communicate more than six paragraphs of product benefits.

Why? Because the job isn't to impress the person who commissioned the marketing. The job is to move the person receiving it. That's a very different standard.

The Problem With “Here's What We Want to Say…”

This is where many marketing projects go sideways. Someone starts with a list of things the company wants to communicate.  We've got this new machine. Mention the print speed. Make sure they know about the security. Include the paper capacity. Tell them about the financing. Add our service capabilities. Make our logo bigger.”

Soon you have a document containing everything the company thinks is important. And almost nothing the customer thinks is interesting. Marketing's job isn't simply to organize the company's talking points. It's to determine which of these things actually matter to the audience and how we make them matter.

That's a creative problem.

Creativity Is How You Escape the Commodity Trap

This matters enormously in industries where competitors sell similar products.  Many dealers sell the same manufacturers. Many offer similar equipment. Many provide service contracts. Many talk about security. Many offer managed print. Many promise responsiveness. Many describe themselves as trusted partners.

If your marketing simply lists what you sell, you're giving the prospect very little reason to distinguish you from anyone else. Creativity gives you a way out of that. It allows you to find a different angle. A different story. A different emotional connection. A different way of framing the problem. A different reason to remember you. That's differentiation and that is worth considerably more than making something “pretty.”

Marketing Is Working Even When Nothing Seems to Happen

There's another reason the “pretty it up” mentality is dangerous. It encourages businesses to judge marketing only by visible, immediate activity. A salesperson makes a call. Someone answers. A service technician visits a customer. A machine gets fixed. A salesperson closes a deal. You can see the result.

Marketing is different. A prospect may see your campaign today and never respond. What?! But they may remember your company three months later when their lease expires. They may recognize your name when someone recommends you. They may remember the idea you introduced. They may already have an opinion about you before they ever speak with sales. That’s more common than you may think.

That's marketing working. It's shaping familiarity. Building recognition. Establishing credibility. Creating preference. Preparing the ground for the eventual sales conversation. You don't always get to watch it happen. That doesn't mean it isn't happening.

What Should We Say Instead?

Instead of: “Give it to marketing to pretty up.” Try: “Give it to marketing and see how we can make it matter.” Or: “Let's have marketing help us find the strongest story.” Or: “How do we make the right people stop and care about this?”

Those questions recognize what marketing actually contributes. Not pretty decoration.  Thinking. Thinking about the audience. Thinking about mindset. Thinking about attention. Thinking about positioning. Thinking about differentiation. Thinking about what will be remembered. Thinking about what might actually change someone's behavior.

And using industry knowledge to make all of that thinking valuable.

So, the next time someone says: “Give it to the marketing guy to pretty up,” remember that the most valuable part of marketing isn't making the message look better. It's figuring out how to make the message mean something. Because pretty might earn you a compliment. Relevant, differentiated and memorable can earn you a customer base.

Reach Tim Votapka, Director of Marketing at tvotapka@prospertyplus.com or call 631.382.7762.