The science of a company's design

My favorite reading thus far in English 201 has been the chapter on design. What fascinated me was the different components that make up the team that design either a website or a brochure for the teeming masses. I always believe that these kind of documents are the sole resposibility of marketing; I was wrong. What bothers me is the energy compnies put into alignment, boldface, use of white space and other assortments and they still  manage to lose the audience about their purpose. A writing professor once alluded to the fact that if I the writer cannot grab his attention( The reader ) with the first line of my work, then both his and my time have been wasted. I agree. Do companies need over the top graphics and convaluted language for their respective documents? My answer is no. I am more interested in the goal of the company. A product can be sold to any audience, if the message is concise. If the average customer doesn't know what the company is selling, then they certainly aren't buying.