The Benefits of Human-First Marketing Pt 1: Messaging

Sector Insights

2 October 2026

Alisdair Straughan

This series looks at what brands gain from an audience-first approach. Each piece takes one area of marketing and sets out the practical benefits, all learned from running Edge for real clients.

The aim of any message is resonance, the moment a buyer reads something and thinks that is exactly how they feel. Resonance is what turns the messy middle into a clearer path to purchase, and messaging is the first place you can tell whether you have achieved it.

Lead with the problem your buyer is thinking about

Most messaging leads with whatever the brand is proudest of, whether that is the award, the heritage or, more typically, the product or service features.

The logic is sound enough, because if people can see how good you are they should want to choose you. But the person reading is thinking about their own problem, and until your words resonate with their particular issue, your messaging will fail to cut through.

The example I use most is a care home that writes "luxury care home with beautiful gardens located near all major transport links". It is accurate and it is something to be proud of, but it speaks entirely about the home. The person making the decision is rarely the resident. More often than not it is a daughter lying awake wondering whether Mum is safe on her own, and whether moving her would be a betrayal or a kindness. Write something along the lines of "the peace of mind of knowing Mum won't have to move again" and you have already overcome part of the barrier to choosing you.

It is a simple example, and it shows why understanding your audience makes your messaging resonate in several practical ways that help you become the brand your audience wants to choose.

Use the words your audience uses

The best words sound like the audience rather than the boardroom. We learned this with Kohinoor, an Indian food brand stocked in all major supermarkets. The category was talking about "authentic", "provenance-led" cooking sauces, while the people standing in their kitchens wanted "proper Indian food", the kind they had from their local takeaway or restaurant. That research became the positioning for "Proper Indian", which drove tenfold revenue growth on roughly eleven grand of digital media spend and made Kohinoor the fastest growing sauce brand in the country on Nielsen's numbers.

Answer the objection before it hardens

Every buyer carries a doubt that talks them out of choosing you, and if you know the audience you can answer it early. A family looking at retirement living will compare facilities, but the question underneath is what the move means for their independence and their sense of who they are. Speak to retaining independence and dignity and you are answering the real objection, which is the point at which a message starts to resonate. If it goes unanswered, they never make the enquiry and you never find out why.

Match the tone to the moment

Most brands settle on one tone of voice and apply it everywhere, which suits the brand guidelines far better than it suits the buyer. The same person feels very differently at different points in a decision, and the right tone follows that.

Take the daughter searching for care. She needs warmth and reassurance on the page she lands on first. Three weeks later she is comparing fees across four providers, and by then she wants plain numbers with nothing softened.

A warm, reassuring tone on a pricing page can read as a brand with something to hide, and a spreadsheet tone on the first page reads as cold. Challenger brands with a cheeky voice run into the same thing. The cheek works when attention is the barrier to consideration, but it fails once the buyer is weighing the pricing decision. Edge maps the emotional barrier at each stage of the buyer's journey, which means the tone is chosen for the moment rather than for the brand.

Key takeaway

The messaging a brand uses is vital to attracting and retaining customers, and the most resonant words come from knowing the person you are talking to. The real benefit is marketing that works harder for the same money. Get the message right and the campaign lands closer to the mark for your audience. Messaging is where everything effective starts from.

Next step: a conversation about Edge

This is why we never start with the writing. We start with what the audience thinks and feels, then build from there. That is what audience-first means in practice too, and it is what Edge is built to produce.

Back to All Articles