Researching your audience
Reaching your target audience in the most effective way will be greatly enhanced by research into its nature. You can then cater your project to your audience's needs and tailor your promotional activities accordingly.
Research can be done in a variety of ways, depending on your time and budget and the scope of the project. For example, indepth national audience research using a commercial research agency may be beyond the realms of your resources, but consulting with local focus groups may be feasible.
Sharing information with another group that has previously delivered a similar activity may prove helpful. You can also confer with your local community. If your project is education related, you will easily find local teachers and students to talk to. If your project has a bicultural focus, visiting your local marae and consulting with relevant Māori groups and iwi will be essential. Here are some more options for audience research:
- benchmarking (compare to a similar project)
- community consultation
- focus groups
- individual interviews
- marae visit
- Māori consultation
- Māori liaison
- phone surveys
- polling
- research - on the internet
- research - through an agency
- shared information
- surveys
- tangata whenua consultation.