Key Messages

J454: April 12, 2007

What is a key message?

• What do you want to be known for?

• Key claims that

• communicate your organization’s values

• motivate your audience to act.

• resonate with a audience’s self-interest

• represent the “take away” from a campaign for your audience.

Your key message is essentially what you want your audience to “take away” from your campaign. It’s what you’ll use to relate to them, appeal to them, and/or call them to action.

the evolution of the key message should be to communicate our corporate/organizational values over specific message points, using examples to drive home the point.

1. Formulate your values in short, easy-to-remember statements 2. Integrate your values into the corporate culture by using every opportunity to compare what you do (jobs and initiatives) with what you say you believe and adjust accordingly 3. Align new and old initiatives with the claims you make about your company, if you say you believe in customer service, generate examples of how you do that 4. Communicate these ingrained values by making a values statement, providing and fact and giving an example: KEY MESSAGE = Values Statement/Claim + Fact + Example

Key Message Use

• Media Relations

• Press material

• Media Interviews

• Marketing Communication Collateral

• Web sites

• Brochures

• Annual Reports

• Speeches/Presentations

• Internal Communication

• Intranet

• Training

• All internal and external communication.

"So what" requires the person making a declaration to back it up with facts and anecdotes, as well as consider - one more time - how what they're saying is relevant to the Influencer, Recommender or Decision Maker.

Anatomy of a Key Message: Claim + Fact + Example

• Based on your organization’s values.

CLAIM: (www.t-post.se)

We create conversation

We deliver news in a unique way

We highlight alternative news stories

Brainstorm a list of values... get you started: accuracy, collaboration, diversity, ethics.... what else? Ask “so what”"So what" requires the person making a declaration to back it up with facts and anecdotes, as well as consider - one more time - how what they're saying is relevant to the Influencer, Recommender or Decision Maker.

Fact

• Facts: support your claim with concrete examples.

FACT:

[We create conversation]

every t-post shirt illustrates a news item on the front (with explanation on the inside)

the publishers ensure the topic is interesting and unusual, but relevant to an international audience

Facts should be many and consider what different facts might be relevant to different audiences. there will be a great deal of overlap with key messages and target audiences... but you will need to change your facts and examples to fit your audience.

If you value is diversity and your claim is “we encourage and are respectful of diversity” ... what kinds of facts would you need to back up that claim. If your value is innovation and your claim is “our company values innovation among employees”... what kinds of facts?

Sometimes this exercise shows where the holes in your knowledge are. You know that diversity or equal access or ethics are core values... but how do you SHOW, not just TELL.

Examples

CLAIM:

We create conversation

EXAMPLE:

Recent “issues” have included -

* researchers discovery that a part of our brains control “selflessness.” The headline read - Altruism, It’s all in your head

Claim: We are champions of education

Then you come up with a list of facts and examples to back up this claim. In other words, you walk the walk.

Fact: Last year we gave over $100,000 to local charities to support education of K-12 students in the community. We also had over 40 rotating volunteers reading to students every day for the entire year during their lunch break.

You can literally come up with an unlimited number of facts and examples to back up your claim. It also helps the organization to coalesce around these points and adopt them. It is also measurable if the claims remain consistent.

Your Turn

• Your assignment:

• Three Claims

• Supported by appropriate number of facts and examples.

• Length: 1 - 2 pages

Work in teams to develop one key message, supported by facts and examples. You have 20 minutes...