Context is King
Long live context. Part one in the 4C’s of Brand Messaging introduction series.
Welcome to the first installment of a four part series on the 4C’s of Brand Messaging. I’ve been successfully deploying this framework for over a decade and hope that it may spark some new thinking and ideas to help you in your work.
If you do a quick search online, you’ll find a number of 4C frameworks. So I’ll do my best to describe why this particular set of 4C’s is critically important to everyone working in creative, marketing, and sales. Whether you work in-house or at an agency, this is for you.
Context is the head of the 4C’s; it provides the thinking, strategy, and insight for all other work. Content, Channel, and Cadence always follow Context’s lead. In this article, I’ll explain how Context can help you frame up successful advertising and marketing campaigns, corporate taglines, logos, and branding initiatives.
Simply put, Context is the what, the who, and the why of your brand. In order to tell a good story (or joke) we must first know what we’re trying to say, understand who we’re saying it to, and why it matters to our audience. Otherwise, we’re just talking to ourselves, out loud, in front of others.
Let’s put Context into action with a quick and illustrative case study: we’ll say you’re working for publicly traded company that sells carrots, and you’ve been tasked by the CEO to establish Carrot Co. as #1 in the marketplace. Okay great, now what? You could start the writers writing, and the film team filming and the sales team selling; but what drum beat is everyone marching to? This is where context comes in.
The first aspect of Context is what. As in, what is it we’re trying to communicate? The CEO says you need to be #1 in carrots. Sure, you could create a campaign ‘#1 in carrots’ - but it’s thin. Up to a certain point, talk is cheap - and it’s always better to show than tell. So how do you begin to show the world that you are in fact #1 in carrots. Start with context.
The what aspect of Context allows you to outline your brand’s core messaging pillars, your audience(s), and the story arcs that will capture attention and make people believe in what you’re saying. In our example case study, the core messaging pillars might include:
Nutritional and culinary value of carrots
Sustainability and responsible land use
Carrot processing and facilities
People involved from farm to table
Earnings reports & financial outlook
These five core messaging pillars will guide all future content development by keeping the messages on point. This is the bedrock of your brand - it is how your brand is defined and differentiated, and it is how you’re asking to be judged.
With the core messaging pillars in place, we can begin to map the second aspect of Context which is who. Who represents the various audiences and stakeholders that will decide whether or not you’re actually #1 in carrots. Carrot co. audiences might include:
Consumers
Shareholders
Policymakers
Advocacy groups
Employees
General public
These six audiences reflect stakeholders at every decision making level of the business and brand. Once identified, these audiences are mapped directly to the core messaging pillars created earlier. It’s important to refrain from simply deciding every audience needs to be connected to every messaging pillar. They don’t. It’s better to start with very tight mappings and expand them over time. This makes content creation easier to accomplish and more consistent in tone and voice. We’ll get into more detail on tone and voice in part four.
The third and final aspect of Context is how. How do your core messaging pillars connect to the audiences they’re mapped to? This is where we begin to bridge into the second layer of the 4C’s: Content. We help frame up Content by creating contextual story arcs for each of our pillar + audience mappings. For example, how does sustainability and responsible land use connect to a consumer audience? The story arcs here might include:
Environmental responsibility
Clean food and water
After story arcs are created for each of your mappings, you may find that some arcs speak to multiple audiences. There is no need to force an arc for each individual case. Soon you’ll find you’ve created a mountain of potential content to be sent out into the world.
It’s through the relevant and insightful framework of Context that your brand can begin to position itself.
Context is king! Long live Context! It is the head and the crown of the 4C’s of Brand Marketing.
In part two we’ll explore the various channels where message meets audience.
Find me at: www.njmclain.com