Now that you know whom you want to convince, and what you want them to do, it’s time to merge all of that information into a plan. This is where you began to design your messages and plan how you want to disseminate them. The best messages are short, right to the point, and easy to understand. Remember when dealing with people who are semi literate, or illiterate, every word counts and big complicated words count double points against you.

 I usually start this process by making a double column list of “Why” and “Why not’”. If you ever get really lucky such a list might look like this:

Why                                                      Why not

Saves me money                                     Never heard of it before

Saves me time                                        That’s not the way I’ve always done it

Makes my life easier                               My neighbor doesn’t do it that way

The list would go on until you exhaust your list of why and why not.

 Almost every campaign is based on a desire to get “The People” to do something. You either want them to start doing something or to stop doing something, but you want to get an action out of them. That means you want them to overcome inertia (a fancy word that means habit) and do it your way.

 To get that result you must address a question every one of your targets will be asking. That question is: “What’s in this for me?” Look at it as a business deal. You want something from some one and, naturally enough, they want something in return. If they feel that they’re getting something worth the effort, then you will most likely get what you want.

 That is the basis of almost every interaction between people. It is also something a lot of communicators seem to forget. You can never take it for granted that just because your way will improve people’s lives, they will automatically adopt it. In fact, until you sell them on it, most will ignore your earth shattering new idea. So how do we convince “The People” to do what we want? Easy! Just give them something they want in exchange, you silly dolt. Well I did say it was easy didn’t I?

 People place value on material things and abstract concepts. Granted it’s a bit harder to sell them abstracts. But if you can show them how to realize a material advantage by adopting your ideas, a lot of them will give it a try. The above list is a dream mix of “why” and “why not”. My message can offer more money (everyone’s number one enticement), It offers to save them time (which translates into less work), and offers an easier life (always a big plus). Looking at the “why not” all I must do to over come those is explain what people should do, demonstrate my advantages, and perhaps even hint that the neighbors will be jealous - or better yet - envious if my target adopts what I want him to do.

 In real life things will never be that simple. Remember people do things for reasons. Those reasons may not make much sense to you, but they are reasons that do mean something to your targets. On the other hand you have the advantage of talking with people who have already adopted your methods by themselves, tested them, and found enough advantages to make sticking with them advantageous.

 Something you should be aware of and avoid like the plague, are ideas that directly conflict with the established culture or religion. There you can expect a long hard uphill battle, after which you will loose. Why? Because the “Social Environment” will be against you.  Even people who want to adopt your methods will have difficulty doing so if the social environment is against them. Peer pressure is a powerful thing. Society can be down right oppressive when its established values are being attacked.

 People use culture and religion as a means of identifying who they are and distinguishing themselves from others. When you start trying to change that you are attacking their sense of identity. You are, in essence, telling them that their society is wrong, that their parents had it all wrong, and trust me that is not the best way to get people to agree with you. As a friend says, “Ever notice that about half of the worlds worst insults have to do with other peoples beliefs and parentage?”

 By the time you run through all the does and don’ts and merged your why and why not list you should start having a good idea of what your message is. As I mentioned above keep it short, directly to the point, and easy to understand.

 The best slogans have just two words. Drink Coke, is a great example. Drink Coke, names the product and tells people what to do, all in two words. Three words are about average, and after that you can expect to loose peoples attention on a logarithmic basis with every word you add.

 Slogans should not only be short, they should be catchy, they should demand an action from the target audience, and they should be easy to remember. Small, short noun verb combinations make the best slogans, while most of the rules about articles go out the window with slogans. It doesn’t matter if a language teacher would approve, what matters is if people respond to it. Got that?

 The best way to develop slogans is with a paper and pencil, think about ideas, let your mind wander, and whenever you have a candidate write it down - even if you know that it is not exactly the one. Often one idea will lead to another until at last a nugget emerges.