Information Dissemination
Audiences and Markets
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IMARK
Investing in Information for Development
Information Dissemination
Audiences and Markets
© FAO 2005
Information Dissemination
Audiences and Markets
Learning Objectives
At the end of this lesson you will:
identify the necessary components to
develop an effective information
dissemination plan;
be aware of how to analyze:
- your audience(s) and their needs,
- your competitors, and
- your “comparative advantage”.
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Audiences and Markets
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Introduction
Most organizations produce information.
However, often the information they produce is not disseminated
effectively.
Why does this happen?
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Audiences and Markets
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Three common constraints to effective dissemination
1
Organizations do not undertake systematic market
research on their audience(s) and clients.
2
They do not have procedures in place for continual
analysis of their products, services, and dissemination
mechanisms.
3
They do not plan for the introduction of new information
technologies, new audiences, new media, and new types of
products and services.
Information Dissemination
Audiences and Markets
Dissemination plans
What could be a solution? The development of an information
dissemination plan. It should include descriptions of:
1. Audience(s)
2. Products and services
3. Resources
of the organization and its
partners involved in
dissemination of products
and services.
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Audiences and Markets
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Dissemination plans
The plan should define the following aspects of products and services
offered by the organization:
DESCRIPTION
PRODUCTION
CHANNELS
MARKETING
FINANCIAL
ASPECTS
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Audiences and Markets
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Dissemination plans
Here are the preparatory tasks to design a dissemination plan:
1. Identification and analysis of existing and potential
audiences
2. Assessment of your information competitors and
your “comparative advantage”
3. Description of current information products and
services
4. Evaluation of your current and future capacities for
effective information dissemination
EXTERNAL
factors
INTERNAL
factors
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Audiences and Markets
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Your audience(s) profiles
1) Identification of your existing and potential audience(s).
1
Who are they?
2
Where are they?
3
What types of information products and
services do they need?
4
How will they gain access to these products
and services?
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Audiences and Markets
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Your audience(s) profiles
The key questions to analyse your audience(s):
1.What types of people make up your audience(s)?
2. What types of organizations make up your audience(s)?
3.What is the level of expertise and capacity of your
audience(s)?
4.How are these audience(s) changing?
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Audiences and Markets
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Your audience(s) needs
?
The needs of the audience(s) determine both
the content to deliver and the medium used for
dissemination.
Therefore, you should move to a detailed
analysis of audience(s) needs.
Start by finding out the current use and impact
of your present products and services.
Information Dissemination
Audiences and Markets
Your audience(s) needs
In order to identify what kind of content is relevant to
what kind of audience:
1
Consider the different types of content
needed by your audience(s)
2
Find out, for each audience, the degree of
use of each kind of content.
3
Assess the importance of each kind of
content for each kind of audience
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Audiences and Markets
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Your audience(s) needs
Now, identify what kind of medium is more useful to each
audience. You can build a matrix like this:
xxx= most useful; xx= useful; x= not so useful
Medium of
service/product delivery
Type of audience
Researcher
Extension worker
Journalist
Farmer
Leaflets
x
xxx
x
xxx
Books/Hardcopies
xx
xxx
Websites
xxx
x
xx
Digital documents
xxx
xx
x
x
x
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Audiences and Markets
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Dynamic priorities
Here is another issue common to many
organizations: audiences are often very
diverse.
Consequently there is a broad range of
“needs” that require distinct information
products and services.
Therefore, it is important to set
priorities.
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Audiences and Markets
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Setting priorities between audiences
In order to set priorities, three criteria are most important:
1. Which audience(s) are most central to the mandate of your
organization?
2. Which audience(s) can you reach most effectively?
3. And on which audience(s) are your products/services likely to have the
greatest impact?
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Audiences and Markets
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Setting priorities between audiences
What else can you do to set priorities?
1.
Identify the audiences which are presently well served, and which
ones need greater support.
2.
Then define the top priority groups (perhaps three or four) that
are most important to your objectives.
Initially, you should only concentrate on these groups; later, you may
be able to add a few more to the list.
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Audiences and Markets
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The competitors
AUDIENCE
AUDIENCE
NEEDS
YOUR
SERVICES
COMPETITION
PRODUCTS/
SERVICES
related to these
elements
TARGET of
YOUR
ANALYSIS
2) Analysis of the market
trends and environment
affecting the demand for
your information products
and services.
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The competitors
Look not only at your competitors, but also
for new opportunities of needs as yet
unfulfilled by any service provider.
While analyzing your competitors, keep in
mind the analysis you previously conducted of
your audience(s) and their needs.
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Audiences and Markets
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The competitors
If there are other organizations interacting with your audience(s), and
offering information products and services similar to those of your
organization, you should further examine:
THE
CONTENT
THEY
PRODUCE
THE VARIETY
OF MEDIA
USED
THE COSTS
FOR
ACCESSING
THEIR SERVICES
WHO IS
PRODUCING
THESE
SERVICES
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Audiences and Markets
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The competitors
The key issue is differentiation of your products and services from
others. These are the questions to ask:
1
Are you providing unique products or services?
2
Have you identified some sub-groups of audiences that are not well
serviced?
3
Have you avoided certain products and services?
4
Are there possibilities of partnerships and collaboration to share
both the costs and the benefits?
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Audiences and Markets
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Summary
To build an information dissemination plan, there are two kinds of
analysis you should do: “external” and “internal”.
o
Analysis of your audience(s):
their identities; their characteristics; their specific needs; the kind
of content; the type of medium; and priorities among them.
o
Analysis of the market trends and environment affecting the
demand for your information products and services.
o