What is a Message House?
A Message House is a method for increasing messaging discipline within your team. A Message House consists of an outline of a house with messages inside. Simply tell your internal stakeholders (salespersons, fundraisers, etc.) to “stay inside the Message House” when communicating about their project or organization.
Why is a Message House effective?
The Message House method is effective because it promotes a focus on a small number of key messages and turns an abstract concept (adhering to messages) into a concrete and “sticky” idea (staying inside a house).
How do you make a Message House?
The original Message House design features a roof, three columns, and a foundation. The roof contains your “umbrella message.” It usually conveys the value or urgency of a project. The three columns each have a supporting “core message.” The foundation includes ancillary information such as proof points, statistics, examples, and testimonials.
Creating a Message House is easy using the templates in the free Message House Toolkit.
Who uses Message Houses?
Companies, nonprofits, NGOs and governments around the world use Message Houses. Organizations (and their reason for) downloading the Message House Toolkit have included:
- Apple, USA (“internal communications”)
- Nestle, Switzerland (“align a team to key messages”)
- Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Finland (“coaching communications”)
- State government, Australia (“key messages for an anti-bullying campaign”)
- Red Cross, New Zealand (“writing key messages”)
There are more than 1,000 use examples from 65+ countries at messagehouse.org/testimonials.
The toolkit additionally includes an eBook with:
- A framework for determining effective key messages for a Message House
- Examples of real-world Message Houses
- Advice for rolling out a Message House in an organization
- A case study of a non-profit using a Message House
- A simpler Message House version with just one “room” instead of the three columns, roof, and foundation
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