What is a media message? How to build one

Communications is one of the areas businesses care about and invest in most today. At the heart of it is the media message: the core content and value a business wants to get across to its customers. To understand what a media message is , read on as MONA Media explains it in this article.

What is a media message?

A media message is content created to get information, values or ideas across to customers or a specific audience. It is distributed through channels such as TV, the press, social media, email marketing and other media platforms.

Every media message, or Media Message has a specific goal, such as building brand awareness, changing perceptions or getting people to act. Done well, a media message helps a business get the results it wants from its communications and make the most of its marketing strategy.

The concept can also be explained in a few other ways:

• A media message can be a full sentence, or a symbol, a phrase or an identifying mark. Its purpose is to get specific content or a value across to the audience.
• It is a way of presenting ideas and thoughts briefly and clearly, in a suitable format, so they reach the target audience.
• It is all the content encoded as illustrative elements, mostly built on tools and media such as images, text and sound.

In Marketing, a media message is always a signal meant to stick in the audience's memory and be recognized. A media message is also created to influence how its audience thinks and behaves.

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Why do businesses need a media message?

The main goal of a media message is to bring a positive change in how potential customers, or the wider public, think, act and feel about your brand.

Every company or organization wants its brand to be noticed, remembered and distinctive. A strong message is also an effective way to improve a business's position and advantage in a competitive market.

Building a media message brings these benefits:

• It grabs attention and raises brand awareness among customers.
• It puts the brand's products and services on the shortlist when people need them.
• It motivates potential customers to explore and look for more information about the products and services.
• It gives potential customers plenty of information, so they can see the value the brand offers.

Common types of media messages

Most media messages today fall into 2 main types. Businesses use them flexibly for each product or service, at the stage and time that fit their strategic goals.

Media messages by tone of voice

Besides reaching and influencing people's thinking, a media message has to reflect what the company or organization stands for, in a fitting tone of voice. The tone should be adjusted to match the character of each product or service.

Media messages by purpose

Every business has different goals, which is why media messages are created differently. Each type of product or service in each industry needs its own creative approach:

• Social and political purposes: Here the message is built to guide, inform and educate, in order to change how people think and behave.
• Commercial purposes: The message is built to position the product, service or brand in customers' minds.

How to build an effective media message

A good media message helps a business get attention and build a real connection with its audience. But building an effective one takes more than choosing nice words or eye-catching visuals. Let's look at how MONA builds a memorable media message step by step.

Stage 1: Research and gather information and data

Every company or organization has its own target market. Start by deciding who your message is for, then dig up and collect everything relevant about that audience. This information helps you win their interest and builds value for the brand itself. You can gather it through surveys, interviews, feedback and similar methods.

Stage 2: Analyze and process the data

Once you have enough data on your target audience, group it together to form a broad insight into how people see the brand. This shows you what is already working for your customers and what needs to change so you can offer them more value.

The right idea for a memorable media message depends on each company's specific situation. Judge ideas on criteria such as originality, freshness and difference, based on the organization's own benefits, characteristics or brand positioning.

Stage 3: Take action

Once the information is defined and processed, it becomes the basis for creative ideas. Come up with several different ideas, then discuss them to pick the most convincing one.

Stage 4: Agree on the idea

After a thorough discussion of many different ideas, the team needs to agree on one. The idea that meets all the criteria gets evaluated, for example against the SMILE rule in advertising.

Stage 5: Develop the idea to fit real-world needs

The idea is usually sketched out as ads or a script, and may be presented to potential customers at a pitch event. Once the idea is clear and its feasibility has been assessed, the way the message is created also has to be effective.

→ See also: How to plan communications and events

What makes a media message work?

Now that you know what a media message is, MONA will walk you through the criteria for a successful media message below:

• Short, simple and easy to take in: Don't overcomplicate the message with fancy or flowery wording. Keep it short, with broad, inclusive content that sticks in customers' minds.
• Accurate and honest: People don't like unrealistic, exaggerated messages, so your message should come across as professional and credible.
• Common, everyday language: A brand's potential customers are not all the same, and their level of knowledge varies. Too much jargon or complicated language can keep part of your audience from understanding the message.
• Closely tied to the topic: A good, attractive message isn't effective if it has no real connection to the topic. People may find it interesting and still not buy the product or use the service because of it.
• Attractive in form and wording: This is how brands show they really understand their customers.
• Culturally appropriate: This depends on the market research you do before building the message. A careless approach can backfire badly.

With brands competing as hard as they do today, media messages matter more and more. In this article, MONA has walked you through what a media message is and how to build a successful one. We hope this helps you create strong messages that make your marketing more effective.

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