October 02, 2004
Blogging Camp Wellstone: Day One, Message Development
Pam Costain, who was a Paul Wellstone campaign strategist, a long-time director of the Resource Center of the Americas, helped start Minnesota's Save our Schools, and is currently Director of Education and Advocacy for the Wellstone Action, gave a great presentation on messaging. [Googling her, I found that she wrote a very moving obituary of the Wellstones. ] Here are my notes:
We have been beaten by the conservatives for the last few decades on message. They have done a much better job of creating a message and staying on it.
The concept of message is neutral. Criticizing how poorly the media works don't get us anywhere.
Remember, very short sentences can carry a lot of meaning.
Message is the core argument of your campaign:
- Why you exist, what values you believe in, what you want to change, what you are trying to accomplish.
Message = Conversation.
It's not a slogan it is engaging people.
Connection.
- What are the qualities of a good conversation:
- Something that resonated.
- Feel like you are heard (some organizers never learn to listen, you need to be able to listen to talk to people).
- Have an epiphany, or take away.
- Something that you want to take further.
- Trust
- Fun.
- Clear perspective.
- Empowerment
Content (crucial)
- Credible - the content needs to be accurate and stand up to scrutiny. Needs to tell the truth (we want to be credible and tell the truth).
- Needs to be important to the listener.
- Needs to be clear and concise. People must be able to immediately understand the message. Attention span is very short in our society. People need to understand what is at stake.
Connect: need to relevant to people's interests and values. We need to be able talk about values [George Lakoff theme].
Contrast: need to be able to differentiate yourself
Repeats: Once you develop a good message, say it over and over and over again. (When you are totally sick of the message, and think you will die if you hear it again, the general public may be starting to hear it.)
How to find out what people are thinking about:
- Ask people. Listen, listen, listen.
- Monitor the media.
- Go to community groups.
- Then do polls and focus groups.
- Polls and focus groups are not the enemy, they are neutral tools.
Relationship, or how the interaction is conducted, is important:
- One to many.
- Upper to lower (police example).
- peer to peer (small group).
Disagrees with some of George Lakoff's ideas about what people want from politicians:
- Strict Parent model (Republican - wag their fingers at people).
- Nurturing Parent (She says Lakoff suggests that this is model for Democrats)
- Disagrees with Lakoff because the public doesn't want to be a child. They don't want patronizing, unequal relationships. they don't want liberals in government "taking care of people".
- The difference between Liberals and Progressives
- Progressives - adult to adult. Not I'm going to do this for you. It is we are going to do this together. Electorate can be fully engaged.
Exchange - what is the take away?
What people take away from the conversation. Call to action, empowering people is ideal.
Examples:
- Justice for Janitors
- Asked people (potential supporters or opponents of the strike) which is the path to success, work hard and loyalty, vs help themselves individually, keep looking for better company to work for. Majority said latter.
- So the strike's message was framed as an effort by individual janitors to improve their lives.
Use the message box:
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What are we saying about ourselves | what they are saying about themselves. |
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What we are saying about them | vs what to they say about us. |
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So core message:
- People should be able to use their job to get themselves ahead
- People can't succeed without fair wages and health care | [lost the rest of the message box]
Paul Wellstone's message box
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What are we saying about ourselves
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What they are saying about themselves
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You can count on Paul to fight for you
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We are bringing people together to get things done.
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What we are saying about them
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What to they say about us
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He won't be on your side when it counts
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Paul is always fighting with everybody and won't get things done
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If you have to react to other side, then react then pivot back to your own message.
Message Discipline
- Been involved in peace movement since 1967. We have no message discipline. As a movement, we resist message discipline. We care about everything, we don't want to be hierarchical, so we shoot ourselves in the foot.
- Repeat, repeat, repeat.
- Without message discipline, campaign loses focus, confuses people.
- But discipline don't mean inflexibility -- a message can evolve and change, and can be nuanced according to the audience.
- Maturity in messaging means knowing how to talk to audiences.
- Messaging is about being strategic. You can't just talk about everything that is wrong.
Posted by Geodog at October 2, 2004 01:26 AM
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Wellstone is a hero of mine, also. A lot of what you have written has a wonderful echo of Saul Alinsky and some of the best of Peace Corps training. I will read everything you write on this training.....and learn secondhand. Thank you.