Strategic Message Development

Here are examples of our message development work from three clients who have permitted us to describe their projects.

The Center for the Study of Social Policy

The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) was launching a radical new approach to preventing child abuse and neglect in the United States. It faced three major obstacles: the new approach was a drastic change, it was complex to explain, and CSSP had no means of implementing it. Yet, within three years, half of U.S. states had begun to implement it and the federal government had become a major supporter of the new approach. Within six years, the approach was the most widely recognized prevention approach in the country, having twice the recognition of any other approach, according to a RAND survey of 2,300 child abuse professionals. CSSP says the strategic messages Rebecca Leet & Associates developed were a significant factor in its extraordinary and rapid success.

The Ford Foundation

When The Ford Foundation wanted to determine whether three of its journalism reform projects were similar enough to be presented collectively, it turned to Rebecca Leet & Associates to develop a way of doing that. As part of the message development process, Ford and the three projects discovered not only that they could be jointly described in a brief message but that they shared the same basic mission, goals, and target audiences. Ford subsequently awarded Rebecca Leet & Associates a substantial grant to provide marketing support services to the projects jointly.

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International

Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (its name then) had radically restructured its research program in a highly innovative way in order to accelerate the rate of breakthroughs on Type 1 diabetes. Unfortunately, no one except a few scientists understood the change well enough to explain it to Board members, funders, the news media, and others. Rebecca Leet & Associates was engaged to do message development so that all staff would have consistent and persuasive language with which to "sell" the dramatic new approach. In a series of three meetings with a Board-staff task force, we helped the organization identify the most important target markets for its message and create a 30-word message that explained what it had done, and why, and how its action would result in faster research progress. We then helped them develop messages for each audience and a tool to train affiliates in the use of the core and subset messages. Subsequently, we were engaged to work with their scientists to create brief, understandable, descriptive messages -- for use with non-scientific audiences -- of the key discoveries being sought.