Brand Narrative · Message architecture · Component
The master message
The single thing that must land — because without a hierarchy every message is equally important and none of them arrives.
The deliverable
What it is
If the audience remembered one sentence, which one? Answering that is the whole exercise, and organisations resist it because every function has a candidate.
It also has to be stable. A master message that changes each planning cycle is not a master message; it is a campaign theme.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
The message
The one thing, in its agreed wording.
3 attributes: Master message · Expresses · In place since
LearnThe test
Whether it is actually the message being received.
3 attributes: Returned · What is returned instead · Tested
LearnThe competing messages
What else is being pushed at the same time.
3 attributes: Competing message · From · Share of output
Learn
Ask the market what the organisation is saying. If your master message is not what comes back, it is not leading.
The other components in message architecture
The supporting messages
What holds the master message up, kept to a few — because more than three and the hierarchy is flat again.
LearnThe audience variants
What changes by audience, written side by side so contradictions show — because they are only visible when read together.
Learn