BUSCOM

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
First Semester
Friday 5:00 PM-8:00 PM

Instructor: Richelle Joyce G. Samson

Office Hours: 7:30-4:30PM
Contact Info: richelle.joyce.sjc@gmail.com

MODULE 2: TAILORING THE MESSAGE TO THE AUDIENCE

MODULE OBJECTIVES
 Summarize the different ways to analyze the target audience.
 Demonstrate how audience analysis can be used to adapt a message to the
audience.

I. Introduction

After performing market research and reviewing your customer trends, you’ve finally
identified your target audience. So now what? How do you use that information to
engage with your company’s target audience in writing?

Writing for an audience is usually as simple as maintaining awareness of them while you
write. People tend to communicate differently depending on who they are talking to; you
wouldn’t speak to your grandmother the same way you would a close friend, business
partner, or romantic interest.

In the same way, don’t underestimate the importance of knowing your audience and
adapting your business writing to fit the people you expect to read it.

II. Improving your Business Writing

The best business writing is

- Audience oriented
- Purposeful
- Economical – clear, concise, brief

To improve your writing skills, you need

- Good teaching materials with excellent model documents
- An effective writing process
- A trainer (like your instructor)
- Practice

III. Factors to Consider before Writing

Cultural/Societal Background

Part of your target audience’s identity involves their basic social and cultural
circumstances, including:
- Age - Marital or family status
- Location - Occupation
- Gender - Ethnic background
- Sexual orientation - Religion
- Income level - Political affiliation
- Education level - Native language

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Keep in mind that not all of these factors will necessarily apply when writing for business
audiences. Some of them may be particularly relevant; an ad for feminine hygiene
products will obviously target women exclusively. Those same products, however,
probably wouldn’t be marketed specifically on the basis of religion (even if a majority of
their consumers are Christian).

For those elements that are relevant to your business, it’s a good idea to keep them in
mind as you write. Your target’s location, for example, will affect the type of language
and colloquialisms that they use and are used to hearing day-to-day. Different areas might
have entirely different terms for things, places and people that you make reference to. For
example, depending on which region of the country you happen to be in, soft drinks
might be referred to as “pop,” “soda,” or “coke.

Pop vs Soda vs Coke Chart

This chart shows how the various common terms used to describe soft drinks are distributed across the
country: yellow for “pop,” cyan for “soda,” and magenta for “coke.” Photo Credit: AlanMcConchie,
PopVsSoda.com
If you use a term or a phrase that your target can’t relate to (whether it’s referencing
“pop” on the East Coast or a musical group that broke up before your audience was
born), you’re likely to turn them right off.

Conversely, you may find that your target’s societal/cultural background allows you to
write in a way that’s likely to resonate with them. In examining how men and women
respond differently to ads, for example, women tend to prefer rich detail and emotional
appeals while men respond more to simplicity and functionality.

Knowledge and education level

How much education has your target received, and how much do they know about the
product, service or business you’re writing about? This is one of the most important
things to keep in mind because it directly informs the type of information your ad or
document should include.

There are three main types of audiences in writing when dealing with knowledge and
education:
 Lay- Lay audiences have zero or very little experience with your subject matter.
They may require a more basic definition or description of the concepts you
introduce to them, explained in simple terms that they can easily understand.

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  Managerial- These types of business audiences have moderate knowledge, but
may need more details to make an educated decision. You can usually assume that
they already know the basic terms related to your subject, but providing
supporting facts and statistics whenever possible will help to clarify your
message.
 Expert- Experts are highly educated or have a great deal of knowledge about your
product, service or industry. To get them respond, you’ll need to demonstrate that
you have as much knowledge of the subject as they do by using a specialized
vocabulary and current, up-to-date references that support your claims.

These three examples are all related to the same subject matter but tailored to different types of audiences:
lay (consumers), managerial (executives) and expert (programmers). Notice how writing for more
knowledgeable audiences calls for the use of more advanced terms and details.

A big part of writing for business audiences based on their knowledge is maintaining an
appropriate reading level. A more expert-level audience will respond more to technical
jargon or complicated references that prove you share their knowledge. A less educated
or less knowledgeable lay audience, on the other hand, will feel alienated if the reading
level of your marketing is too high.

Values
Your audience has goals and principles—things they want, things they need, and things
that are important to them. They might be big, fundamental values, like the health and
well-being of their loved ones or financial self-sufficiency. They could also be smaller,
more incidental values, such as leisure time or their personal appearance. When you
know what these values are, it’s a good idea to try to appeal to them whenever possible
Say, for example, your audience analysis suggests that the majority of your bicycle shop
customers care a lot about finding a bike that’s safe, durable and reliable, and don’t care
very much at all if it’s visually attractive or can move at very high speeds.
In this case, instead of focusing on your bicycles’ “cool, sleek appearance” or “thrilling
high speeds,” your business writing should emphasize safety and stability—the things
your audience values most.

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IV. Writing Process

Stage 1: Prewriting Stage 2: Writing Stage 3: Revising

Analyzing Researching Revising
Anticipating Organizing Proofreading
Adapting Composing Evaluating

V. Factors Determining Channel Selection

 Importance of message
 Amount and speed of feedback required
 Necessity of a permanent record
 Cost of the channel
 Degree of formality required

Possible Channels:

E-mail, fax, letter, memo, report, telephone, voice mail, meeting, conversation, Web

- What channel is best to announce decreased insurance benefits for 250

employees? (E-mail or memo)
- What channel is best for a sales message promoting a new product to customers?
(letter)
- What channel is best for responding to similar customer inquiries? (Web, letter,
telephone)

VI. Reader Benefits

Shape your statements to involve the reader. Strive to develop the “you” attitude.

Instead of this: Try this:

We are promoting a new plan that we You will enjoy total peach of mind with
believe has many outstanding benefits. our affordable hospitalization plan that
meets all your needs
Before we can allow you to purchase You may begin making purchases on
items on this new account, we must wait your new account in two weeks.
two weeks to verify your credit.
I need your response immediately so that Your quick response means your
I can make the employee vacation vacation schedules will be ready next
schedule by next week. week.
Conversational Language
The undersigned takes pleasure in … I’m happy to …
It may be of some concern to you to We’ve credited your account for
learn that your check has been received P2, 500.00.
and your account has been credited for
P2, 500.00.
Positive Language
Employees may not use the First Street Employees may use the Market Street
entrance during remodeling. entrance during remodeling.
We cannot fill your order until we We can fill your order once we receive

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receive an exact model number. an exact model number.
Inclusive Language
Have you called a salesman? Have you called a salesperson
Every executive has his own office. All executives have their own offices.

Hidden Messages
- Some words and phrases convey a negative and unpleasant tone. They may imply a
hidden message that the writer does not intend. Think twice before using the following
negative expressions.

Negative Language:
You overlooked You are wrong
You State that You do not understand
You failed to Your delay
You claim that You forgot to

TRY YOUR SKILL!

Revise these sentences to create a more conversational tone and to state your idea
positively.

1. The undersigned takes great pleasure in welcoming you to our staff.

_______________________________________________________________________

2. We cannot send your order from our warehouse until November 15.
_______________________________________________________________________

3. I have 15 different financial plans to offer my investor.

_______________________________________________________________________

4. We want all newly hired employees to use our carpooling program for at least three
months.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

Plain Language

Avoid federalese, bureaucratese, and inflated language.

Federalese: Each person to whom the request is herein addressed is henceforth solicited
to submit, or to have his or her department representative submit, to the Department of
Labor official described above, a comment on whether the proposed plan, in his or her
considered view, meets the requirements of the 2003 law.

Simple Translation: You may wish to comment on whether the proposed plan meets the
requirements of the 2003 law

Familiar Words

Avoid long, difficult, and unfamiliar words. Use short, simple, and common words
whenever possible.
Less familiar words: Simple alternatives:
- encounter - meet
- extrapolate - project
- obligatory - required
- terminate - end
TRY YOUR SKILL!

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 Revise these sentences and use simpler language.

1. You may encounter difficulties in terminating the contract.

_______________________________________________________________________

2. As stipulated, we extrapolated the budget figures for two years.

_______________________________________________________________________

3. Will you utilize workbooks during the obligatory training period?

_______________________________________________________________________

4. We anticipate that a majority of the alternatives will be fundamental enough to meet

our requirements.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

VII. Ways that Technology can Improve your Business Writing

1. Fighting writer’s block

2. Collecting data or information electronically
3. Outlining and organizing ideas
4. Improving correctness and precision
5. Adding graphics for emphasis
6. Designing and producing professional-looking documents, presentations, and
Web pages
7. Using collaborative software for team writing.

VIII. Writing Activity

1. Situation: Think of a business that you would like to establish. How will you
write a project proposal considering your target audience? Choose the possible
channel to use in this kind of content.
2. Identify all the needed information in your output. Follow the format below.

Project Proposal for ______________________________

Target Audience: ________________________________
Factors to Consider: ______________________________
Possible Channel to Use: __________________________

Based on VI of this module, how will you write your project proposal considering your
audience? Write your draft or sample below:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is not the proper format when writing business proposals.
Such topics will be discussed on the next modules.

Reminders:
 This writing activity will be answered using a word or document file. The project
proposal draft should be in paragraph form consisting of 3 to 5 sentences each.
 The word or document file should be letter size, 8.5X11, and using the font size
12 and font style Times New Romans.

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  The file must be submitted through messenger or e-mail one day before the
schedule of the next module.
 For e-mail, use “Module 2-Writing Activity” as subject and your full name as
body.
 For messenger, send your full name first followed by the text “Module 2-Writing
Activity” then, you can send the file.