A presentation to executive education participants at the Brookings Institution on crafting more powerful messaging.

1. Prepared for Executive Education at Brookings
Suzanne E. Henry, Four Leaf Public Relations LLC
with
Energy Focus Coaching and Consulting May 2009

2.  Importance of proactive positioning and
messaging
 Getting Ready
 Questions to ask
 Intelligence to gather
 Messages to determine
 Message Development
 Recipes for success
 Exercise

3. If you are not communicating who you are and
what you are doing, someone else will
They likely will get it wrong

4.  Why am I thinking about my message?
 What do I want my audience to do?
 How much do I know about my audience?

5.  Increasing competition  Staff disconnections/lack of
communication
 Falling value proposition(s)
 Diminishing participation,
 Invisibility memberships or sales
 Negative member or  Other falling statistics
customer feedback
 “Gut” feeling of being off
the mark

6.  Internal Analysis
 Current message audit
 Self perception analysis
 External Analysis
 Competitive message analysis
 Target audience research

7.  Message exercises
 Target audience description
 Concept pyramid
 Good word, bad word list
 Messages to Develop
 Positioning statement
 Elevator pitch
 Tag line
 Power bites
 Take-away statements
 Organization/Agency boilerplate
 Value messages

8. Who are you?
CONCEPT
What do you do?
CONCEPT
How do you do it?
CONCEPT
Why do you do this?
CONCEPT
Why would someone get involved with
you?
CONCEPT
Why else would someone get involved?
CONCEPT

9. Who are you?
A non-profit org committed to encouraging tomorrow’s engineers to find
alternative energy solutions
What do you do?
We hook up universities and colleges with experts and current alternative energy
engineers (as visiting professors) and provide curriculum on alternative energy topics
How do you do it?
We identify , fund and place these current experts– for 2 week stints – at a university or
college; we also help them develop the curriculum to deliver their expertise to the students
Why do you do this?
We believe educational institutions can impact and accelerate our ability to develop alternative
energy technology; we also believe our program helps produce more scientists and engineers
due to the “hot” nature of this topic
Why would someone get involved with you?
The “visiting professors” get attention for their companies and expertise; the investors get attention
for funding an action-program to our energy dilemma
Why else would someone get involved?
Its “future” orientation is naturally appealing; alternative energy topics are “hot”; the early
players will gain fame

10. Good Words Bad Words
 Avoid overused words,  Identify jargon, such as
such as “professional” “solutions”
and “excellent”
 Choose stronger words,  Identify words someone
such as “formidable” and might use, but you would
“catalyst” rather they didn’t

11.  Compelling
 Truthful/Appropriate
 Differentiating

12. Powerful Messages Are Clear
 Concise
 Short
 Consistent

13. A mix of authenticity and eloquence
about something that is relevant to your
audience
and which sets you apart from the
competition
And, it’s clear

14. Good Not So Good
 CVG is the business  CVG is a membership
organization group created to
created by address the need for
entrepreneurs, for educating and
entrepreneurs promoting the local
entrepreneurial
community

15. NOUNS

16.  Positioning statement
 Elevator pitch

17.  Describes who you are
 Does not necessarily describe what you do
 Describes who you are in relationship to
everything else
 Refers to the competition without actually
addressing it

18.  CVG: An organization that was created by entrepreneurs, for
entrepreneurs
 Ipsos is the largest market research firm in the world, owned and
operated by market research professionals
 The Greenscape Business Alliance advocates the value of properly
managed turf and landscapes for our communities
 The Southern Environmental Law Center is the largest, non profit
environmental advocacy organization dedicated solely to preserving
and protecting the Southeast

19.  How are you unique? different? special? (from other choices)
 Really…
 Who says?
 What feedback have you received to date (from your target
audience)?
 Where do you want to be?
 What are you trying to do for your audience?
 Where are you currently?
 What are you actually making happen?

20.  Tag line: Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s
Energy Experts
 Positioning Statement: NewEnergyForce helps
our educators focus our future scientists and
engineers on tomorrow’s world energy
challenges

21.  Short: A 30 second, verbal answer to: Who
are you and what do you do?
 Creates curiosity: Meant to cause your
listener to want to learn more
 Direction: Gives people enough
information that they walk away with the
right idea about you

22.  The coalition is a national group of organizations whose members
are in the business of providing and maintaining greenscapes. We
communicate the value of properly managing lawns and landscapes
based on years of practical experience and hard scientific research.
 Greenscapes have significant economic and environmental benefits –
cleans the air, cools the cities , traps run-off, filters rainwater, pulls
down dust, absorbs carbon (CO2) and generates oxygen…But, only
if done right.
 We, essentially, are dispelling the notion that “brown” is the new
“green.” We have reliable information on how to responsibly manage
these green investments, and why...
 Would you like to see some of this data?

23. 1. Burning Problem – What is your audience facing?
2. Unique Opportunity – What is happening in the
world where you are the answered prayer (or at
least a good answer)?
3. What You Do – What do you actually provide?
4. Benefit(s) – Why should someone choose you over
another choice?
5. Call to Action – What do you want them to do?

24.  We are….

25. Develop an elevator pitch for your
agency/organization or a project

26. Suzanne E. Henry
Four Leaf Public Relations LLC
Suzanne@FourLeafPR.com
434-972-7278
www.FourLeafPR.com