It’s About One Thing / Message & Objective First
Term: It’s About One Thing / Message & Objective First | Book: Lipstick on a Pig (the no-spin era): book profile and conceptual summary
Definition and main idea
Effective communication starts with the goal and the main message, not with the wish to generate positive coverage. The choice of media, spokesperson and tactic should follow the goal and the audience.
Explanation and elaboration
The goal specifies what change is wanted; the main message is what the audience must understand; the strategy is the logic of reaching the goal; and a tactic is a specific action such as an interview, a statement, a report or a public meeting. According to the underlying summary, Clarke stresses that “positive coverage” is not in itself a goal, and that placing a favourable article in a particular newspaper is not necessarily a strategy. The channel must fit the audience and the behaviour expected of them.
Notes and limits of interpretation
Source versus analysis
The number of news items or views may show reach, but alone it does not prove that the audience’s understanding, trust or behaviour has changed. Derive the indicators from the communication goal.
Relations to other concepts
- Tell the Truth Early, Often, and in Plain Language
- Flood the Zone
- Have More Than One Weapon in Your Arsenal
- Communications Is a Science, Not an Art
Review questions
- What communication problem does this principle solve?
- Is the message consistent with the reality of the organisation’s performance?
- What exactly should the audience know, understand or do?
- What evidence exists to evaluate the result?