Why it’s often hard to chase ugliness away

The job of art is to chase ugliness away.
Bono

Last year I was hired to help jump-start marketing efforts for a knowledge organization.
Let’s call it Acme Inc.
The goal: to get new business by reaching out more effectively to the business community.
In short, here’s what I did:
I studied their target audience.
I studied their product.
I studied their customer touch points. (See a simple guide re customer touch points.)

My findings? How much time do I have? Not much? OK:
Their products & customer touch points were inelegant and outdated.
In a word: 
unattractive.
For example, they were delivering their seminars in cheap, airport-like hotels with dim lighting, poor ventilation, and uncomfortable chairs.

So I conceptualized some innovations to refresh their customer touch points.
Interestingly, in the end they chose not to implement any new ideas.
(Except for one, albeit a minor one.)
Why? How much time do I have? Not much? OK: Many organizations like the promise of change, just not the actual execution of it.
You see, I think that organizations are a lot like people.
People do almost everything for emotional, not rational reasons.
Why else would a lot of people continue to buy fat-laden doughnuts?

Sadly, a lot of people want an immediate, easy return on an investment.
But there’s no easy way to chase ugliness away.
You can only hope to do it through a series of purposeful choices and a great deal of effort. And you must give it your all. Now. Tomorrow. Forever.

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