Purpose
Effective audience analysis helps you develop an understanding of how to tailor your presentation best so that you can be confident you have provided the audience with something of value, which will, in turn, help you deliver your material more confidently. Essentially, “[t]houghtful audience analysis is one of the best habits you can develop as a speaker. It will help you understand your audience’s perspective and provide maximum value for them. If done well, your audience analysis will provide insights that will help you focus your message, select the most effective content and visuals, and tailor your delivery to suit this particular target audience.” Andrew Dlugan, Six Minutes
Instructions
The audience analysis worksheet is to be completed for each of the graded presentations (informative, persuasive, and team). Submit the worksheet below to the appropriate folder in Brightspace at least 24hrs. Before your scheduled presentation.
Presentation Topic: ___________________________________________________________
Presentation Purpose: At the end of this presentation, my/our audience will…
Fill in as much of the chart below as possible. If a criteria is either unknown to you, or you feel it is not applicable, indicate this. If there are many unknown variables, consider what you can do to improve your knowledge of your specific audience as you continue to plan your presentation.
| Criteria | Analyze your audience | How could you apply this information to develop your content, style, audio visuals, etc.? |
| PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS | ||
| How do they feel about your topic? (neutral, agree or favorable attitude, oppose) | I agree with the topic. | I would apply the information by creating eye-catching banners to ensure warning people about the sweet words embedded in the marketing and ask them only to buy what they need, not because of the imposed marketing strategy. |
| Why will or should the audience care about this topic and purpose? | The topics result in audience manipulation either because of limited knowledge of the topic or because of the extra use of sweetening language that, most of the time, throws the audience off their resistance. | I will apply the information about the topic purpose by creating voiceovers talking about the negative effects of marketing to instill a warning in the audience. |
| What do they know about your topic? What don’t they know? | What they know is that corporations or organizations mainly do marketing to promote their products. What they don’t know is the high rate of manipulation in marketing. | I would apply the information by engaging the audience to identify their level of knowledge through questions on the topic. |
| What do they want to know/need to know in order for you to achieve your purpose? | They need to know that the perfect choice of words is not an insinuation that the products are very good; it is mainly meant to lure them into buying the products. | In the context of what the audience wants to know, I would create small questionnaires to allow them to fill in what they want to be covered in the subsequent speeches about the topic. |
| What related concepts or processes are they familiar with? | The audience is only familiar with the purchase of products to meet their needs rather than being very interested in the imposed language; no wonder most audiences are manipulated due to the lack of understanding of the principles and mechanisms involved in marketing. | I would use direct verbal questions to understand the levels of information that the audience has in relation to marketing. |
| What are the audience’s most important values as relevant to your topic? | The audience’s most relevant values in regard to this topic are loyalty and trust. A loyal and trusting audience would easily be lured by the sweet adverts and the displayed lifestyle meant to promote the products. | I will develop banners that emphasize the need for honesty, bearing in mind most of the marketing strategies do not follow the honest pathway. |
| DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS | ||
| Age?
Gender? Culture/Ethnicity? |
There is no gender, age, or culture-specific consideration for the topic, as the marketing strategies are tailored to attend to different targets. | I will design universal posters to reduce the manipulation, and the posters will use universal elements and symbols. |
| Personality?
|
There is no specific personality meant for the marketing strategies, it cuts across all personalities. | I will conform to a language that appeals to all personalities regardless of their backgrounds. |
| Key similarities/ differences with you? | The difference is that I have an understanding of the mechanisms involved in marketing. | In promoting a similarity element, I will ensure my speech is comprehensive for a general audience’s understanding. |
| CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS | ||
| What style of presentation does your audience expect? | My audience expects a perfect elaboration of the involved concepts with appropriate examples in each case. | I will improve the presentation on the topic by using symbols and infographic examples of the manipulating tactics of marketing. |
| What distractions exist in the room (or elsewhere) for you to contend with? | A common distraction is the language barrier due to the cultural differences of the audience. | I can create visuals and infographics using pictures rather than words to allow for a general understanding of the different cultural and demographical differences. |
| What have they been through in recent days, weeks, etc.? | Most of the audience were subjects of manipulation, and the speech came at the right time. | It is not easily known due to the different audience backgrounds. |
This table has been adapted from Andrew Dlugan. For a complete explanation of the significance of these questions and how you can use these to develop an audience-centered presentation, refer to his article Audience Analysis: A Guide for Speakers.