PPT

Module 2

Adapting Your
Message to Your
Audience

McGraw-Hill/Irwin ©2007, The McGraw-Hill Companies, All Rights Reserved.

 2-1

Adapting Your Message to

Your Audience
To learn how to
 Continue to analyze your audiences.
 Begin to adapt your message to
your audiences.
 Begin to understand what your
organization wants.
 2-2

Adapting Your Message to

Your Audience
Start by answering these questions:
 Who is my audience?
 Why is audience so important?
 What do I need to know about my
audience(s)?
 2-3

Adapting Your Message to

Your Audience
Start by answering these questions:
 Now that I have my analysis, what
do I do with it?
 What if my audiences have different
needs?
 How do I reach my audience(s)?
 2-4

Kinds of Audiences

Initial Audience
Gatekeeper
Primary Audience
Secondary Audience
Watchdog Audience
 2-5

PAIBOC

P What are your purposes in

writing?

A Who is (are) your audiences?

I What information must your

message include?
 2-6

PAIBOC continued

B What reasons or reader

benefits can you use to support
your position?

O What objections can you

expect your reader(s) to have?

C How will the context affect

reader response?
 2-7

The Communication Process

The Communication Model
Perception
Interpretation
Choice/
Selection
Encoding/
Decoding
Channel
Noise
 2-8

Audience Analysis Factors

Empathy
Knowledge
Demographic Factors
Values and Beliefs
Personality
Past Behavior
 2-9

Discourse Community

A group of people who share

assumptions about
 What channels, formats, and styles
to use.
 What topics to discuss.
 How to discuss topics.
 What constitutes evidence.
 2-10

Organizational (Corporate)
Culture
Norms of behavior in
an organization are
revealed
 Verbally through the
organization’s myths,
stories, and heroes.
 Nonverbally through the
allocation of space,
money, and power.
 2-11

Adapting Messages to an
Audience

Strategy
Organization
Word Choice
Document Design
Photographs and Visuals
 2-12

Gatekeepers and Primary

Audience
To reach, focus on
 Content and choice of
details.
 Organization.
 Level of formality.
 Use of technical terms
and theory.
 2-13

Written Messages

Make it easier to
 Present many specific
details.
 Present extensive or
complex financial data.
 Minimize undesirable
emotions.
 2-14

Oral Messages

Make it easier to
 Answer questions, resolve
conflicts, and build
consensus.
 Use emotion to persuade.
 Get immediate action or
response.
 Focus the reader’s
attention.
 Modify a proposal
unacceptable in its original
form.
 2-15

Communication Channels

Channels vary according

to
 Speed.
 Accuracy of transmission.
 Cost.
 Number of messages
carried.
 Number of people reached.
 Efficiency.
 Ability to promote goodwill.
 2-16

For Written and Oral Messages

Adapt the message to the

audience.
Show the audience how it will
benefit from the idea, policy,
service, or product.
Overcome any objections the
audience may have.
 2-17

For Written and Oral Messages

continued

Use you-attitude and positive

emphasis.
Use visuals to clarify or
emphasize material.
Specify what the audience should
do.