When creating a design, you must first understand to who your design will be sent. Throughout this assignment, I have identified two main stakeholders. In this post, I will go into detail about these stakeholders, and the research an organization must do before creating a design.
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When discussing OU Recruitment Services, the two stakeholders I identified were prospective students (high school seniors) and the parents of those students. While researching, I learned the differences in wants of needs of these two stakeholders are difdifferentferent, even if they have the same ultimate goal. This research and understanding are essential to creating a design that will spark a change or decision to benefit your organization.
THE STUDENTS
In general, high school seniors want to pick a college that will best suit their wants. For the sake of this post, I am going to characterize my little sister, Elise, as she is a junior in high school, soon to be applying to colleges. Elise is a 17-year-old girl, with an above-average GPA and SAT scores. However, Elise is also a competitive dancer. When discussing potential colleges with Elise, all she cares about is their dance team. Where this is a major concern for her, any message targeted toward her regarding admissions from colleges goes straight over her head. Knowing this, an effictive design for prospective students, especially those involved in sports, needs to be one highlighting OU's athletic success.
THE PARENTS
The second stakeholder OU Recruitment Services needs to target is the parents. Ultimately, most of the parents of college students are the ones fitting the bill. For the sake of consistency, I will use my mom as an example of a stakeholder. For my young sister, choosing a school is all about dance. For my mom, choosing the right college for her is about a few things: money, education, location and of course her athletic success. Understanding this, a design targeted toward parents needs to include facts about the university and life as a Sooner that go much deeper than the surface level. A design targeted toward parents needs to include information about scholarships and education programs at OU.
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LOOKING AHEAD
Where research can sometimes be a daunting task, creating effective and efficient PR designs requiree careful analysis of your stakeholders. In this case, I am working to convince both parents of students of the same goal: choose OU. However, the messaging and techniques I will use to catch their attention are completely opposite. One will require methodical facts and the other general information about life in Norman. As I finalize these designs, I hope to use the research I have created to continue creating effective messaging directed toward the audiences I have identified.
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