One of the most gullible species in the world is a species called Nairobians. They oscillate between ten degrees of praises and seventy degrees of trashing any other species with which they may have had an altercation.
Just
the other day, the two Jubilee contestants
for the gubernatorial and senatorial seats Waititu and Sonko
respectively, were seen as the worst mistake that The National Alliance (TNA)
was about to make in the upcoming general elections.
But,
wait!! The two candidates are currently flying high after performing extremely
well against their elitist competitors on NTV and Citizen TV.
While
many will fault the middle class for being gullible, let me be quick to point
out that the two candidates have mastered an art of communication that many
communication experts always ignore.
Sonko
and Waititu have done their research well and thus they understand their target
audience.
Understanding
one's audience is one of the most important elements of effective
communication. Audience analysis can help you gain valuable insight about your listeners,
which helps you to choose and develop a relevant, meaningful topic. It also helps
you to create a communication strategy that is tailored effectively to your audience.
Your
communiqué should be filled with the right tone, remember the helmet joke that CORD’s
Nairobi gubernatorial aspirant Evans Kidero hurled at Waititu? The tone used to
deliver that joke resulted to an evening that CORD supporters could not fathom.
Kidero had the right content but his
style of delivery was wanting. If this was a media one-on-one interview Kidero
would have beaten Waititu hands down.
When
Waititu faced Kidero and told him that one of his intentions when he becomes
the governor was to protect slum dwellers from land grabbers, I nearly flipped
channels ... but Waititu was literally ‘touching the hearts’ of over 70% of
Nairobi County. While Kidero was clearly enumerating his agenda for Nairobi
County citing developed cities around the world he was essentially just
communicating with 30 % of the county’s population.
There
are three main areas to consider when analyzing your audience: demographics,
dispositions and knowledge of the topic. For each of these areas, there are a
set of questions you need to ask yourself so as to stimulate you to think about
your audience. The age and socio- economic status of your audience will always
affect your listeners' attitudes, expectations and opinions about you and your political
agenda.
