In today’s crowded marketplace, simply being “fine” is no longer enough. Your business might be functioning, your products might be solid, and your services might be reliable. But if your brand is just “fine,” it’s also forgettable. At Moxie Creative, we believe that creative is the key to bold branding, and that’s a philosophy we live by.
In a recent episode of the Behind the Brand podcast, “Stop Settling for ‘Fine’ – Why Creative is the Key to Bold Branding,” we dove deep into this core belief with our powerhouse team: Taylor (co-host), Kelly (co-host and the “brainchild” behind the “fine isn’t good enough” philosophy), and our incredibly talented creative director, Michael Nelson. This episode is a must-listen for small business owners, solopreneurs, and aspiring entrepreneurs who are ready to start strong, stand out, and stay bold by embracing the power of exceptional creative.
The "Fine" Fallacy: Why Good Enough Isn't Good Enough
“I don’t need anything fancy. I just need it to work.” This is a common sentiment Kelly hears from clients, particularly in the modest culture of Central Minnesota. There’s often a misconception that good creative is synonymous with “fancy” or “expensive,” leading businesses to settle for designs that are merely “fine.”
However, as Kelly passionately argues, “It takes the same amount of brain power, dollars to do terrible creative as it does good creative.” The difference isn’t in the effort; it’s in the intentionality and expertise behind that effort. Businesses often prioritize the tactic (e.g., “I did a billboard!”) over the creative (what was actually on the billboard). When a campaign “doesn’t work,” they blame the medium, not the message or its presentation.
The Moxie philosophy is clear: out with the old, in with the bold. This doesn’t mean “garish design.” It means taking a calculated risk, stepping out of your comfort zone, and making your brand truly great so it doesn’t “blend in.” In a world overflowing with content, blending in is the fastest way to become invisible.
The Root of Complacency: Why Businesses Settle for "Fine"
So, why do businesses settle for a “fine” brand? Michael, our creative director, offered some key insights:
- Tradition: “We’ve always done it this way, so we’re always gonna do it that way.” A reluctance to change, even when old methods are no longer yielding results.
- Sunk Cost Fallacy: Businesses have invested time and money into their current branding, even if it’s not working. The idea of starting over can be daunting.
- Lack of Understanding: Many simply don’t grasp the profound impact of strong creative. As Michael aptly put it, a “fine meal” will feed you, but it’s “totally forgettable.” A memorable design sticks with you.
- Desire to Blend In: Instead of aiming to differentiate, some businesses mistakenly want to look like their competitors, leading to generic, indistinguishable branding. Moxie, however, strives to make clients “look and sound and be different.”
The challenge for creatives like Michael is to help clients see beyond their “fine” comfort zone. It’s about showing them that design isn’t just decoration; it’s a powerful tool for clarity, intention, and connection.
The Creative Process: Crafting Unforgettable Brands
At Moxie, the branding process is a journey of deep collaboration and artistic intuition. It’s not about literally depicting a service (e.g., only showing cars for a car company), but about capturing the essence, feeling, and unique value of a brand.
Michael describes his creative process as a blend of intuition and meticulous problem-solving, like “solving a puzzle.” It involves:
- Deep Immersion: Absorbing everything about the client, their business, their competitors, and even seemingly unrelated details like a specific color from a shirt.
- Subconscious Work: Allowing ideas to simmer and coalesce, often during moments of mental “neutral” like walks or showers.
- Iterative Sketching and Design: Prolific sketching and design drafts to explore numerous possibilities, even if clients only see a curated selection of “eight to ten logos” in the initial presentation.
- Collaborative Refinement: The Moxie team’s designers (Michael, Mo, and Tyler) engage in a “cool back and forth ping pong,” refining ideas and building upon each other’s concepts. This collaborative environment often leads to moments of “simpatico,” where ideas align without direct prior discussion.
This meticulous process ensures that the final brand identity is uniquely tailored to the client. As Kelly stresses, a “great brand is uniquely yours.” If you can swap your company’s name with a competitor’s and the branding still “works,” then it’s not truly your brand. It must be personal and resonate with the client’s values, even if it’s not strictly to their personal “taste.” The ultimate goal is always what works for the client and their audience.
The Perfect Trio: Strategy, Messaging, and Creative
While creative is paramount, Moxie’s philosophy emphasizes that it’s only one leg of a crucial tripod. A truly effective marketing campaign requires the perfect synergy of:
- Strategy: This is the foundation – understanding your audience, where they are, and how you’re going to reach them. As Kelly puts it, it’s about “how we’re going to get the message in front of a client’s audience.”
- Messaging: What you want to say to your audience. Taylor notes that her role often involves refining lengthy messages into concise, impactful statements, because “you just write too much.”
- Creative: The visual and aesthetic execution of that message. This includes artwork, design, video, and all the tangible elements that grab attention and convey emotion.
These three elements are inextricably linked. Creative strategy is marketing strategy. While often seen as secondary, creative can even influence messaging. Michael notes that a visual idea might “change the messaging” because it reveals a new way to convey the concept.
The common pitfall is to prioritize strategy or tactics over creative. Kelly used the example of a client who spent heavily on a billboard but then let the billboard company “slap it with everything.” The result? A forgettable ad. Similarly, a client who blames “Facebook ads” for poor results often overlooks the underlying strategy and, crucially, the creative execution of those ads. “You could do the exact same campaign the next year and it can be crazy successful because the creative part does [make a difference],” Kelly asserts.
Good creative isn’t “fancy” or “artsy-fartsy.” It’s good design that communicates. It’s intuitive, engaging, and subconsciously attractive. As Kelly explains, people “expect good design” in today’s world because it’s accessible and impacts purchasing decisions.
Breaking Free from "Fine": Tangible Steps
So, if your business is stuck in the “fine” zone, what can you do today to break free?
- Get Clear on Your Differentiators: Understand precisely what makes your business, brand, messaging, and services unique. If you can’t articulate this, a marketing partner can help uncover it. This is the starting point for distinguishing yourself.
- Know Your Customers (Deeply): This is foundational. You need to understand:
- Who are your top customers?
- What are their demographics, interests, and pain points?
- Where do they spend their time (online and offline)?
- What media do they consume? If you don’t know your audience, you’re designing for yourself, not for those you want to reach. Michael emphasizes, “You have to think about putting yourself in the headspace of your… customer.”
- Assess Your Current Branding and Marketing: Take an honest look at your website, logo, and marketing materials. Does your marketing “match the quality and integrity of the service you’re providing?” If your website feels like a “pain point” or doesn’t attract traffic, it’s a clear sign for a refresh.
- Seek Outside Perspective: It’s incredibly difficult to objectively assess your own business, especially when you’re “in this echo chamber” day in and day out. This is where strong partnerships with outside experts—whether in marketing, HR, or accounting—become invaluable. They provide a fresh, unbiased lens.
- Invest in Good Design: This is not an extravagance; it’s a necessity. Good design communicates effectively, attracts attention, builds trust, and ultimately drives sales. As Kelly notes, “people will buy more when they like the design.”
The Reward of Creative: Beyond the Bottom Line
For the creatives at Moxie, the reward of great design extends beyond mere business success:
- Seeing Your Work in the World: Michael loves seeing his designs “around town,” whether on billboards or in local establishments.
- Client Appreciation: Receiving positive feedback and knowing that clients genuinely appreciate the effort and emotion poured into their branding is incredibly rewarding.
- Helping Others: As Kelly put it, creatives “cannot do anything else” and are driven to use their talents to help others succeed. This altruistic motivation fuels their passion.
- Personal Growth: For Taylor, actively participating in the creative process and sharing her personal journey has led to significant personal growth and confidence.
Tune In and Get Inspired
Is your business settling for “fine”? Are you ready to break free from the ordinary and embrace the bold?
What’s one aspect of your brand or marketing that you’re ready to elevate with intentional creative? And how can a partner steeped in strategy and design help you get there?
At Moxie Creative, we live and breathe bold branding. We understand that effective marketing isn’t just about tactics; it’s about compelling creative that resonates, differentiates, and converts. Don’t let your brand fade into the background. Let’s create something unforgettable together.
