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Chapter 2
Adapting Your Message
to Your Audience
Identifying Audience
Audience Analysis
Organizational Culture
Discourse Communities
Group members
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Channels
Adapting Message
Audience Benefits
Multiple Audiences
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Identify Your Audiences
 Gatekeeper – may stop message or
send it on
 Primary - decides or acts on basis of
message
 Secondary –comments on message or
implements ideas
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Identify Your Audiences, continued…
 Auxiliary – encounters message but
does not interact with it (read-only)
 Watchdog – may exert economic,
legal, political, or social power later
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Analyze Your Audiences
 Individuals
 Group members
 Demographics
 Psychographics
 Organization members
 Culture
 Discourse community
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Analyze Individuals
 People you work closely with
 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator –
preference test that shows 4 types
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Introvert-Extrovert
Sensing-Intuitive
Thinking-Feeling
Perceiving-Judging
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Myers-Briggs Personality Types
 Introvert – gets
energy from within
 Extrovert – gets
energy from interacting with others
 Sensing – gets
information from 5
senses
 Intuitive – sees
relationships
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Which type are you?
ISTJ
ISFJ
INFJ
INTJ
ISTP
ISFP
INFP
INTP
ESTP ESFP ENFP ENTP
ESTJ ESFJ ENFJ ENTJ
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Myers-Briggs Personality Types,
continued…
 Thinking – uses
objective logic to
make decisions
 Feeling – makes
decisions that feel
right
 Judging – likes
closure, certainty
 Perceptive – likes
possibilities
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Which type are you?
ISTJ
ISFJ
INFJ
INTJ
ISTP
ISFP
INFP
INTP
ESTP ESFP ENFP ENTP
ESTJ ESFJ ENFJ ENTJ
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Analyze Group Members
 Focus on common features
 Map profile of group features
 Demographic (quantity) features
 Age – Education – Income – Race – Sex
 Psychographic (quality) features
 Values – Beliefs – Goals – Lifestyles
 VALS (Values & Lifestyle) profile used
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Analyze Organization Members
 Organizational culture – set of values,
attitudes, and philosophies
 Shows in myths, stories, heroes, & documents
 Shows in use of space, money, and power
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To Analyze Organization Culture, Ask
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Is organization tall or flat?
How do people get ahead?
Is diversity or homogeneity valued?
Is sociability important?
How formal are behavior, language, and
dress?
 What does the work space look like?
 What are the organization’s goals?
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Analyze Organization Members,
continued…
 Discourse community - people who
share assumptions about:
 What media, formats, and styles to use
 What topics to discuss and how
 What constitutes convincing evidence
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To Analyze Discourse Community, Ask
 What channels, formats and styles are
preferred for communication?
 What do people talk about?
 What topics are not discussed?
 What kind of evidence and how much is
needed to be convincing?
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Channels
 Communication channels – means by
which you convey your message
 Channels vary by
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Speed, accuracy, and cost
Number of messages carried
Number of people reached
Efficiency and goodwill
 Choose channels based on the
audience, purpose, and situation
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Channels
Pick the best channel for each situation:
 Instructor who wants to cancel class
 Small non-profit organization who needs to
reach contributors
 Product recall notifications
 Notice to all employees about new smoking
policy outside corporate offices
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Six Questions to Analyze Audiences
1. How will audience react at first?
 Will they see message as important?
 What is their experience with you?
2. How much information do they need?
 What do they already know?
 Does their knowledge need to be updated?
 What do they need to know to appreciate
your points?
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Six Questions to Analyze Audiences,
continued…
3. What obstacles must you overcome?
 Is audience opposed to your message?
 Will it be easy to do as you ask?
4. What positives can you emphasize?
 What are benefits for audience?
 What do you have in common with them?
 Experiences – Interests – Goals – Values
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Six Questions to Analyze Audiences,
continued…
5. What does audience expect?
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What writing style do they prefer?
Are there red flag words?
How much detail does audience want?
Do they want direct or indirect structure?
Do they have expectations about length,
visuals, or footnotes?
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Six Questions to Analyze Audiences,
continued…
6. How will audience use document?
 Under what physical conditions will they
use it?
 What purpose will document serve?
 Reference
 Guide
 Basis of lawsuit
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Audience Benefits
 Advantages audience gets from
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Using your services
Buying your products
Following your policies
Adopting your ideas
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Audience Benefits, continued…
 In informative messages
 Benefits = reasons to comply with
announced policies
 In persuasive messages
 Benefits = reasons to act
 In negative messages
 Benefits not used
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Four Criteria for Audience Benefits
1. Adapt benefits to audience
2. Stress intrinsic and extrinsic ones
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Intrinsic– built in
Extrinsic – added on
3. Use clear logic to prove and vivid detail
to explain
4. Phrase benefits in you-attitude
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Three Ways to Identify &
Develop Audience Benefits
1. Identify feelings, fears, and needs of
audience
2. Identify objective features of your
product or policy that could meet needs
3. Show how audience’s needs can be
met with those features
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Writing to Multiple Audiences
 When not possible to meet everyone’s
needs, analyze gatekeepers and primary
audience to determine
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Content and choice of details
Organization
Level of formality
Use of technical terms and theory
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