Audience-Based

Communications
Strategies
Politics, Policy and The Press
Communicating for Effective Action
The Brookings Institution

May 18, 2004

Maria Holtmann
Why do we communicate?

Inform policy
Share research or intelligence
Drive a result or action
Create an image or brand
Audience-Based
Communications

Answers the questions:

What does it mean to your
audience?
Why should your audience care?
 Discussion Topics

Six Strategic Questions for

Audience-Based Communications
Exercise: Develop Your
Communications Strategy
Closing Comments
 The Audience-Based Communications
process leads you to an effective
message strategy with 6 Questions:

Target?
Action?
Rewards?
Support?
Image?
Openings?
1. THE TARGET

Who is the target and

what is he/she like?
 WARNING:
You are not the
target audience!
 What about us?

We know too much

We care too much
We have too much
experience
We live in our own reality.

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 Its about them

Attitudes
Feelings
Understand Beliefs
Audiences Research Experience
Reality
Values
Needs
Behavior
 Multiple audiences

. . . with different realities

 Target Practice
You cant be everything to
everyone. The choice is to target a
message consciously or by default.

Segments within Congress

Media
The head of your agency
Public segments
 Target Selection
How do you zero in on your target?

Size the number of people you are

trying to reach
Needs of the audience and the extent to
which they might benefit from the
behavior change, program, product
Accessibility of the audience
Responsiveness of the audience
Limited resources have a greater impact when
they are concentrated vs. dispersed.
Consumer Reality

Audience-Based
Communications sees
through the eyes of the
consumer.
What do we want the
target to do?

2. TAKE ACTION
The Action Must Be Specific

Exercise 30 min/day-5 days/week

Increase funding for research by
25%
Support my new initiative by
creating a budget item for it
Eat 5 servings of fruits and
vegetables/day
Just Telling them to Do It
Wont Make it Happen
Ignores where your audience is
coming from
You have to understand how
they are getting to that
behavior
 What are they doing now
instead of desired action?
People are always doing
something. There is always
a competitive behavior.

Why should I eat fruit when the potato chips

are right here on the counter?
 3. REWARD
What benefit will your target
receive by taking the action?
 Attributes

Copy:
Longer wheel
base
High-rigidity
body underpins
17-inch ventilated

disc breaks

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Benefits
Copy:

Eye-catching style on the

outside.
Surprising luxury on the
inside.
Just call it sheet metal
magnetism.

GET THE FEELING

 Swallow Your Cause

Rewards may have nothing to do

with your cause
Find the aspects of the desired
action that match the needs of your
audience
Attach what you want with what
they want
Rewards connect the Consumer to the Action
 He wants to feel healthy,
maintain his weight

You want him to eat more fruits

and vegetables
 Rewards and benefits are:

Subjective/personal/intangible
In the present, not the future
Unknown until you talk to your
audience

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4. SUPPORT
Ask:
What makes our promise
of a reward believable, or
our results credible?
What evidence supports
our claim?
What makes the desired
action seem feasible?
Support comes from:
Scientific facts/data
Personal stories
How we communicate our
message
Perceived social norms

Determine which of these will be

most credible to your audience
Support must be relevant to
the reward

Eating more fruits and vegetables . .

Decreasing risk of heart disease vs.
helping you maintain a healthy
weight
Not smoking for teenagers . . .
Decreases risk of lung cancer vs.
making you more attractive/
making you more of an individual
 Try a Spokesperson

You dont have to deliver the

message
Who would lend credibility to
your message?
Who will your audience believe?
5. IMAGE
Every action, program
and organization
has an image.
 Communications will
reinforce or blur the image
you are seeking.
COMPUTER
 An Effective Image Is:
One that tells the target,
Im speaking to you
Appealing and relevant
Consistent with the
desired action
Original and distinctive
What is the image of
your agency?

What is the desired

image of your agency?
6. OPENINGS
 Fantasy Dissemination
Model

DISSEMINATE THEY WILL COME

SAY WHAT YOU PEOPLE WILL

DID LISTEN
Openings are not about how we
get our message out.
Openings are about how our
audience takes our message in.

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Good openings for reaching
your audience
Times, places, situations, states
of mind when they are:

Ready to hear your

message
Looking for your benefits
In a position to act
 We think vehicles
What can we do?
Advertising (e.g., paid, PSAs)
Publications (professional journals, policy
briefs, newsletters, listserves)
Professional to Professional
Special Events
Community Programs
Internet
 The Result

Strategic Framework for

All Communications
 Audience-Based
Communications
An iterative process
Based on audience research
Can reinforce what is known or
develop new thinking and approaches
Results in a strategy statement that
underpins and guides all messaging
and communications
Creating message strategies
The six questions give you a message
strategy:

If I do (action) instead of (status quo), I

will get (reward) because (support).

An associated image
Openings when your audience will be
receptive to your message
Your message strategy is not
copy. It is what you want
people to take away from a
meeting, from reading your
materials, from seeing your
interview.
How do you know the
answers to the
6 Strategic Questions?
 Audience research
Draw on your existing knowledge of
your colleagues
Ask questions of your audiences
informal, quick reconnaissance (What
are you worried about? What do you
need?)
Learn about your audiences
operating environment
Conduct a survey
 Exercise: Develop
Your Communications
Strategy
 REMEMBER:

Its not about the

value of your work,
its about the way
your work relates to
your audiences values.

YOU ARE NOT THE

TARGET AUDIENCE!