The campaign message

 

politicians have to always remember are, “What is important to them?” and “What sources of information (media) are available to them?”
Politicians have to face the hard facts that the most important things in the average voter’s mind have to do with their children, lovers, football teams, jobs and friends.
Who they vote for is relegated lower down the priorities’ list.

Therefore, if the message does not show the connection between what the politicians hope to implement if voted into office and the big points on the priorities’ list, the potential voters may fail to bond with the campaign.

A campaign message that is persuasive and important to voters may make mention of both the national issues and personal issues such as health, school, jobs and cost of living.

Politicians should also be aware that in today’s technological jungle, the public is bombarded with information left, right and centre.
Radio, television, the internet, outside advertising like billboards and posters, cinemas and product merchandising are all available and competing against each other for the general public’s attention.

Political message, regardless of the type of media transmitting it from one point to another, becomes part of this stampede and jostles with everything else.
Effectively, one’s political message not only competes with a direct rival’s but all the other information presented in various ways.
Because of this, it is vital that the message is as direct, persuasive and clear as possible.

Potential voters consume and digest information all the time and may not give a political message a second look if they do not connect with it the first time.
Not many voters have the time or patience to sit through hours and hours of speeches.

If a campaign message cannot be packaged into a short, say, one or two-minute information bundle, there is a big chance of losing the potential voter’s attention, and ultimately their prized vote.

Too often, politicians want to impress voters by showing how intelligent and educated they are, at times using technical terms.
Presenting information that is hardly understandable is counter-productive.

In Zimbabwe, any information meant for a large population across the board is usually presented in all three official languages — Shona, Ndebele and English — ensuring that just about every citizen comprehends the message.

The campaign message is as good as worthless if it does not come from values, practices, policies and history of the candidate.
There should be some form of consistency between the message and the candidate’s background.
In other words, the message should be truthful, sincere and credible.

Voters need to believe that the positive information coming from the candidate about themselves, as well as the negative data about a rival is not just true but verifiable.
Evidence of experience or knowledge concerning any claims should be available so that a candidate retains credibility with potential voters and avoids having their personality attacked by rivals.

Another characteristic of a good campaign message is its ability to provide contrast.
Every candidate needs to make it clear that they are different from the other and highlighting the positives is one sure way of making a distinction.

Every election is about contrasts, the vote choices from the electorate boil down to how different the two or more are and who among them accurately represents preferred political ideology.

If it is to succeed, a political campaign message has to be repeated over and over again.
Remember “Rambai Makashinga”?

Both haters and lovers of the song knew the lyrics and rhythm to the jingle due to the frequency of airplay and the wide availability of the composition.
There is no way of finding out if potential voters are paying attention to what the candidate may be saying.

Just because a politician says something does not translate to a high listenership or viewership, or that voters will remember what was said.
But for the message to hit home, the electorate has to hear the same message many times in many different ways.

It may be annoying to the average person hearing the very same message for the umpteenth time, but repetition is necessary in reinforcing a political stance.
The idea of transmitting the same message over and over again is known in political circles as “staying on message”.

Research in the United States showed that an average voter has to hear the same message as many as seven times for it to really register in their mind.