What do Garage Door Openers and Websites Have in Common?
I had a conversation just yesterday. We’re building a website, and the UX team was deep in discussion about stylization. You know, those “Read More” buttons? The ones that either change color on hover or do something a little more elegant?
In this case, we were comparing two designs. One changed to a lovely on-brand color and was very clean. The other added a subtle animated line that drew from left to right and stayed solid.
And here’s what we all agreed on: that little animation made us want to click. It didn’t bait us. It engaged us. It was a micro-interaction that, without words, said there’s something worth seeing here.
That, friends, is marketing. Not in the “what’s our campaign” sense, but in the way we think about every touchpoint, every moment someone interacts with your product or service, even something as small as how a hover effect feels. That's where branding lives. That's where customers decide how they feel about your business.
And yet, often, Marketing is nowhere near the table when these product development decisions are made.
When Marketing Is Brought in Too Late
If you’re a startup, maybe you’re sitting around the MVP table, building something new. The engineers are there. The product team’s there. Maybe design, maybe UX. But marketing?
Not yet. Not until the thing is ready to launch.
You’ve just missed a massive opportunity.
This isn’t just a marketer’s opinion. Research by McKinsey & Company found that “Too often, functions such as marketing and manufacturing are brought in only after the design is nearly complete, which can lead to expensive rework, delays, and products that miss the mark with customers.”
And yet, research by Nielsen Norman Group consistently shows that marketers and UX professionals often work in separate silos leading to experiences that confuse or frustrate users. Marketing wants to tell one story, while the product delivers a different one. The result? A fragmented brand.
The Little Things ARE the Big Things
Let me explain it another way.
The other day, I hit the button to open my garage door, a brand new system. And let me tell you, the experience was not satisfying. The button required a hard press. And every garage door has that semi-annoying noise as it goes up and down. There was a delay with no satisfying click, no confirmation that I’d successfully launched the door into motion.
And I thought, wouldn’t this product be so much better if it had a pleasing tactile feel? Or maybe if I could program the opener to play a favorite song when it engaged, something uplifting to start my day.
That’s how a marketer thinks.
We ask, how does this feel to the customer? How could we inject joy, personality, or surprise, at little or no additional cost? That’s where innovation lives. Not just in engineering feats, but in the emotional signature of your product.
And this isn’t just theoretical. Studies show that emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied ones. Emotional resonance is what creates loyalty, and that starts with small moments. A button. A sound. A thoughtful feature.
Market Research Is Not a Box to be Checked
Let’s say my garage door idea went to market. That personalized sound feature? Before you build it, marketers would run focus groups. We'd test concepts, messaging, and packaging. That feedback loop can validate ideas before they hit production, saving you time and money, and giving you a stronger go-to-market strategy.
Market research isn’t just about validating marketing campaigns. It’s about shaping the product itself.
So, Executive Teams, Here’s the Real Question:
At what stage do you bring in your marketers?
Because if you’re waiting until launch, you’re not getting the full value of marketing. You're not leveraging the people trained to think like customers. To notice friction. To elevate good to remarkable.
If you’re a growth-stage company, this could be your competitive edge. If you’re an enterprise brand, this could be the difference between delivering an update and launching something that moves the market.
Don’t let marketing sit on the sidelines. Pull us into product design. Into innovation meetings. Into the subtle conversations about how a garage door opener feels or how a “Read More” button behaves.
Those moments are your brand.
Those moments are your advantage.
And that, my friends, is marketing.