Drive Your Message Home

As depicted in this graphic, you can use the four vehicles of influence to drive your message home. By "home", I mean to your target audience. If you have a business, this might be a market segment or set of potential customers. It could be a community or organization if you are an advocate for a cause. It could be the whole country if you are running for president. Or it could be your spouse or a friend if you just want to change their mind about something. In other words, this is about influencing the world.

The previous two posts (here and here) described the four vehicles of influence: (1) experiences, (2) relationships, (3) stories and art and (4) facts and reason. All of them affect people's perceptions and behavior. When used effectively together, they are a powerful force indeed:

1. Fire on all cylinders - Engage all four vehicles in communicating your message. For instance, if you have the exclusive authorized Volkswagen auto repair shop for a city, you might include pictures of happy Jettas and Beetles in your ads (3), say how your services are trustworthy because of your authorized status (4), provide great services (1) and spend a few minutes getting to know your clients and talking "shop" when they visit (2). Now that is firing on all four cylinders!
   
   
2. Align message with vehicles - All four vehicles of influence should communicate the same message consistently. For instance, if a bakery advertises that it sells only moist, chewy bread baked fresh daily, but some loaves on the shelf are obviously old and stale, then the facts claimed (4) do not match the customer's experience (1). It would be better not to make the "baked-fresh" claim or not to sell day-old bread.
   
   
3. Take a balanced approach - If you are strong with some vehicles but less so with others, try to build up the weaker link. In looking at my own business, I think there are good marketing and educational materials (3 & 4), but I need to spend more time networking and getting to know people in the community (2). So I am focusing there.
   
   
4. Repeat - Communication is not a one-time event but a continuous process. It takes a steady flow of communication for people to "get" your message, accept it and remember it. So continue to engage all four vehicles. This is like an engine that fires on all four cylinders - again and again and again - propelling a car forward.
   

With these tactics in hand, you are ready to influence people and drive your message home!