The problem is that people generally don’t think like this. People go with their gut instinct, or they go with what has been successful in the past. At first, this ideology is all well and good, but after a while, after you get yourself established, doing what has always worked before doesn’t really get you noticed. Sometimes to get ahead, you need to shake things up a bit, to flip the marketing world on its head and prove that more doesn’t always mean more. Take Google for example, when they first designed their search engine, they could have taken an approach like Yahoo!, AOL, or Ask.com, but instead they decided to subvert the marketing paradigm; they decided to prove that less could mean more.

 Instead of building a search engine website that featured all the latest headlines, sports, weather, and who knows what else, they decided to design something that was simpler than anyone could have expected – a website with just one input box and two search buttons! That’s it! Based on that ultra-simple design, they became the #1 search engine on the web.

Apple had a similar way of thinking. When they first introduced the iPod in 2001, they used a marketing campaign that showed how powerful simplicity can be. By taking a less is more approach, they designed their campaign featuring black silhouettes of people using a white iPod and headphones against a brightly colored background. The style was so unique, yet so simple. Using only three colors at any given time for a commercial, combined with cool dance moves and some
upbeat music was a recipe for success. Apple was able to dominate the marketplace with their new, innovative portable media player and revolutionize the industry!

Related Article: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Simplicity, innovation, and bluntness; three characteristics that were adopted by the marketing campaigns that Google and Apple used. By using a counter intuitive philosophy, Google and Apple were able to transcend the marketing capabilities of their competitors. They were able to become leaders of their industry just by having a less is more mentality. Just because you have a huge billboard that you can advertise on doesn’t mean that you should fill all the space with as much information as you can. Sometimes a few simple words might suffice. People sometimes throw too much into their marketing campaigns and the true message that they’re trying to share gets lost in all the extra fluff. Having more doesn’t mean you’re going to be more successful, it might just mean more distractions and more headaches.

In the marketing world, sometimes less is better; sometimes “less” might get you promoted!