Audience Segmentation

I thought that the topic of audience segmentation is very important and that importance was emphasized by the readings and class presentations. If we don't first identify who is a part of the audience and then break them down into groups then health messages cannot be tailored to the specific group and you may not be able to reach the group and have the desired outcome. For example with our population of middleschool kids and promoting physical activity if we have a group with extremely athletic kids who are on multiple sports teams and also kids who may be overweight or obese and are never physically active then trying to motivate them to think about physical activity would be boring and probably ignored by those who are already active.
The website that we looked at in class that profiled different zip codes was also very interesting. There are so many tools now we can use to essentially market and sell public health just like any other company sells thier products. And with geographically specific information, before you go into a community you can tailor an intervention to their specific wants and needs. This was so interesting to me that when I got home I looked up every zip code I ever lived in and places family members and friends lived in, very interesting.
Lastly, for the group project I will have the copies of the interviews in class so we can segment our audience and prepare for the focus groups!