The Core Message

The core mes­sage is the corner­stone of pub­lic relations.

A core mes­sage artic­u­lates an organ­isa­tion’s essen­tial prom­ise to its stake­hold­ers and pub­lics. It’s a state­ment that cap­tures what the com­pany stands for and what it con­sist­ently seeks to deliv­er, regard­less of the medi­um or platform.

The core mes­sage should under­lie all mar­ket­ing mater­i­als, advert­ise­ments, press releases, and cus­tom­er inter­ac­tions. It is not neces­sar­ily pub­lic-facing in its raw form but is reflec­ted in all com­mu­nic­a­tions’ tone, con­tent, and approach.

Here we go:

The Core Message

A core mes­sage is the found­a­tion­al concept for all mar­ket­ing and com­mu­nic­a­tion strategies. 

Unlike a slo­gan, which can be seen as a catchy, often super­fi­cial tagline, the core mes­sage is a deep­er, con­sist­ent nar­rat­ive that con­veys a brand’s fun­da­ment­al val­ues and promises.

Core mes­sage = the fun­da­ment­al idea or prom­ise that a brand con­sist­ently com­mu­nic­ates across all plat­forms, defin­ing its val­ues and what it stands for in every inter­ac­tion with its audi­ence. ¹Silfwer, J. (2024, May 2). The Core Message. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​c​o​r​e​-​m​e​s​s​a​ge/

Slogan = a catchy phrase or series of words used in mar­ket­ing and advert­ising to quickly cap­ture atten­tion and accur­ately encap­su­late a brand’s appeal or mission.

Together, the core mes­sage and the slo­gan ensure all com­mu­nic­a­tions and mar­ket­ing activ­it­ies are aligned, rein­for­cing the brand’s iden­tity and mis­sion across all platforms.

Please note: Seen as a prom­ise, the core mes­sage must reflect the organ­isa­tion’s main advant­age over com­pet­ing organ­isa­tions. All mar­ket­ing- and com­mu­nic­a­tion activ­it­ies must rein­force this sen­ti­ment more clearly than any efforts by their competitors.

Core Message Examples

These examples show­case how the core mes­sage com­mu­nic­ates a more pro­found, ongo­ing mis­sion or cus­tom­er prom­ise. In con­trast, the slo­gan is a catchy, imme­di­ate hook that com­ple­ments and enhances the core message.

Red Bull

Apple

McDonald’s

Microsoft

Ikea

Nike

IBM

Spotify

Learn more: The Core Message

How To Create Content Themes

Let’s use a fic­ti­tious example of an IT company. 

First, the IT com­pany decide on a core mes­sage for their con­tent strategy:

Core mes­sage: We make IT easy to understand.

Then, the IT com­pany breaks their core mes­sage down into four busi­ness-crit­ic­al con­tent themes:

Q1 Content Theme: We make people under­stand the Internet of Things (IoT).

Q2 Content Theme: We make people under­stand busi­ness auto­ma­tion.

Q3 Content Theme: We make people under­stand cloud com­put­ing.

Q4 Content Theme: We make people under­stand man­aged services.

For easy plan­ning and boost­ing SEO with con­tent sky­scrapers, you can cre­ate con­tent pack­ages for each theme.

Using con­tent themes comes with sev­er­al upsides:

Learn more: The Content Themes PR Strategy

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Content Communications

• Content is Not Marketing — It’s Communications
• “For Content!” — The Infamous Influencer Battle Cry
• The AI Content Explosion
• Mediocrity is Slowly Killing Your Corporate Content
• My Content Marketing Experiment (That Failed Miserably)

Content Management

• The Core Message
• Content Themes: The Power of Focus
• Content Packages (And What To Include)
• Content Skyscrapers: Better Inbound and SEO
• Deep Content: Win By Going Deeper

Content Strategies

• The Superhero Solution: Become the Obvious Answer
• Evergreen Content: Forever Is a Long Time
• The Surround Message: Making the Box Smaller
• Level 5 Content: Go Big or Go Home

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