Audience Part and Parcel to Creating Content

¶ … Audience

Part and parcel to creating content that is engaging and effective is defining who exactly content is designed for so that when those people engage in the content, they end up finding what they are expecting and/or are entertained by the same. Failure to have a good fix on what the desired audience wants leads to them disengaging quickly when they find given content and/or they do not engage in the first place and either one would be a failure for most content as discussed in this report.

One major precursor to defining the audience is to see what the competition is doing in the same regard because that will typically inform, at least in part, what that company will do to attract the same general audience. That is not to say that the new company to the fray will not trying a little different but the form and function will at least be similar. For example, Apple and Microsoft try to appeal to a lot of the same demographics with their computers and software but they do so in a very different fashion and they both do quite well for themselves with their respective approaches (Entrepreneur).

What is key is to define what the competition is doing and then define a way in which a company can appeal and market to the same demographic with equal or even better results. As noted by the assignment, knowing all the gritty details are important and it is simply not limited to simply use preferences. What technologies a usual client does or does not use is important as well as the social and cultural cues that get their attention vs. those that do not or even turn them away. How they view Windows vs. Mac computers and vice versa is also a relevant question. Also, making an Android phone application and not an iPhone one (or vice versa) is also probably not a good idea.

A good part of the creating process, and doing so in a way that acclimates to the market competitors as well as the actual recipients, is to undergo tests and scenarios to test the acceptance and perceptions of certain approaches. These tests allow for a least a modicum of results to be apparent before a lot of time and money is committed to a certain method (Curry). It is much like being able to test a marketing theory before the campaign is executed in full force and this can be invaluable to a marketing department and in a lot of ways. This does not mean that the competitor can or should just copycat what the competitor is doing, but it does allow for a third party to perfect what the other company is doing wrong and/or position in an ostensibly better way so as to perform better than the competitor in the same marketing and content arena.