The Three Keys to Get More Readers from the (HAHWG’s) Hogs

Posted: February 07, 2012

The HAHWG (yes HOG) group recently hosted a meeting at Horseshoe Ranch off Bloody Basin Road in Arizona. OK – HAHWG stands for Hunting and Angling Heritage Work Group. Attended by many wildlife groups, the focus of the meeting was how to grow your association, expand client base and increase volunteerism. As a board member and president of the Women’s Outdoor Media Association along with my husband who is a board member of the Arizona Antelope Foundation, we decided to attend. All I can say is WOW!

My head is full of fabulous ideas. One of the agenda items that we can all use is keywords, phrases and positive messages specifically for the outdoors. There are a number of studies that have identified this information to grab the attention of the very people that will read your story, use your product or employ your services. These examples work for re-activating lapsed hunters, fishermen and others, as well as reaching people who are interested in the outdoors but haven't taken the first step.

1. The following is taken from a Responsive Management Study: Developing an integrated Marketing campaign to bring back Lapsed Hunters in Virginia: Identifying Words and Phrases that Work

- Safe

- Controlled Environment

- Building Memories

- Heritage

- Traditions

- Connect with Nature

- Quality Time

- Fun

- Get Away from it All

- Relaxing

- Excitement

- Family Activity

- Health and Lifestyle

- Character Developing

2. The following information is taken from: Meat and Meanings: Adult Onset Hunts' Cultural Discourses of the Hunt, Master's thesis, Tovar Cerulli, University of Massachusetts, 2011

Hunting, fishing, outdoor activities, are culturally significant because:

"they make you feel more connected"

"you get to "you get to know nature"

"it is primal, innate, a natural thing to do"

"it is spiritual'

"it builds camaraderie, sense of community, sharing, unifying"

"take your place as part of the natural cycle"

"gives connection with what you put into your body"

"of its renewable resource focus"

Underlying propositions:

- it's good to feel connected to nature, it's good to do natural things, it's good to feel connected to other humans, and it’s good to feel connected to ancient heritage

3. Prominent Cultural Key Words and Phrases for Adult On-Set Hunters:

Connection/connected, relationship, nature/natural, land, responsibility/responsible, understanding/awareness, participate/ interact, respect/respectful, health/healthy, focused/engaged/alert, excitement/exciting, intensity/intense, challenge/challenging, powerful/deep, clean-kill/humane, pride/challenging, powerful, gratitude/thankful, and eat/food, wanting to eat good food.

Thanks to the 2012 Winter HAHWG Meeting for supplying all of this information and to Arizona Game and Fish for organizing the meeting. Let's all get on the positive side of neutral by considering these words for your written word or for the spoken word. The HAHWG’s can add real meat to the written word.