Setting the Stage
Here at Chemistry, we recognize that an effective communications campaign doesn’t just form out of thin air. Finding the message that will resonate with the intended audience and create brand growth takes intentional effort. That’s why before we can build a campaign for a client, we need to find and focus on a core message that will serve as its foundation.
We tasked our client, the My Life in a Bag Foundation, with channeling their passion for helping foster kids, their eagerness to spread the word about their work and their ambition to grow their brand into a clear, concise message.
To effectively land on the messages that would stick, the Chemistry team conducted a message mapping strategy session.
What is a Message Mapping Strategy Session?
In short, It is the formal name for the process of pinpointing those key messages and talking points.
The client’s key stakeholders meet with our public relations experts to work through their brands’ purpose, searching for those phrases and talking points that could guide a broader communications campaign, be effectively shared with a targeted audience and ultimately further their brand’s mission.
The result of this collaborative discussion is a Message Map, a diagram which centers on a singular main message that serves as a base, with key points expanding from the center. These points are important for stakeholders to convey and for the audience to understand. All of the points tie back into the “home base”, creating a structure for effectively communicating the identity and purpose of your brand as well as a foundation for ensuing campaigns.
Here’s an example of a previous message map:
Click Here to learn more about the specifics of the message map and the strategy session.
So How Did It Go?
The My Life in a Bag team jumped at the opportunity to refine and potentially re-think their messaging. Seven members of the foundation came into the Chemistry office to meet with us and find that oh so important home base and the key talking points that would bolster it.
After deliberation and input from members and the chemistry team alike, the home base of the My Life in a Bag foundation is to “improve the lives of kids in foster care”. There was healthy debate over what should be included in the message and the specific wording (i.e. should it just say foster care or include residential group homes), which showcased how the message mapping strategy session provides the structure for clients to recognize the importance of carefully constructing their image and how they define themselves.
Participants found key points throughout the discussions during the session and added them to the map, such as their goal to raise money to buy luggage and essential care items for the foster children, providing them with a sense of dignity.
“I learned a lot. There’s things that I could do a little different in getting our message across,” said Founder and CEO of the foundation Charles “Bizkitt” Smith. Those seemingly small tweaks and refinements that the message mapping session produces end up making a big difference and set a solid foundation for communicating your brand moving forward.
Taking the Next Step
With the message map created, the next step was to make use of it. We leaned on some of what we do best: video production. We recorded interviews of My Life in a Bag team members in our studio, producing a video that effectively shared their story and newly refined message, providing them with material to grow support for their cause.
The message mapping session coupled with the video has provided My Life in a Bag with a solid starting point, but these steps are ideally just the foundation of a broader full service campaign for a client, a Chemistry speciality.
If you want to refine your message and grow your brand, Chemistry PR & Multimedia has the experience and the capabilities to help you reach your communications goals.
