Understanding Strategic
Communications
Jon Haber, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy
Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education
February 17, 2022
Strategic Communications Defined
• Planned and intentional use of communications by an
organization to fulfill its mission and goals
• Use of information, imagery, symbols to persuade and influence
audiences to do something, feel something, create something,
generate good will, etc.
Importance
• Impact passage of legislation or adoption of regulation
• Impact effectiveness of elected officials, candidates, ballot
initiatives
• Build/grow brands
• Sell products
• Build movements
• And more
Strategic Communications Primer
1. Goals [Link]
[Link] [Link]
1. Goals
Goals: Define Communications Success
• Planned and intentional use of communications by an
organization to fulfill its mission and goals
6
Not This
7
Clearly Define Communications Success
8
Defining Success
Not Clear Clearly Defined
• Increase visibility among • Increase sales to current
customers customers by 10%
• Generate more news • Generate news coverage that
coverage contains our messages
• Get more public support • Pass legislation in Congress
Goals & Objectives
• Goals: one-sentence statement of the end to be achieved.
• Objectives: Specific, achievable, measurable and time-bound
markers
What is Success?
2. Audiences
2. Who Is Your Audience
Audiences/Stakeholders
• Audiences are the individuals, groups of people or entities that
enable your organization, candidate, elected official, etc. to
achieve your communications goals
• Terms “target audiences” and “stakeholders” are
interchangeable
• General rule: Identifying key audiences is a critical building
block in all communications efforts
The Deciders
Ultimate vs. Intermediate Audiences
• Ultimate Audiences
• “The deciders”
• They are key to achieving your goals/objectives
• Influencer Audiences
• They influence the Ultimate Audiences
Ultimate vs. Intermediate Audiences
Influencers
Ultimate
Organization
Audiences
Influencers
Not the Chattering Class
And Not…
Almost Never the General Public…
It’s This: Key to Achieving Comms Goals
3. Messages
3. Strategic Messages
• Strategic message = set of statements that prompts targeted
audience to take desired action
• It’s what you want to say
• IN A WAY THE AUDIENCE CAN HEAR IT
Everything Communicates
• Words
• Tones
• Images
• Personal appearance
• Colors
• Symbolism
• Silence
Blink: In an Instant
Conversations are born – and die – in
first minutes of contact
24
Core Principles of
Strategic Messages
Focus on the Desired Action
• Know what you want to occur as a result of your message
• Begin with the end in mind
• What are your goals/objectives?
Desire Trumps Need
• People have needs. People seek wants.
• Focus on what the target audience wants, not needs.
• Most NGOs focus on needs, not wants
• They tell their stakeholders what they should do (instead of
asking them what they want)
• Ex: social service agencies (eat healthy, exercise more)
• I need spinach but I want chocolate
Determining Desire
• Identifying what motivates a target audience is as much as an
art as a science
• Polling and focus groups can help
• Cluster people based on their common desires – rather than on
their demographic or lifestyle factors
Most Effective Messages
• Focus on impact, not process
• Focus on the heart, not the brain
• Easily understood; simple language
• Without jargon
• Convey a strong mental picture
Less is More
• Initial window
• We have 15-20 seconds to capture a listener’s attention
• That’s 25-30 words
• Most successful strategic message contains no more than three
major points
• Less is more – fewer words, fewer audiences, fewer points
equal more success
Five Steps to Messaging
5 Steps of Messaging
1. Identify action desired
2. Identify target audiences
3. Identify audience desires
4. Find the mutuality
5. Express the message
Case study
ATLA’s Situation Analysis
• ATLA was on the defensive
• Trial lawyers called greedy
• Blamed for driving “good doctors,” “small businesses” out of
town
• Blamed for driving up the cost of healthcare
• ATLA would say:
• We’re not greedy
• There are more doctors today than there were x years ago
ATLA’s Goal
• How do we get off the defensive?
• How do we fight back?
• How do we change the narrative?
• How do we stop tort reform legislation?
5 Steps of Messaging
1. Identify action desired
2. Identify target audiences
3. Identify audience desires
4. Find the mutuality
5. Express the message
1. Identify the Action Desired
• What is the action the organization desires?
• What action is the organization trying to bring about?
• Creating awareness is rarely an action
• What is success?
1. ATLA: Identify Action Desired
• How do we get off the defensive?
• How do we fight back?
• How do we change the narrative?
• How do we stop tort reform legislation?
2. Identify the Target Audiences
• Who is the target audience?
• Target audience(s) are those you need to act if your goal is
to be achieved
• Who are your important audiences?
2. ATLA: Identify Target Audiences
• Ultimate Audiences
• Yes: Moderate Democrats/Winnable Republicans in U.S.
Congress
• No: Liberal Democrats or non-winnable Republicans
• Influencer audiences
• Interest groups
• Media
3. Identify Audiences’ Desires
• People listen to messages that speak to their self-interest
• People are motivated by desire more than need
3. ATLA: Identify Audience Desires
• Protect constituents against “greedy” and “out-of-control”
special interests
• e.g., tobacco, chemical, oil companies, etc.
• Focus on greedy CEOs
• Check on CEOs and bad corporate behavior
• Want justice and a fair system for people
4. Find the Mutuality
• Success is mutual satisfaction of desire
• Seek mutual satisfaction, not mutual desire
• Organization and its target audience may support the same
action but their reasons for doing so may differ
• This overlap is the essential ingredient for an effective message
4. Find the Mutuality
Mutual satisfaction of desire is secret to success
Organization Shared Audience
Desire Desire
4. ATLA: Find the Mutuality
ATLA Target
4. ATLA: Find the Mutuality
ATLA Target
Protect civil
justice system;
tort law
4. ATLA: Find the Mutuality
ATLA Target
Protect civil Check on CEOs
justice system; and bad corporate
tort law behavior
4. ATLA: Find the Mutuality
ATLA Target
Protect civil “Justice” Check on CEOs
justice system; and bad corporate
tort law behavior
5. Express the Message
• Convey it in a way that your audience can hear it
• Requires writing and speaking from their perspective, not yours
• Use familiar words, not jargon
• Limit ideally to 25-30 words
5. ATLA: Express the Message
• Make the fight about justice (not about ATLA)
• Change the organization’s name
5. Express the Message
We work to make sure people have a fair chance to receive
justice through the legal system when they are injured by the
negligence or misconduct of others.
4. Strategy
4. Strategy Drives Tactics
• Goals/Objectives = WHAT needs to be done
• Strategy = HOW to get it done
• Tactics = TOOLS to make it happen
Burning of Notre Dame
4/15/19
French President Emmanuel Macron
I’m telling you all tonight — we will rebuild this cathedral
together. This is probably part of the French destiny. And we will
do it in the next years. Starting tomorrow, a national donation
scheme will be started that will extend beyond our borders.
Queen Elizabeth
4/5/20
Queen Elizabeth
Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you
that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it. I
hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in
how they responded to this challenge, and those who come after
us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any,
that the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humored
resolve, and of fellow feeling still characterize this country. The
pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our
present and our future.
Message in Photos
Everything Communicates
• Words
• Tones
• Images
• Personal appearance
• Colors
• Symbolism
• Silence
Reagan (1984)
George W. Bush (2001)
Understanding Strategic
Communications
Jon Haber, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy
Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education
February 17, 2022