Why your company’s messaging deserves more time than you think 

Organisations seem to be changing faster than ever – acquisitions bringing in new teams and capabilities, leadership shifting priorities, new products changing what a company does, and almost every business is working out what AI means for it.  

While internally these changes may feel like a natural evolution for how an organisation is developing, they can often open a gap between how a company describes itself and what it really does, and that gap can cause confusion for employees and customers alike. 

That’s why, after a round of changes, it’s important to revisit the basics of a company’s messaging. Core messaging is the foundation everything else grows from, and it needs checking against what is actually happening within the company to make sure it still reflects who they are. 

We went through this recently with a client bringing businesses together following a few acquisitions. With each new integration, what they could offer had expanded, but their messaging hadn’t shifted with it. We went back to the foundations together. We agreed on an identifier that says what the business is, a differentiator that sets it apart, and the benefit clients gain from working with it. From there we set the tone of the messaging, built supporting phrases and tailored it for each key audience. There were moments along the way when we had to pause and debate an idea or a phrase, and it would have been easy to see those as a distraction from the bigger picture. In practice, each one surfaced a real question about the business, and working through them together is what made the final messaging something people could stand behind. 

When Microsoft was preparing Windows 95, its agency handed ambient composer Brian Eno a brief for the start-up sound. The music had to be inspiring, universal, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental and emotional, and, crucially, this had to captured in three and a quarter seconds. Eno made 84 pieces, and the one Microsoft chose ran slightly over. It lasted only a few seconds, but it was the first thing millions of people heard each time they switched on their computers, and it had to carry everything Microsoft wanted people to feel about what came next. Microsoft knew an introduction that short would shape how people saw the company behind it, which is exactly why it was worth 84 attempts. 

Company messaging works in much the same way – it’s often only a sentence or two that people first read, but it introduces everything else. That includes the sales conversation, the website, the press release, the spokesperson interview, and even how an employee explains their job to friends and family. If the foundation is vague, everything built on it inherits that vagueness, so the time spent getting it right is rarely wasted. 

Getting the basics right 

Leave room for disagreement. Different teams will see the business differently, and that’s useful. Encourage the debate early, because the points people argue over tend to be the ones that matter most. 

Know where to be flexible. Decide which ideas are fixed and which can bend for different audiences. A consistent core doesn’t mean every team has to use identical sentences. 

Don’t discard your legacy. Existing language often carries real equity with clients and staff. Build on what already works rather than starting from scratch for the sake of it. 

Look at competitors, then look further. Competitor analysis shows you where you’d blend in, but fresh thinking often comes from outside your industry. 

Most people will never see the work that goes into a company’s core messaging, but they’ll feel the difference when everything a company says starts from the same place.