According to Frymier and Nadler, receiver characteristics in persuasion “refer to aspects of the target audience that influence how persuasive messages are processed and ultimately the success and/or failure of those messages.” These characteristics “help us understand how to influence receivers and how different aspects of receiver experience affect responses to persuasive messages.” Receiver characteristics can be discovered by basic audience analysis, which is “essentially about gathering relevant information about your audience.”
Before you speak in front of any kind of audience, whether a persuasive speech or not, you must analyze your audience. For example, if I was speaking at a Red Hat Club convention I would not talk about the wonders of Facebook. Nor would I speak to a group of college students about how much fun women have in the Red Hat Club. You must research the four receiver characteristics: psychological, demographic, physiological, and environmental.
The Apple Company is a perfect example of defining receiver characteristics before creating an advertising campaign. They do this primarily by analyzing the demographic characteristics of their target audience. Demographic characteristics include: “sex, age, educational background, and cultural aspects of the targeted receivers.
First let’s define the stereotypical “Mac” owner: young, college student, artsy, technologically savvy. Most of the designs have great eye appeal and they are very small and easy to throw in a backpack and bring to class (hence young, college student). Mac’s also offer many artistic options with photo editing, iTunes, garage band, etc. and Apple is always offering the latest technology and upgrades.
So if these are the receiver characteristics, how do you create a persuasive message that targets that exact audience? Apple found the perfect solution in their Mac vs. PC campaign. All of the commercials in this campaign feature a stiff, unattractive, older man with glasses and a hideous suit acting as “PC.” Next to him stands “Mac” in a t-shirt, skinny jeans, and converse shoes. Without even speaking a word it is obvious that the Mac is supposed to represent the young, hip college guy and the PC looks like he just stepped out of a banking agency.
In the commercial “Work VS Home” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot9Jp6-mB-8&feature=related the “Mac” says right away “I’m into doing fun stuff like movies, music, podcasts, stuff like that” and the “PC” responds with “I also do fun stuff like time sheets and spread sheets and pie charts.” This drives home the point the PC is known as the office computer and Mac is known for its entertainment functions.
For the past two years I have been a very happy owner of Tivo and never watch commercials. However, when I see Mac VS PC commercials I stop my Tivo and hit rewind because they just crack me up. I represent their target audience and I am enthralled with their commercials. They have analyzed their receiver characteristics and created a very successful persuasive advertising campaign and I am a very proud owner of Apple products.