Framing

What is framing?

When conveying a message, it is important to provide it with a desired tone. This tone, or frame, can be used to influence people's opinions of this message. Framing is therefore an influencing technique that makes it possible to place a message in the desired context. Implications, assumptions and certain frameworks can be used to make communication more convincing. Framing can be done in different ways, with language, numbers or images.

How can you use framing?

Bee framing it is important to take action quickly and present your own frame. Especially if an issue affects the heart of your business. It may be wise to formulate possible frames in advance – as part of the scenario planning – so that you can use them. Even if the situation is different and the frame does not fit, you still practice and can formulate a frame more quickly if necessary.

Good frames meet a number of important conditions. They express a sentiment that everyone agrees with, including political opponents. The frame should be difficult to counter and easy to hang. That is, people can easily remember and reproduce the frame. A good frame uses strong metaphors, connects with the experiences of your target group and alludes to unconscious thinking patterns.

It is also important to clearly define what you are talking about when you talk about this issue. What exactly is it, what exactly is it about, what is going on around this issue? In this way you establish the framework of the issue and determine what is and is not included. This is a very important phase for the development of the issue: are we talking about sexual abuse in general or about abuse in the church? Is it about food safety with meat or fish?

In this phase it is also important that you continue to look critically at whether your product or company is rightly linked to the issue in question. Sometimes you are confronted with something that you cannot really do anything about or have only limited responsibility for. For example, NS is constantly blamed by passengers when trains do not run due to points failures or severe weather. However, this problem may be caused by ProRail. Because the traveler has purchased a ticket from NS, the traveler holds NS responsible, which must confront ProRail about this. The same was the case with the cleaning collective labor agreement. FNV took action against customers of cleaning companies, while they still participate in the employment conditions of cleaning companies. However, FNV was of the opinion that cleaning companies can hardly make a profit due to the strict purchasing policy of large organizations and feel forced to pay their own employees less.

If you are happy with the frame, use it wherever possible: in your commercial communications, in interviews, on your website, on social media, etc. Also use the frame as a hashtag in your messages. If the frame is threatening to your organization, you probably want to debunk the frame. This can be done in two ways. First of all, by substantively refuting the frame. Supplement the existing counterarguments with counterarguments that focus specifically on the frame. You saw this happen, for example, when livestock farmers had to defend themselves in the discussion about intensive livestock farming. They were only able to do this properly when it became clear that the resistance was focusing on mega stables. If the focus had been on pollution, livestock farmers would have had to use other counterarguments.

What is reframing?

A second way is to try to reshape a frame. We call that reframing. You then put your own spin on it. That is not always easy. The existing frame is often already used. The danger of a strong frame is that it is sometimes so powerful that no one can think outside the box of the frame. Let alone put forward counter arguments. This happened with the floppy chicken that Wakker Dier introduced in its fight against the meat industry. And even a tough subject like the transatlantic trade agreement TTIP is - through the term chlorinated chicken - so emotionally charged that the treaty lost its support.

Most organizations don't try to take down a frame because it rarely works out well. Supermarket chain Jumbo called the replacement for the popping chicken 'the new standard chicken' and had it inspected by an independent organization. However, the general press is still talking about the flop chicken. And the American movement fighting for free choice for abortion tried to gain a foothold with the 'Pro Choice' frame. Although the frame did become established, it never became as strong as the frame of the other party: 'Pro Life'

What is an example of framing?

A frame, once established, is persistent and can hardly be reversed. For example, Turkish Airlines is still suffering from the crash of one of their aircraft in 2014, which was named after them. They tried to reframe it into Poldercrash, but that didn't work. And Malaysian Airlines is still having a hard time with the MH17 disaster and the missing flight MH370. And Coca-Cola is also not happy with the 'sugar water' frame.

Glossary