Manage the message – before somebody else does

Don’t leave it to chance. Get in first, and tell your story.

The phrase has been imprinted on my brain for almost 20 years. The speaker was naked when he uttered it, which probably had something to do with the longevity of the memory. (Memory gurus always say make the image outlandish – and this was outlandish, believe me.) He was getting into the showers at my gym, and I asked him how the aerobics competition had gone the previous weekend. Tall, tanned and toned, he turned around and told me with a dejected air that he’d come third. “Well that’s not bad,” I said, trying to lessen his obvious disappointment. “Yes it is,” he said with air of camp disdain. “Because you’re either first, or your nowhere. In aerobics or in life.” And with that, he pulled the shower curtain and disappeared. So why has the phrase remained with me? Well first of all, it was funny (to me, at least). Second, his disappointment was entirely a matter of perception (he came third out of a field of hundreds, which is pretty good in my book). Third, it provides a lesson for marketing. Now I’m not advocating rampant competitiveness here, where you do whatever it takes to trample your rivals. But I am saying that it’s important to be first – especially when it comes to managing the message. Because if you get there first, you control that message. Just ask any politician. Once an idea is out there, any denials, corrections and repositioning exercises are next to useless.

Milking it

First impressions count – just ask David and George. Cameron and Osborne that is. When backbench MP Nadine Dorries called them ‘two posh boys who don’t know the price of milk’, she struck gold. The line was simple, clear and direct – something that everybody could instantly relate to. And yet and yet. Do you know the price of milk? I don’t. It’s bundled in with everything else I buy at the supermarket and I don’t pay much attention. And yet I’m not a posh boy. Not a trust fund or Bullingdon Club waistcoat in sight here at Copy Towers. But with Gilbert (sorry, David) and George, it struck home. And Dorries knew she was on safe ground: they’re male, white, privileged, educated and Tory. Easy targets, in other words. Not for a moment would she have considered making similar comments about women, or ethnic minorities, or the poor. She managed the message with devastating skill, and once the image was out there, it stuck. It’s a sobering lesson for those of us who work in marketing. Just like the naked aerobics instructor, you need to get in there first, otherwise you might as well forget it. If you’re not managing your message, somebody else is. You need to construct your story, choose your language carefully and use imagery that people can relate to. Sometimes, it’s as simple as using shorthand to describe more complex issues, or to plant a seed in the reader’s mind.

Investment is really just another name for spending. But it has positive connotations: investments pay dividends tomorrow, and provide a nest-egg for future generations. Even the most outlandish projects (think IT systems that turn out to be white elephants) can be justified by that one simple word.
British Petroleum (not BP). When Barack Obama used the full name of the company repeatedly when talking about the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, he did so deliberately. Though the company is global, and the US operation is not controlled by the UK, the simple use of the full name made it seem like a problem that had been imposed from abroad. Subtle but highly effective.

Framing the message is also vitally important. It controls how people see what they see, and helps them interpret it.

Less is more. In 2005, a focus group in the UK was presented with a set of immigration policies and asked what they thought of them. At this stage, they had no idea which party had drawn up the policies, so they had to examine them on their merit. The majority of the group voted in favour of them. They were then told the policies came from the Conservative Party and asked to vote again. Now, the majority voted against.

Name and shame

Managing the message means careful positioning, and deliberate storytelling. A few years back, I was working with an agency that was involved in a rebranding exercise with a high-tech firm. They had recently merged with another company, and wanted a new name. Together, the agency and I racked our brains, raided our dictionaries and plundered Greek and Roman mythology to come up with a list of 120 names. The list was then locked in a (virtual) vault while the agency worked up the story for the presentation to the Big Marketing Boss (BMB). A couple of weeks later, I got a call from my agency contact. Was I up for a bit more name-searching? Yes, I said, but why – didn’t they like any of the names we came up with? Not a single one? My contact then told me the whole sorry saga. Apparently BMB had got wind of the (long) shortlist and insisted on seeing it. Toys flew out of the cot, and eventually the list was emailed to him. No explanation. No background. No framing. No positioning. Result? 120 names – three weeks of work – dismissed out of hand in under 2 minutes. The moral of the story? Messages matter. Without them, we don’t understand what we’re seeing, hearing or reading. They’re a lifebuoy in a sea of uncertainty, something safe and secure to hold on to. So make sure you get in there first, and control that message. Because if you don’t, somebody else will. Or worse – nobody. As a naked aerobics instructor once said, you’re either first or you’re nowhere. Ain’t that the bare truth.

Kevin Communication, Copywriting, Ideas, Marketing.