Chapter 4-1 The #KommMit strategy & messaging


This chapter of the toolbox focuses on the target audience, value appeals and messaging that served as the foundation for the #KommMit pilot strategy. More specifically, in this chapter, you will gain insight into:
 
    •    the key elements of the strategy and messaging used in the pilot;
    •    the process steps in the message development process;
    •    the research, evidence and tools used to build the strategy. 
 
Throughout the chapter, we provide checklists to help you reflect on and get started on the strategic level of narrative change work.

 

 
4.1 Overview of the #KommMit pilot strategy
 

The target audience:
 
The #KommMit pilot targeted a segment of the movable middle called ‘The Established’ representing 17% of the German population. We summarised them as follows: quite pro-migration, pro-democracy, rule-following, centrist and the oldest segment. An important factor in selecting this segment as the target was that they are on average quite pro-migration, but remain more “unsure” on Islam and Muslims, i.e. they should be movable on this issue.
 
The pitch:
 
“What does the everyday life of Muslim people look like? It is precisely these insights that we often lack: insights into the everyday life of Muslim people. They shape our society: as colleagues, neighbours and friends - through ups and downs. To shape a better future for all of us, we stand up for each other as a community. #KommMit and experience the energy of community.” (See #KM website)

Core set of value appeals that the messaging and content is built on:
Figure 10: Value appeals chosen for the #KommMit pilot 
 
Topline narratives that the messaging and content is built on:
1. Stronger together in overcoming challenges - In these challenging times, every community, small and large, only wins if we all pull together - no matter what we do, what we look like or what we believe.
2. Inter-generational future - Everyone in Germany, regardless of hair colour, origin or faith, is doing their part to pass on knowledge, skills and traditions to the next generation. Together we can realise a better future for the young generation.
3. Shared challenge of moving - All people in Germany, regardless of hair colour, origin or faith, face similar challenges integrating into new communities when they move.

 
 
 
4.2 Background & strategic aim of the #KommMit pilot

We ran two focus groups in December 2021 with members of ‘The Established’ to test draft messages and potential stories and through this process, identified an opportunity and a challenge. The focus groups confirmed the general takeaway that served as the rationale for choosing ‘The Established’ as a target audience and is reflected in the segmentation summary, i.e. they are on average quite positive on migration, but more “unsure” about Muslims and Islam1 . The focus group discussions also confirmed that ‘The Established’ can connect well to stories that build on the chosen shared values, experiences and aspirations, and that this can in turn open up a constructive cohesion-framed conversation. 
 
However, on the more challenging side, it was also clear from the frames they referenced that these predominantly keep them in the ‘Muslim automatically equals non-German/foreigner’ worldview and ‘one-way street’ idea of integration, i.e. an assimilatory perspective where it’s fully dependent on effort from the migrant side. In the 2021 study on public attitudes on migration in Germany2 , More in Common discuss the fact that the “essentialist” idea of German and foreigner have been coded into both policy and attitude and expressed the need to spread thinking on the idea of Germany as an immigration society with much more complicated patterns of identity. 
 
This essentialism went further in the focus groups to assumptions made about the types of lives that they associate with Muslims in Germany, i.e. ‘The Established’ believe that Muslims are not integrated and just as the case for refugees and asylum seekers, that they are dependent on the state. So, it’s not surprising then that stories of success or even just the stories of everyday life we shared that don’t fit these frames are quickly questioned and said to be exceptions and not the reality of integration in practice, as this segment believes that integration doesn’t really work in practice. This sceptical view on integration is also a dominant frame in the social media debate, which we called the ‘Parallel Society’ frame. 


Strategic aim: build the presence of resonant post-migration stories

While one can clearly argue that there are underlying lines of racism in such attitudes and frames, from a narrative perspective, we can see that this target group are open to new thinking in this area. The starting point to make the change needed can be seen in getting out value-based stories at scale of the human and societal realities of Muslim communities in Germany, and thereby, begin to shift the balance of the debate. Value-based stories that deliver a much more human and inclusive message are the stepping stone to a useful reframe for middle groups. Further, if such stories are memorable and striking, these audiences can even begin to retell them when the issues come up again in their everyday life conversations. These stories need to show the reality of Muslim lives in Germany and the post-migration/post-integration nature of many communities, which currently is not at all in the public discourse. 
 
In more technical terms, this logic follows a strategic communications model: that if a significantly higher presence of more complex identity representations and stories were achieved, then there would slowly be more acceptance over time in this target group of more complex societal and human realities.

 

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