Whether within the contexts of business or outside them, strategic communication is best begun with audience analysis. Those in bi-racial or multiethnic families perhaps learn this concept more quickly than those in more homogenous environs: one would not deliver quite the same message to a Caucasian, nominally Christian mother-in-law in Canada that one would to a Hindu mother in India, for example. In a business context wherein intrapersonal relationships and the ensuing familiarity and tolerance may not be so prevalent as in families, proactive audience analysis becomes even more important (Hynes & Veltsos, 2018).
In an increasingly diverse workplace and its corollary, the increasingly diverse audience, there are a number of factors in an audience analysis. One may make the mistake of assuming that diversity refers solely to ethnicity; one would then make the mistake of ignoring, for example, age diversity in an audience otherwise homogenous in appearance. This mindset may subsequently inform the decision to send a time-sensitive email during traditional dinner hours—while the Millennial may be quick to answer, the Baby Boomer would likely ignore any work-related activity during sacred dinnertime (Hynes & Veltsos, 2018).
Ethnic diversity is nevertheless as crucial a factor in strategically crafting a piece of communication that resonates with its audience. Audience analysis in this case may be as simple as surveying the audience in advance and noting down ethnically diverse surnames—though this approach may not have as wide an application in countries quite as multicultural as the United States and Canada. Whether or not other demographic elements such as age, income level, and gender can be discerned in advance depends on how much information the protagonist already has. If an internal audience, all of this information may be readily available and may have already been disseminated. For an external audience, such information will likely be limited to that which can be safely and inoffensively asked for in registration questionnaires (such as for a work shop or lecture). If the ethnicity of the audience is established beforehand, for example, if one will be addressing an audience at a specific language institute or at a gathering in a specific community, audience analysis then becomes simpler, if not easier.
Communicators are, to some extent at least, ethnocentric (Hynes & Veltsos, 2018). The communicator’s own demographics, including age and ethnicity, informs her own beliefs, values, and communication patterns. A communicator who is not aware of and does not take actively take steps to mitigate her own ethnocentrism risks alienating her audience, and worse, risks her message not reaching its audience. An example is Cosmopolitan Magazine. Cosmopolitan is generally known for its racy, insouciant articles, and a certain lack of regard to the assumed marital status of its readers… in so-called industrialized countries (Zimmerman, 2012). In countries where relationships outside marriage are less accepted, such as Azerbaijan, articles are written specifically within the context of marriage: the same information is adapted to cultural and language norms that are accepted in and familiar to that demographic (Riccardi, 2014).
This is a clear example of how a self-centered message (considering that Cosmopolitan does identify itself as an American magazine) can be recast as an audience-centric message, by considering the cultural norms of the audience (which is made somewhat simpler by the nationality boundaries pertaining to each edition of Cosmopolitan), the language, religious and social ideals, and the demographics thereof. It may have been tempting, for example, to use the magazine as a platform to exhort ideals relating to gender equality and liberation, but Cosmopolitan takes the audience-centric approach of tailoring its message to the audience: in understanding and accepting its various audience’s knowledge and interests—e.g., Cosmopolitan India’s readership began by asking “basic” questions about sexuality and personal health, not about specific practice (Zimmerman, 2012)—and subduing its ethnocentricity to a large extent, Cosmopolitan is able to retain its readership by successfully conveying the magazine’s messaging without compromising its own brand values or stepping all over the cultural values of its readership.
References
Hynes, G. E., & Veltsos, J. R. (2018). Managerial Communication: Strategies and Applications. SAGE Publications.
Riccardi, P. (2014, October 21). Cross cultural communication [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMyofREc5Jk
Zimmerman, E. (2012, August 3). 99 ways to be naughty in Kazakhstan. The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/magazine/how-cosmo-conquered-the-world.html