How to Develop Your Company's Messaging Plan

Central to any Marcom or PR strategy is a coherent messaging plan designed to make sure that all corporate and product related communications to the outside world are consistent and coherent.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Press clippings from your competitors for several months
• A PC and word processor
• A competitive analysis of your products or services
• Market data and customer feedback from which to draw

1. Hold a meeting of your team and ask that they review the strengths and weaknesses of your company as a whole in the marketplace. Determine where you want to be, and what it will take to get there.

2. Review the results of this meeting against the key competitors strengths and weaknesses. Determine what unique positioning your company has in the marketplace, and start formulating statements to articulate it.

3. Review the competitive press clippings, and from these - determine the messaging strategy of your key competitors so that you can differentiate yours.

4. Hold another brainstorming meeting, and develop a number of statements that reflect what you want to communicate to the world about your company. Write ALL of them down, and don't eliminate them at this stage.

5. Prioritize these statements based on the unique value each has, and how accurately it describes your company.

6. From the overall prioritized list, choose several with large impact as "primary" messages, and several with lesser impact as "secondary" messages. Make sure the ones chosen are different from the competition in key ways.

7. Communicate these messages to your advertising and PR firms, so they can construct consistent campaigns for you.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure each message is clear, and detailed.
• Try not to have redundant statements - make sure each is unique.