"Winning Ugly" Marketing Strategy

One of my home town baseball teams, the Chicago White Sox, was described during the 1983 season by Doug Rader, manager of the Texas Rangers, as "Winning Ugly".  He was trying to dismiss the White Sox style of play which emphasized a kind of scrappiness and bull headed determination rather than consistently good hitting or pitching.  

Although I am not, strictly speaking, a White Sox fan, (I live on the north side of the city) I have always appreciated the way this phrase, "winning ugly", evokes an approach to challenges that can undermine a competitive field.  When you are out-classed, out-gunned, and without a legitimate chance of beating the competition - there may still be a way to win.

Too often, whether in baseball or in business, the habitual winners forget what the game is about. In baseball, players may think it's all about their personal averages, their titles, their style, or their endorsement deals.  A team that is thinking that way can be undermined by a team that understands that there is only one score that matters at the end of the game - who has the most runs...even if the winner got those runs in a clumsy manner.

Habitual winners in business can start to believe that the reasons they win have more to do with the coolness of their brand, their brilliant packaging, the elegance of their sales pitch, their advertising or how many magazine covers their CEO appears on.  Companies that think like that can be undermined by a competitor who understands that the winner is whomever sells the most stuff at the highest price and the lowest cost.  It doesn't matter how elegant your annual report is, whether you have the best sales materials, or how well designed your logo is.  Those are all great things to have, and depending on what the target customers respond to, they may even help you sell more stuff at a higher price...but it is also possible for companies to "win ugly" as well.

The "winning ugly" strategy is based on a kind of honesty - both about the game being played, and about the player. " I may not have the best marketing but...", can actually build credibility for a company.

Two assumptions are at play in any selling opportunity.  The seller assumes that the most attractive pitch will win the day, while the buyer assumes that everyone will exaggerate their claims to win them over.  Strangely, instead of addressing a buyer's inherent skepticism by providing credibility, most sellers will continue to reinforce that skepticism with great marketing materials. But marketing that inflates your image can also diminish your credibility.

And credibility is everything to the buyer.  Are you as good as your marketing?  Can one trust a product, service or idea to deliver as much as it seems?

A client I worked with specialized in business process outsourcing for commercial lending.  They had an outstanding shop of accounting and data processors who had, through Six Sigma methodology, computer systems and just plain bull-headed determinism, managed to drive more costs out of the process of servicing loans than anyone else in their industry.  

They had terrible marketing materials.  Every once in a while, they thought about updating their brochures and web site to make it look more stylish, more like their competitors, more elegant. But their CEO intuitively understood:  not only did they not have the budget to create a beautiful web site and high concept brochures to look as good as their competitors - but the very fact that their marketing was "ugly" demonstrated to prospects and clients their core value as an outsourcer.  Anti-slickness was their sales differentiator.

Marketing isn't just about incredible creative, strong messages, or the right image.  Sometimes a marketing strategist should consider "winning ugly".