The Target Audience

1. The Target Audience 3.02 Understand business publications.

2. Traits of the Target Audience • Once the type of publication is determined, the next step is to examine the Target Audience. Knowledge of the Target Audience is critical to effective communication through publications.

3. Traits of the Target Audience The identifying characteristics of the Target Audience provide the “hooks” for grabbing their attention by appealing to their • Age • Ability • Special interests, and • Group Membership

4. Traits of the Target Audience • Although a TargetAudiencecan be characterized by many traits, we will only cover the following fourin this objective: • Age • Educational background (ability) • Interests • Group membership

5. Age of the Target Audience Is the publication being prepared for young children to entertain them and tell a story at a birthday party? Is it for a classroom to inform students about a topic? 3. The age of the Target Audience will assist in choosing Design Elements that will be used in the publication. • What is the generalage group ? • Elementary • Preteen • Teen • Young adult • Mature adult • Senior citizen

6. Age of the Target Audience Look at the two versions of an elementary school flyer and discuss which one is more appropriate. Version A or Version B?

7. Educational Backgroundof the Target Audience • What is the general Education Level of the Target Audience? • If it can be defined, knowledge of the Educational Background will determine the amount of text, wordchoices, and amount of graphics used in the publication. • Remember, less is more! • Be concise and get to the point.

8. Educational Backgroundof theTarget Audience • If you think back to the previous flyers of the elementary school, what do you think about the educational level of the Target Audience? • Can the audience read well? • Their vocabulary is probably limited, so more age appropriate graphics were used to convey the message than text.

9. Common Interestsof the Target Audience • Does the Audience(group) as a whole share CommonInterests, such as knitting, doll collecting, bowling, stamp collecting, kayaking,or fly fishing?

10. Special Interest Groups Boy Scouts FBLA Gaming Gardening Harry Potter Other Groups Religious Ethnic Political Sports Sorority or Fraternity Group Memberships Is the TargetAudiencea member of a particular group? Does the Audience share similarGroup Memberships?

11. Let’s get to work! • Use your new knowledge about the TargetAudience along with DesignPrinciples in the next activities to develop some publications! The End

12. Elementary School Flyer Version A

13. Elementary School Flyer Version B