MBD126: What Is a Visual Value Proposition (And Why Most Brands Don't Have One)

26 May 2026 | Issue #126

In this issue:

What Is a Visual Value Proposition (And Why Most Brands Don't Have One)
Aeto: project management and timers for freelancers
Recent Podcast Appearance
Design Quote of the Week

What Is a Visual Value Proposition (And Why Most Brands Don't Have One)

Most marketers can write a value proposition. You fill in the blanks: we help [audience] achieve [outcome] by [method]. That part is well-trodden territory. The harder question is whether you can show it.

A visual value proposition is the collection of images, colors, typography, and design choices that communicate your brand's promise before anyone reads a word. It's what people see and feel when they land on your page or scroll past your ad.

Michelob Ultra is the clearest example I know. Their ads don't look like beer ads. They look like fitness ads, with fit people finishing a run, stepping off a court, and toweling off after a workout. The beer is almost incidental. But the message lands: this brand fits into a healthy lifestyle. The visuals are doing all of that without a sentence of copy to support them.

There's a reason visuals can carry that weight when words struggle. Research on the Picture Superiority Effect shows that people retain about 65% of information three days after seeing it alongside visuals, compared to roughly 10% when it was delivered as text or audio alone.

The picture superiority effect, 65% of images are remembered 3 days later, compared to 10% remembered from text or audio.

But the retention number is really just a symptom of something deeper. Visuals work because they create emotional associations that text rarely can. When you see those Michelob Ultra ads, you don't process a logical argument about calorie counts. You feel something about the kind of person who drinks it. That emotional shortcut is what makes a visual value proposition worth building.

Finding the White Space in Your Category

Before you decide how to show your value proposition, look at what your competitors are already showing. What colors are they using? What kinds of photos appear in their ads? How much text? Spend enough time with this and patterns emerge — and those patterns show you where the open territory is.

Most B2B tech companies cluster around blue. It signals trust and security, and Intel, Dell, Cisco, IBM, HP, and Salesforce all arrived at the same answer independently. If you're competing in that space, blue is not a differentiator. It's camouflage.

I ran into this directly when I was the creative director at Extreme Networks. The networking software/hardware category was saturated with blue. Cisco owned it, and most competitors followed. Walking around tech trade shows, I noticed that purple really stood out in the sea of sameness. We committed to it, and over time, it became one of the more recognizable visual signals in the space. Visual equity compounds, but only if you stop changing the ingredients.

The question for your brand is what's open. It might be color. It might be the style of photography, or the complete absence of it. Your audience has to be the filter throughout. A doggy daycare that uses cold, clinical imagery fails before it opens. A medical device company that leans into playful illustration has the same problem in reverse.

Selling the Better Version

Illustration that shows what your business really sells.

As the saying goes, "People don't buy products; they buy better versions of themselves." It sounds like a marketing aphorism, but it's actually a brief for your visuals. Every image you put in front of a prospect should answer the question: what does the person who uses this product look like, and would my audience want to be that person?

Spotify built an entire visual identity around this when they entered the U.S. market. As an audio company, they had nothing physical to show, so they created a duo-tone photo treatment that made everything feel unlike anything else in the category. The visuals said: this is a new kind of music service. Nobody had to read that. The feeling preceded the understanding.

That's the job. Your value proposition tells people what you do. Your visual value proposition makes them feel what it's like to be someone who chose you.

I go into further detail on this topic in The Visual Marketer.

PODCASTS

I was recently on Neal Schaffer's podcast, The Digital Marketing Coach. We discussed a range of topics related to visuals, marketing, and more.

I'm not sure why I look so angry in that thumbnail, but Neal was the first person who identified an ownable space for me at the intersection of creative and marketing.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR FREELANCERS

After years of juggling multiple apps to manage client work, I built an app that lets me see all my clients, projects, and tasks, track time on tasks, and invoice clients. Plus reports!

And if you use the Mac app, the timer runs in the top menu bar.

Let me know if you want to learn more or just want to try the free 30-day trial.

DESIGN QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” – Mark Twain

My AI disclaimer: I wrote this week's article, and Claude helped me with edits.

Midjourney image prompt: a few key people are at a tech trade show. A vibrant, high-contrast illustration using flat vector-style shading with neon and duotone color blocking. The characters are stylized with exaggerated lighting in magenta and yellow tones, set against a cyan background. There’s a strong use of shadow and highlight to create depth without using gradients. It uses clean lines and a minimal background to keep focus on the figures and objects. --ar 16:9