Audience Analysis
Now that we have explored the different types of presentations, let us examine how to begin to prepare for the design and delivery of formal presentations. This section will explore the audience analysis, a technique used for helping speakers make strategic choices for speech development. It is vital to understand the audience when selecting the breadth and depth of the topic. Possessing critical information about the audience will influence choices related to supporting material to reinforce the main points, as well as introduction and conclusion strategies.
Immediate and Extended Audiences: Conducting a formal or informal audience analysis entails collecting details about the individuals and groups that compose our listeners. Speakers frequently encounter both an immediate and extended audience.
The immediate audience is composed of the people that directly observe the speech. This audience provides both verbal and nonverbal feedback in real-time. For example, audience members in the room during a political debate. In business settings, the individuals present for a sales pitch would be the immediate or primary audience.
The extended audience comprises the people exposed to the speech after the presentation. This is the long-term scope of the individuals affected by the speech. For example, an administrative assistant views a sales presentation for a new accounting software and tells her supervisor they should purchase it. In this case, the administrative assistant is not the immediate audience, but would be considered an extended or secondary audience. Similarly, individuals who read the meeting minutes or review the Zoom recording for a sales pitch would be the secondary or extended audience in business settings.
Captive and Voluntary Audiences:
Captive audiences are composed of individuals who are in the audience out of obligation. For example, sales associates attend a training seminar as part of their job duties.
Voluntary audiences consist of people who attend because they want to observe the speeches — for example, a reading book club that attends a presentation by a book’s author.
When communicating with immediate, extended, captive, and voluntary audiences, we do not want to offend, overload our listeners, or talk below their levels of knowledge of the topic. It is essential to adapt messages to the audience when making choices regarding word choice, examples, and speech organizational structure. In order to adapt a message to the audience, we must understand the individuals that make up our audience. Presentations with confusing, distasteful, or extraneous supporting material or main points enhance the likelihood that the audience will not resonate with a speaker’s message in informative, persuasive, or special occasion speeches. Therefore, we will want to conduct a demographic analysis to better understand our audience members as a group and as individuals.
Demographic Audience Analysis: Audience demographics are characteristics of the audience including such factors as age, gender, religion, culture, education, group membership, and knowledge of the topic. On the other hand, while understanding the demographics of the audience, it is important to avoid stereotyping. Even when our audience members share demographic characteristics, they are unique individuals.
Age: When speakers consider age demographics, they understand that specific cultural references may or may not resonate with certain audience members. Generations are shaped by sharing similar cultural experiences. As a cohort, Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964 have different life experiences than Millennials born between 1981 and 1994. For example, President Ronald W. Reagan’s Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger Address to the Nation is memorable to people who grew up in the 1980s. On January 28, 1986, this speech addressed a significant worldwide tragedy. However, to audience members in 2022 who are 19 years old, the reference to the speech may not reverberate. So, it is essential to keep age differences in mind. Also, certain words may be unfamiliar to some age groups and require a definition. Providing a definition or description will allow a speaker to establish a common understanding of key terms to build their argument and connection with the audience as the speech progresses.
Gender: Gender is a demographic speakers consider because women and men have different life roles, experiences, and physical characteristics. Women can be moms, daughters, and grandmothers. These roles may also differ in terms of workforce experiences. Women’s experiences growing up may have less emphasis on certain leisure activities than men's.
However, a sales pitch for season tickets may be unsuccessful if the speaker assumes that only men in the audience are hockey fans. A pitch that focuses on women in the audience purchasing season tickets for their boyfriends or husbands would be too limiting and perhaps offensive. Many women are avid sports fans. It is essential to be mindful of the differences between men and women without limiting the options for choices as public speakers when informing or persuading. Speakers should also be mindful of the differences between women and men regarding physical characteristics. Making a sales pitch on a dietary supplement would be unsuccessful if the speaker fails to consider the different dietary requirements between men and women.
Religion: Religious similarities and differences among audience members may impact the selection of quotes or cultural references. Even a speaker’s body language can offend some audience members of different religious backgrounds. University of Texas Longhorns ‘Hook 'em Horns’ gesture, for example, in Norway and some other parts is considered an affront or religious blasphemy. Moreover, in regions of Africa, it symbolizes a curse, and in multiple European countries it symbolizes warding off "the evil eye” (Recordnet, 2005).
Culture: Much like religion, cultural backgrounds also affect speaker choices regarding nonverbal communication. In some cultures, our eye contact is a reflection of respect. In contrast, it is very disrespectful in other cultures to look another person directly in the eye. Culture can also affect the understanding of specific topics. For example, members of a collectivist culture might not understand why nursing homes exist when families take responsibility for elderly care.
Education: Considering the educational background of the audience impacts the type of language that we use as speakers. Educational background refers to private universities, community colleges, and trade schools. Education references the levels of technical training audience members have achieved. If giving a speech on a new software package to a team, some individuals may have highly technical knowledge from formal and informal training. Understanding the audience’s educational background should influence word selection in your speech. Making appropriate language choices ensures we do not overload the audience with overwhelming technical information. On the other hand, we also want to avoid delivering redundant knowledge on which listeners are already experts.
Group Membership: Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Police Union, and Teacher's Union are all examples of group membership. Effective public speakers are skillful at adapting to audiences. Understanding the demographics related to the groups to which audience members belong allows us to avoid making statements that will offend them.
Knowledge of Topic: Understanding an audience's level of knowledge of the topic will influence the complexity and intricacy of your speech organizational pattern and forms of supporting material. It is important to bring the audience from the familiar to the unfamiliar when considering the knowledge of the topic. It is also best to avoid information overload and speak at the level of our audience's areas of expertise.
You now have an understanding of what to look for when conducting an audience analysis and how this information can be useful to you during the development and delivery of your speech. But, how do you go about obtaining this information?
There are two methods of information gathering for audience analysis—quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative data is numerical information, while qualitative research deals with reflections and accounts of knowledge and experiences.
If you will have access to your audience prior to the delivery of your speech, surveys can be administered in person, over the telephone, or online. Surveys can provide both raw data numbers as well as personal testimony. As speakers, we can find out the percentage of audience members who shop at a particular store or quote their experiences shopping at the store. The former would be quantitative, and the latter example would be qualitative.
Open houses enable interaction. Attendees of an open house might fill out comment cards, answer surveys or speak directly with the event’s hosts. At an open house, a municipality may ask residents their opinion on a particular program. The responses might show up in a statistical report, or direct quotes might also appear in a synopsis of opinions.
Focus groups are also an interactive research method technique. Focus groups assemble a group of individuals to respond to questions in a moderated setting. Like open houses, the focus group provides both statistical data and narrative responses for a speaker to use in the development of a speech.
While you may not have the time to engage in formal research to glean information about your audience for classroom presentations, you can still use your knowledge of human behavior, needs, and values to make helpful assumptions about how your audience is likely to respond to your speech content.