PPT

Module 2

Adapting Your
Message to Your
Audience

McGraw-Hill/Irwin
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Adapting Your Message to Your

Audience
Learning Objectives
 Module 2 explores with you the importance
of communication in the business world.
After completing the module, you should be
able to
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Adapting Your Message to Your

Audience
Learning Objectives
 LO 2-1 Understand expectations from your
organization.
 LO 2-2 Define audiences for messages.
 LO 2-3 Apply strategies for audience analysis with
PAIBOC.
 LO 2-4 Apply strategies for individual and group
audience analyses.
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Adapting Your Message to Your

Audience
Learning Objectives
 LO 2-5 Understand expectations from your
organization.
 LO 2-6 Adapt messages for audiences.
 LO 2-7 Choose channels for audiences.
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Understanding What Your

Organization Wants
Succeeding in an organization
depends first on understanding what
“counts” at your organization.
 Ask your boss, “What parts of my job are
most important? What’s the biggest thing
I could do to improve my work?”
 Listen to the stories colleagues tell about
people who have succeeded and those
who have failed.
 Observe.
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Kinds of Audiences

Initial Audience
Gatekeeper
Primary Audience
Secondary Audience
Watchdog Audience
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PAIBOC

P What are your purposes in

writing?

A Who is (are) your audiences?

I What information must your

message include?
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PAIBOC continued

B What reasons or reader benefits

can you use to support your
position?

O What objections can you expect

your reader(s) to have?

C How will the context affect reader

response?
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The Communication Process

The Communication Model
Perception
Interpretation
Choice/
Selection
Encoding/
Decoding
Channel
Noise
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Audience Analysis Factors

Empathy
Knowledge
Demographic Factors
Values and Beliefs
Personality
Past Behavior
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Discourse Community

A group of people who share

assumptions about
 What channels, formats, and styles
to use.
 What topics to discuss.
 How to discuss topics.
 What constitutes evidence.
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Organizational (Corporate) Culture

Norms of behavior in
an organization are
revealed
 Verbally through the
organization’s myths,
stories, and heroes.
 Nonverbally through the
allocation of space,
money, and power.
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Adapting Messages to an
Audience

Strategy
Organization
Word Choice
Document Design
Photographs and Visuals
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Gatekeepers and Primary

Audience
To reach, focus on
 Content and choice of
details.
 Organization.
 Level of formality.
 Use of technical terms
and theory.
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Written Messages

Make it easier to
 Present many specific
details.
 Present extensive or
complex financial data.
 Minimize undesirable
emotions.
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Oral Messages

Make it easier to
 Answer questions, resolve
conflicts, and build
consensus.
 Use emotion to persuade.
 Get immediate action or
response.
 Focus the reader’s attention.
 Modify a proposal
unacceptable in its original
form.
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Communication Channels

 Channels vary according to

 Speed.
 Accuracy of transmission.
 Cost.
 Number of messages carried.
 Number of people reached.
 Efficiency.
 Ability to promote goodwill.
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For Written and Oral Messages

Adapt the message to the

audience.
Show the audience how it will
benefit from the idea, policy,
service, or product.
Overcome any objections the
audience may have.
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For Written and Oral Messages

continued

Use you-attitude and positive

emphasis.
Use visuals to clarify or
emphasize material.
Specify what the audience should
do.