Core messaging:
It’s how you become deeply different.

Imagine you’re living in the USA in the mid-1800s. There’s a frontier mining town that recently popped up, and you’ve come here for opportunity. Your plan? Open a dry goods store, because this town doesn’t have one. When you hang your shingle, it’s big news. All you have to do is announce your presence and unlock your doors — if the eager citizens don’t beat them down first. From a marketing standpoint? You don’t have to try to be different. You have no competition, so there’s nothing to be different from. You simply have to be. Because “being” is different in an environment where there’s nothing like what you do.

This is not just a phenomenon of the olden days, though. It can happen anytime, anywhere, depending on the space you want to occupy. For example, I’m blessed to own a cabin in the humble town of Walnut, Mississippi — population 750. There’s one grocery store. One hardware store. And one doctor’s office. Each one is the only game in town. We don’t have a furniture store, a dry cleaner, or a coffee shop. If any one of those establishments opened, it would be a first. No competition. No need to “differentiate.”

Let’s get back to your dry goods store. You do a good business, the town grows, and your success grows along with it. Pretty soon, somebody else decides they want a piece of the action. Now you have to compete. How are you different or better? Let’s say the new guy sells higher-end goods than you do, so you emphasize that your goods are budget friendly. Now you both have staked your claims. For each of you, your unique selling point is a single word: price vs. quality.

Time goes on, and a third competitor pops up. This guy undercuts your costs — to a level you’re unwilling (or unable) to match. Now, you’re not the cheapest anymore. However, their stuff is of poor quality. So, you pivot. Your goods are economical, but they’re not crap. So you become an ideal balance of price and quality. In other words, “value.” Your positioning goes from one word (price) to a math equation. It’s one or two levels deeper — meaningful, but a bit more complicated.

You can see the pattern here. As competition increases, positioning gets harder. Where do you go next? A comparative list of features and benefits? Sure, and that’s even more complex. At some point, you’ll have to abandon the rational argument. Instead, you’ll emphasize more abstract and emotional appeals. A hometown tradition. The official sponsor of the local high school. The brand with a sense of humor. The products that are sustainably sourced. The company that supports the so-and-so cause. And on and on it goes.

In a way, this progression is a good thing. It’s elevated our consciousness to higher ideals and made our purchases more meaningful. This wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t pushed to go further.

But the point is this: The more crowded the space, the more difficult it is to create separation.

The more competition increases, the less likely your original value proposition will remain valid, and the more likely you’ll have to rediscover what makes you different. Ugh.

Unless. Unless you develop a deep distinction to begin with.

How do you find a point of difference?

It’s no accident that I started this post with a story about a mining town. You want real gold? You have to mine for it.

I have believed this for a long, long time. But not at the beginning. Early in my career, I was just another ad-agency copywriter, slinging out punny headlines. Then one day I had an epiphany: “I’m sitting here on the 8th floor writing about products I’ve never seen, made for people I’ve never met.” It felt wrong.

Ever since, I’ve been deliberate about laying my eyes on the offerings and lending my ear to their users, so I could relate to them on an individual emotional level. Accordingly, I espouse one-on-one interviews, and have developed frameworks designed to drive deeper understanding (Position X^®, Single Side Strategy^®, The Counterpart Brief™). I’m convinced that an extraordinary effort to understand is what makes all the difference.

Enter core messaging. A new discipline for differentiation.

By chance, in 2022, I was introduced to some people who felt the same way I did. Famous people, in my view. Michel Neray. Tamsen Webster. Brian Miller. Francisco Mahfuz. It’s been a privilege to get to know these extraordinarily talented professionals. We each do different things, but we all believe that message is most important… meaning drives motivation… and buy-in is born of shared beliefs. That’s some deep-down stuff.

Unfortunately, we don’t see evidence that many others understand this. And that’s a shame. Because there are a lot of you out there that truly could change the world (or your little corner of it), if only you could get buy-in for your ideas. Thus we embraced a mission: that this practice of aligning convictions that exist at our core… this should be set apart as its own category of communication. We call it core messaging.

Officially, core messaging is “the simplest articulation of how you do what you do that connects with what your audience truly cares about.” Put more simply, it’s how you find the meaning that moves people. If you’re responsible for driving action on a product, service, or idea, it’s imperative that you have a core message. It’s the thing you should nail down before you do anything else.

Please go to the Core Messaging website and explore this idea more. Plug in to this developing discipline. Share your questions, challenges, and ideas. Whether you’re a CPG giant, a startup, or an aspiring speaker, we hope you’ll see how a core message is essential to your success.

Source: coremessaging.com

Core messaging vs. message strategy: What’s the difference?

Core messaging started with five founding consultants, but there will be others. We’ll all serve various audiences and media. Here at Counterpart, for example, we have particular expertise in the adoption of sales enablement programs, driven by our own methodology: message strategy. So what’s the difference between core messaging and message strategy?

Let’s start with the definition of message strategy: a principled approach to what you say and how you say it, in order to achieve a goal. Within that context, core messaging focuses on what you say. And it’s mostly an internal effort. You concentrate on substance, and get it right. Do that first before you worry about the perfect wording for the marketplace.

Message strategy is about what you say too, but also how you say it. Its principles are “the four things that make a message work”: customer-centric, clear, compelling, and controlled. The intent of message strategy is external, i.e., the best way to express your message to your target audience.

When you’re ready to take your core message to market, that’s where message strategy comes in. A core message should be customer-centric, clear, compelling, and controlled. This is what makes a message effective. Honestly, I think it’s always a good practice to take the perspective of your audience, in everything you do, even in internal discussions. In other words, ideally, you apply message strategy when you write your core message to begin with.

When’s the best time to find your core message? Right now.

Where are you on the differentiation journey? Just starting up? Or have you been in business forever, but the evolving competitive field has left you wondering where you fit?

Even if you didn’t have a core message at first, you can start putting your message first today. Take a look at some core messaging consultants and choose the one who best fits your needs.

Make the effort to get to the core of things, so you can form a deep-rooted and abiding connection with your audience. That’s how you become deeply different. It’s an essential step toward making a meaningful difference in this world.

Related:
Message strategy: An official definition
How to make your message customer-centric
How to make your message clear
How to make your message compelling
How to keep your message controlled