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The power of less - unlocking growth with simplicity

Why "less is more" is a such a powerful mindset.

Hi everyone,

Welcome back to another bite to chew on. 

In the day-to-day of building a business, it’s easy to forget the power of simplicity. 

Because there’s so much that comes with running a DTC brand these days. 

Media buying, ad creative, finance, funding, inventory, supply chains, team building…

And that’s just the top layer, peaking above the waves. Lurking beneath the surface is an entire iceberg of complexity.

And you’ll never get away from that completely. Building something new and valuable is complicated. 

But today we want to help you reconnect with the idea that “less is more.” And discuss ways to think about it in your operations. 

On the Menu

  • When less is more

  • How limitations make you better

  • When the perfect is the enemy of the good

When less is more

An operator we know told us about one of his best-ever Facebook ads. It’s been profitably spending for him for a couple of years. 

He showed it us. It’s a static image. No graphics, no text, no fancy overlays. No people. 

Just a well-framed, high-quality photo of their product out in the wild. With body copy that clearly states their unique selling points.

That’s the beauty of simplicity in marketing. 

When you get it right, your creative boils things down to a kind of essence. Something that can be understood in 2 seconds or less.

That’s when the magic happens. 

Consider one of the most famous campaigns ever. 

Think Small

This campaign killed for VW. 

Between 1960 and 1970, Volkswagen’s US sales grew by 256%. Their share of the US market went from 2% to 7%. And the Beetle became the best-selling import in North America.

Ad Age ranked this the best campaign of the 20th century. 

It didn’t just explode sales for VW, it changed the perception of small cars in America. 

That’s the power of simplicity. 

Now, some people confuse “simple” with “easy” or “basic”, but that’s not true at all. 

In fact, it’s difficult to do “less is more” right. 

Here are some more examples of simple, but powerful ads from other famous brands:

As you can see, “simple” doesn’t mean “dumb”, “easy”, or “obvious”.  

Less is more works when something just clicks. 

Where the simple headline, copy, and imagery go a bit beyond what is on the screen or the page. 

It’s clear. It’s clever. But it’s also intriguing and relatable. 

A brand value or USP is shared, but it’s not just plainly stated. Like this: 

“Where’s the Beef” increased Wendy’s worldwide sales by 31%. 

It also became a cultural moment. They were able to sell merch, like t-shirts and mugs, about their own ad. 

Think about that - their campaign increased sales of their primary business. And then it created an additional revenue stream on top of that.

What it comes down to: Increasing understanding while decreasing cognitive demand is the essence of great advertising.

If the target audience thinks: “Oh I get it. Yeah, you’re right.” 

That’s the “it just clicks” factor.  

It’s not just about ads

Keep in mind less is more works beyond creative as well. 

Having a big product catalog or lots of options on your website means a wider appeal, and maybe a bigger TAM. 

But it can also lead to distraction, confusion, and “analysis paralysis” for your customers. 

That’s why having infinite choices can actually be a bad thing. 

Once you have more than 3 options in a menu or category, people can struggle to make up their minds. 

We learned this lesson the hard way when we expanded our catalog beyond Obvi’s core offering a couple of years ago. 

We chased a bunch of trends in the health and supplements industry, but ended up with a confusing website and a handful of marginal SKUs that didn’t move the needle for us. 

It also made our R&D and website builds more complicated, so we were paying a “complexity tax” operationally.    

This is why “less is more” is powerful even when you move past marketing…

Tool of the Week - Sendlane

Speaking of “less is more” - 

We consolidated our email and SMS marketing with Sendlane not too long ago and have never looked back.

With Sendlane, we got:

✅ Clarity into what was driving conversions and what wasn’t

✅ Deep segmentation and personalization across our retention efforts

✅ A painless migration with their move now, pay later offer. 

This has resulted in:

🥳 Less fragmentation and tools to manage in our tech stack

🤑 Less cost (and higher ROI)

🎯 Less “spray & pray” email strategy

Sendlane’s tools and support helped us reduce our email volume by 2,000,000 sends per month, while actually still increasing our revenue. 

Not to mention the best-in-class support. 

We don’t really consider Sendlane just a tool. They’re more like a partner.

Get a demo today and find out how you can improve your retention performance at a fraction of the cost.  

When limitations make you better

If you were a media buyer for Facebook about 10 years ago, you probably remember the very strict rules the platform had for ad creative.  

Text Limitations → 

  • Primary text (body copy): 125 characters

  • Headline: 25 characters

  • Link description: 30 characters

Reminder…”characters” = letters + spaces.

Asset Limitations → "20% text rule" for ad images. Meaning text could not take up more than 20% of the image's area. 

Do you know how many words 125 characters is? The last 2 sentences added together = 119 😬

Imagine if you imposed these rules on your Meta static ads right now. 

Could you do it? 

What would you make under such strict parameters? 

Would it be cleaner, simpler, better?

Maybe not right away, but…

Necessity is the mother of invention

There’s a long history of people making big discoveries during difficult times.

Now we’re not saying you need to go and invent an atomic bomb or anything, but one of the great paradoxes of the human condition is that constraint fuels creativity and growth. 

Remember the “Heart’s on Fire” montage in Rocky IV? 

The one where Drago works out in a kitted out modern gym while Sly runs up snowy hills carrying logs? 

That illustrated the basic truth that doing hard things, making yourself stretch, getting out of your comfort zone = improvement, development, and breakthroughs. 

This is why less is more is also about embracing challenges as opportunities and leveraging restrictions as a way to promote growth. 

Doing more with less in your business can drive both efficiency and innovation (with the right perspective and attitude, of course.)

It can also lead to sharper focus. 

We mentioned “the complexity tax” earlier, and it might be one of the sneakiest, but most common risks for founders as their business grows. 

It’s tempting to pursue every new opportunity, try every new platform or tool, expand to another new sales channel, or marketing platform.

But chasing shiny new toys can mean running around in all directions, getting nowhere. 

Instead, understanding your core levers and limiting yourself to doing what truly matters in your business can have huge upsides. 

When the perfect is the enemy of the good

Sometimes you don’t have the time, money, information, or expertise to make something perfect. 

Yeah we know, it would be great if every website update, every ad, and every new product you launch would be A+, 100% awesome, right out of the gate. 

But life doesn’t work like that. 

And sometimes you just need to ship something so you can take the next step.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the cornerstone of the lean startup methodology. 

It’s the idea that it’s better to get a new product out fast, validate your core insights first, and implement a process of rapid learning and iteration.

Rather than just trying to launch with something that is perfect. 

The benefits of this kind of “less is more” mindset:

  • A bias to action

  • Data-driven decision making

  • Promotes agility

  • Lowers risk

  • Centers the customer 

It’s tempting to spend a lot of time researching, strategizing, planning, and re-assessing a new initiative, but that can waste a lot of time and energy. 

Or leave you stuck at the starting blocks indefinitely. 

Your idea of perfect may also not be your customer’s either. 

It can be nerve-wracking to go forward with something that is ideal, we know. 

But getting stuff into market, being open to feedback, and adjusting on the fly can increase your chances of success over time. 

Sum it up

Simplicity can be beautiful. And powerful. “Less is more” can be a great mindset to have when it comes to your company. 

It can improve your ad creative. 

It can help you innovate. 

It can sharpen your focus.

It can create a bias to action. 

Don’t get us wrong, we’re not saying you have to be a monk or ratchet your budget down to zero. 

You don’t have to create Ogilvy-level campaigns for every Facebook ad. 

You should obviously be open to new products, opportunities, and sales channels. 

And you should definitely NOT push products, ads, or website updates that are nowhere near ready for the public. 

Just keep the power of less is more in mind as you build and understand where simplicity, limitations, and focus can propel you forward. 

All the best, 

Ron & Ash