Audience analysis is one of the most important parts of a speech. The more you know about your audience, the more you can tailor your speech to their needs and consequently become more effective. This short exercise will allow you to conceptualize audience analysis practice thinking critically by analyzing the way companies and advertisers market products to their specific target audiences.
Prompt
Choose a cereal box to use for analysis. Selections may include a sugary children’s cereal (preferably one that promises a free toy); an organic, health-nut cereal; a cereal geared toward women, a high-protein cereal, a bargain bag cereal, store-brand cereal, a low-sugar, healthy alternative children’s cereal, etc. Provide an image of the image. It can be a photo of the actual box or an image from the internet. You can attach the image to your submission. Once you choose a cereal box for analysis, the following should be completed.
- Describe the cereal box in full detail and discuss all the visual elements of it. There is no such thing as over-thinking or over-analysis in this instance. Remember that these companies make a deliberate effort to design a box in a way that will appeal to their specific target audience. Look at things like color scheme, font, characters, people, headings, and any other visual element. You can list these things and use short sentences or phrases to describe. It does not need to be in essay format. This section should be at least 6-7 complete sentences.
- After analyzing the visuals, explain who you think the target audience is and why. Use the cereal box as a clue to reveal the target audience’s demographics. What age range, gender, economic background (think of cost and location in the aisle), group membership (ex. Sports, yoga, healthy eating, etc), culture etc. is the cereal box trying to attract. Note* Do not just discuss age and gender as those seem to be the easiest ones to spot. This section should be at least 6-7 complete sentences.
