Consistent Messaging is Your Home Run
Written by PR Etc., Inc.
Published by Rockford Register Star
Monday, May 21, 2007

There are few things more essential to an organization than its messaging. In baseball terms, your message stated clearly once is similar to a base hit, but your message carried on a consistent basis is a home run which can win the game for you.

If your customers, potential clients, and/or donors do not clearly understand what your organization does – or if they receive varying messages from different management and employees – it will be hard for them to support or distinguish your business, products or services from competitors.

Consider how many avenues your target audience is receiving information about you. In a typical day, an individual might read something about your business in the newspaper. Then, while at a luncheon hear something completely different about your organization. Perhaps at a golf outing later in the day reveals yet more information, inconsistent with what you learned earlier.

While it’s a good thing for your brand to be recognized, if at the end of the day individuals have three (or more) messages of what your business does or stands for, they will be confused and it will decrease your organization’s marketplace credibility.

Think about how you buy a product or support a business: those that you can clearly define have a better chance to earn your understanding and, in the end, your dollars.

In the next column, I’ll provide ideas of how your organization might approach developing a clear and consistent message to earn a home run.