On the Road

I’m at Hyde Park, the ancestral home of the Roosevelt Family. Don’t have much time to write, but I’d like to pass on some messaging tips:

“No one ever lost a race because their message was too strong.”

Your message is your core argument and strategic communication.

Your message is not a slogan. “Change you can believe in” is not a message.

A message isn’t a list of issues. “I will fix healthcare and the environment and also give tax cuts” isn’t a message.

The first test of messaging:

It must be Credible, Concise, Relevant, and Compelling. Note: Credible implies that you shouldn’t really cite facts and figures. If you say “foreign workers are paid 12 cents an hour and that’s bad,” someone could be like “oh really? Where did you get that statistic. Gosh’ and derail your argument whereas if you say “The workers making our clothing are being exploited unfairly”, that’s pretty credible (most everyone knows it’s true and it also gets your point across.

The second test of messaging:

It must take the form of Problem -> Solution -> Action.

Messaging takes time. If you come up with your message in 5 minutes you probably haven’t thought it through much.