Message Development

Your company is already communicating a multitude of messages but to what degree do you know what they are? Factual or fake, intentional or accidental, positive or negative – some will be noticed, others ignored. Only those consistent with your key message and that are clearly seen, heard and understood will achieve their intended outcome. But what is your key message and is it consistently understood and communicated across your organisation?

Our approach

Successful B2B communication is only possible when you know (1) what you want to say, (2) who you want to say it to, and (3) how to best communicate it in such a way that it is received, understood and acted upon in the intended way. Your key message is the foundation on which all of your other messaging needs to be built and is the core of everything you want to communicate. and. As such, it should capture the essence of what your business is, what it does, and how you want it to be seen and should be known by everyone within your company. Irrespective of where you are in the business lifecycle, if you don’t get your messaging right, then even the greatest content and most brilliant PR/Comms campaign won’t help you achieve your wider business aims and objectives.

Our innovative key message workshops have been developed with our partner agencies over many years and deliver a proven methodology for creating and testing key messages that accurately reflect the wider aims and objectives of your company as a whole. This includes a thorough evaluation of your target audiences including their primary assumptions, wants and needs. Our professionally led, hands-on workshops ensure that each stakeholder is heard, listened to and ultimately involved in the formulation of a key message that the entire organisation can then adhere to.

Deliverables

Each Words in Motion key message workshop is individually tailored to your own specific business needs and industry context and delivers:
• A fully worked through and stress tested key/core message (including secondary supporting messaging where relevant)
• A suite of demonstrable ‘Proof Points’ that validate the key message and allow it stand up to any scrutiny
• A ‘Word Wall’ of on-message words/phrases which enables your key message(s) to be expanded and developed to meet your wider messaging needs
• A ‘Message Box’ (where relevant) comprising your key message(s) tailored for your specific audiences
• A comprehensive report of the actual workshop event, including a summary of all contributions in each workshop.
• If required, we can then work with you to review and update/rewrite your existing marketing materials to ensure accuracy and consistency across all communication channels.

Case Study

As part of a major re-branding exercise, a successful and established communications client was keen to evaluate its existing key messages with a view to developing more tightly focussed messaging that would best reflect the company’s present and future requirements. Stakeholders from each major department in the company were involved, including two of the company’s founders. From the outset, when each stakeholder was asked to summarise the company’s purpose in one sentence, it was evident that the existing key message did not reflect the significant variety of opinion within the organisation as a whole.

It was also evident that this came as a surprise to all those involved in the workshop. However, this proved to be the necessary and authentic place to begin the process of listening to and benefitting from the wisdom and insight of all the stakeholders. A ‘Word Wall’ which represented a diverse but defined pool of on-message words and phrases was developed, from which a new and much more representative key message was distilled. The active involvement of all stakeholders also ensured that a supporting armoury of robust ‘proof points’ was developed which helped secure a wholehearted acceptance of the updated key message by everyone present.

This was subsequently used by the client as the prism through which to view all their existing messaging and materials, and update where required to ensure consistency of communication across all media channels.

Clients

Britannia Pharmaceuticals
CHO
Enterprise Foundation
EPG
ifour
Infor
PH Associates
UAV
Veriton

Collaborative Partners

Aquamarine Public Relations
Helen Lawn & Associates

Communication begins with conversation

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