{"id":1083,"slug":"rule-be-explicit-about-marketing-cannot-do","title":"Rule: be explicit about what marketing cannot do — 6% margins won't become 20% via marketing","kind":"rule","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["agency-methodology","psychology-aversion","builder-economics","positioning-voice"],"reference_body":"**Rule:** State plainly, in published Candid content and in sales conversations, what marketing **cannot** do for a residential GC. Anything bigger will be heard, correctly, as the kind of claim the FTC ordered HomeAdvisor to stop making ([[ftc-homeadvisor-angi-jan-2023-7-2m-order]]).\n\nConstruction net margins are **6–11%** ([[nahb-remodelers-cdb-2024-6-3pct-net-margin]], [[nahb-single-family-2023-8-7pct-margin]]). Marketing is **not** going to make a 6% margin business a 20% margin business.\n\n**What marketing can defensibly do:**\n\n1. **Shift customer mix** toward higher-value projects.\n2. **Reduce cost-per-lead** over time as owned-asset compounding takes effect.\n3. **Replace dependence on paid-lead platforms** with owned distribution ([[contractor-owned-trust-signal-stack-vs-homestars-rental-comparison]]).\n4. **Build a portfolio asset that survives the founder's eventual exit** — i.e., a transferable enterprise value.\n\nThese are the honest claims.\n\n**Why:** Over-claiming inherits the FTC HomeAdvisor odor at the category level ([[ftc-homeadvisor-angi-jan-2023-7-2m-order]], [[vermont-ag-angi-100k-settlement-oct-2025]]). Conservative honest claims are not a marketing weakness; in a credence-good market they are the strongest available signal of competence ([[marketing-services-as-credence-good-for-gc]]).\n\n**How to apply:** Publish a \"what marketing cannot do\" piece as part of Candid's evergreen content stack. Sales decks include a \"what we will not promise\" slide. Contract scope sections have an explicit out-of-scope list.","rationale_body":"R8 from the May 2026 psychology brief. The discipline that prevents Candid from becoming the next Angi vector for category-level mistrust.","metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"nahb-remodelers-cdb-2024-6-3pct-net-margin","title":"NAHB Remodelers Cost of Doing Business 2026 (FY 2024) — 6.3% net margin (highest since 1996), avg revenue $2.7M","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"ftc-homeadvisor-angi-jan-2023-7-2m-order","title":"FTC v HomeAdvisor (Jan 2023) — up to $7.2M order; $3M+ refunded to 110,000+ contractors by Nov 2023","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}],"incoming":[]},"created_at":"2026-05-24T23:24:06.407Z","updated_at":"2026-05-24T23:24:06.407Z"}