Marketing executives and consumer researchers, who have a strong interest in understanding market responses, and who, therefore, conduct extensive research in mass perceptions, take into account five factors of audience analysis:
- Technical background
- Status
- Attitude
- Demographics
- Psychographics
Technical background refers to the readers’ knowledge (or lack of knowledge) in the topic that you are writing about. How much technical terminology should you use to avoid sounding either too condescending or too obscure? Should you begin with the big picture to put the reader into perspective, or go straight to the details that you want to focus on? Are you writing to people of the same educational background as yours (i.e. your peers), or to those of different training?