Strategy and Message Development for Animal Advocacy

By Anthony Bellotti, HRC Member of the Board

What is a campaign message and why do you need one? More importantly, how do you develop a winning message for an animal advocacy campaign? And what does research have to do with all of this? In the following weeks, I will address these questions in a series of Humane Thinking articles. In this first installment, we examine the nature of persuasion and how a message forms the strategic lynchpin of your communications game. In part two, I demystify the message development process with a how-to guide for campaign managers. The final section presents a case study of the 1996 presidential election campaign to illustrate message development in a specific and familiar context.

What is a Message?

Issue advocates often use the words "message," "strategy," and "tactic" imprecisely. I will assume Ron Faucheux's (U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu's Chief of Staff) excellent definition: "strategy is how you position yourself and allocate your resources to maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. It is a concept. It is a way to win. A tactic, on the other hand, is a tool to implement strategy. It is conduct." The campaign message is the crux of your overall communications strategy. Your message explains why your target audience should vote or adopt your position as opposed to your opposition's position. As per Michael Cornfield (Campaigns & Elections Magazine), a message is the "central rationale and motivation the public must accept in order for it to act as the campaign desires."

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