adminI see a lot of conservative candidates running to unseat bad incumbents. Good.
However, I see some not heeding to one of my key advice for effectively communicating a message: “You must know your Audience to prepare your Message, and you must prepare your Message so your Audience will understand it.”
It’s crucial to take the Audience into consideration. More specifically – their perception of the Incumbent. If conservative candidates come out and their first statement is, “I’m running for office because Incumbent John Doe is bad” or “I’m running for office because Incumbent John Doe is a rino,” this could backfire.
Why? Because many in the Audience may genuinely not be completely informed why Incumbent John Doe is bad. Some in the Audience may actually think Incumbent John Doe is good.
With an initial negative statement against their likable incumbent, their mind will unconsciously form a skeptical shield towards anything said afterward by the new candidate and block processing of any evidence that may follow the statement – even if the evidence is real. The evidence will ‘fall on deaf ears.’
Candidates need to learn to, what I call, ‘walk the brain to the a-ha moment of conclusion.’ In other words, help the Audience reach a conclusion without initially directly telling them the conclusion.
In this case, provide detailed and researched evidence of why Incumbent John Doe is bad so that the Audience will reach that conclusion on their own. A minimum of 3 evidenced backed-up points is necessary for the human brain to start processing the message.
The audience will then reach the ‘a-ha moment of conclusion,’ the moment of realization of why Incumbent John Doe is bad on their own – before the new candidate makes the statement.
Then, when the new candidate later makes the statement Incumbent John Doe is bad, the brain will perceive it as a seal to the conclusion previously reached with the preceding evidence provided.
The way the human senses come together to reach a final perception must be understood by new candidates to effectively convey their message and convince their Audience.