Datasheet

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Chapter 25 ✦ Cataloging Audiences
✦ Platforms: What publishing channels can these people access? You can assume that
they’re capable of receiving print publications, but do they have e-mail? A fax machine?
Personal digital assistants (PDAs)? Can they access the Web? If so, what operating sys-
tems, connection bandwidth, and Web browsers do they use?
✦ Technical savvy: How technically literate are these people? Specifically, what kinds of
user interfaces are they comfortable with? What technical terms can you assume that
they know? What functionality are they likely to accept and use? (Are they likely, for
example, to do downloads? Installations? Transactions?)
Attitudes
Learning the attitudes that members of each audience are likely to hold toward your organi-
zation and content is an important task for you. From knowledge of attitudes, you can craft
the appropriate messaging for each audience. The following constraints help you understand
how the audience may react to your content:
✦ Credibility: According to Aristotle, the perceived credibility of the speaker is more
important than what she says in determining whether she’s convincing to the audience.
How do you establish credibility with this audience? How much credibility do you have
now with its members? Have you experienced any particular failures or successes in
the past with these people?
✦ Current beliefs: What does this audience already know and believe about the subjects
that your content addresses as well as about your organization? Are you reinforcing or
trying to change existing attitudes? Do members have any particularly strong positive
or negative beliefs that you need to take into account? Ask yourself, “What do people of
this ilk trust, respect, like, know, and believe?”
✦ Argument: What do members of this audience consider good arguments and exam-
ples? Do they respond more to a logical or an emotional appeal? Must you cite certain
sources or quote particular people for them? Can you leverage scenarios or examples
that the audience has already heard of? (Maybe, for example, you can assume that
PLAN’s press audience has heard about and closely followed a recent famine. Can you
cite information about the famine or otherwise use it as an example to show relevance
to this audience?)
✦ Style: What tone and presentation style does this audience expect and respond to? Can
you advance the expected style to a new level in a way that shows respect for the exist-
ing style and innovation (if, that is, the audience responds to innovation)? What vocab-
ulary and usage does the audience expect and respect?
✦ Openness to giving data: How much personal data (such as the design constraints in
the preceding “Demographics” section) does this audience want to give? What profile
collection methods do members most respect and support? Are they likely to be con-
cerned if you buy information about them from outside sources (direct-marketing
companies, for example)?
Comparisons
Come to know your competition. By emulating the characteristics of the publications that
each audience respects and avoiding the characteristics that they don’t like, you can signifi-
cantly boost the acceptance of your own publications. The following constraints tell you
what publications and organizations each audience is likely to compare you to:
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