Messaging before marketing to create a sound foundation.

It may be time to put the brakes on your marketing. Not forever. Long enough to check whether the messaging under it exists. This episode is the problem I see in a high percentage of marketing engagements, and the checklist I would run before spending another dollar on ads, PR or a publicist. I share the four A's. Are you being marketed in authenticity and authority, or in assumptions and arrogance? Could you say "we are the best" in front of ten comparable businesses? I share why many agencies skip the messaging work: it costs them time, and the money is in automating the campaign. So you get a tagline that twenty other companies have and a pitch the whole room loved without anyone checking its connotations. The discovery I would do first: the pros, the cons and the mistakes you are not hiding. The past, the present and the plan. The operational side that most people do not call messaging: your non disclosure and confidentiality agreements, your compliance, your security, because investors and partners read those as your message too. And why I do not care about your core values. Tell me why you started the business, in a short video anyone can find. I also share why there is no best time to post, why Kia's radio results mean nothing to a local print shop, and why I test a campaign in one market for a week before pushing it everywhere. The output is what I call a personalized integrity intelligence performance guide, a messaging palette that gives a marketer fuel instead of darts. Marketing still takes time and money. With the foundation in place, I believe it takes less of both. Written transcription, chapters and links: https://lorenweisman.com/2025/02/15/messaging-before-marketing/Wait What Really OK is hosted by brand communications and optics strategist Loren Weisman.Episode pages with written transcriptions: https://lorenweisman.com/wait-what-really-ok/About Loren: https://lorenweisman.com/about-loren-weisman/Speaking: https://lorenweisman.com/speaking/Services: https://lorenweisman.com/services/Be a guest: https://lorenweisman.com/podcast-guest-info/Contact: speaking@lorenweisman.comOpening theme by RKVC. Closing theme by Doug Hinrichs. Both licensed.© 2011 to 2026 Loren Weisman. All rights reserved.