Can You Think Like Your Audience?

The best way to think like your audience is to conduct research.  Yet quantitative surveys, focus groups and online sampling are not always feasible. So when we don’t have research, we must decipher what will appeal to our target audiences.

The problem is that when you try to interpret your target market, how do prevent your own personal tastes and biases from contaminating messaging?

Here’s a little test:

• Do you listen to an argument and think both sides are right?
• Do you love all colors?
• Do you vote for both parties?
• Do you like rap, classical, rock, country and pop music?
• Do you have a high degree of empathy for the problems of others?
• Do you often watch people react to situations and study their responses?

If you answered “yes” to all, you probably can set yourself in someone else’s shoes.  If it is “no,” crank up the research.  My father was head of engineering at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.  He took the clocks out of every patient room because he thought it would drive people crazy watching the clock for hours.  After he had to spend considerable time as a patient, he realized that when you are floating in and out of consciousness, the first thing you want to know is the time. How long have I been sleeping?  Is it still day or night?  He couldn’t think like the audience until he was literally in their shoes.

Colors, language, models, music and mood should not feel right to you if you are not the target audience—and that is more than age or sex, it also applies to psychographic differences as well.

It is a rare skill to separate your personal feelings from messaging decisions.  And, it is too easy to think what others should do, but almost impossible to know what others will do.