# Audience Analysis and Finding Real Resistance

## Who Your Audience Is Not

### Not You
We instinctively assume our audience shares our priorities and will respond to the same arguments that move us. They won't. Your audience doesn't care why you think they should act — they care how the action fits their self-narrative.

### Not Everyone
Trying to reach everyone produces toothless messaging. Different groups have entirely different misbeliefs. A story can only target one. The energy spent avoiding offence is energy stolen from the story's power.

**Example:** Conservatives buy energy-efficient light bulbs when the message is about money saved. They reject the same product labelled "protect the environment." Different tribes, different misbeliefs, different stories needed.

## Defining Your Call to Action

The call to action must be:
- **Concrete** — not "think deeply about the issues" but a specific, observable action
- **Specific** — what exactly will they do, when, where, how?
- **Actionable** — something they can actually do immediately

List every possible call to action, then select the one that best matches your audience's current worldview.

## Researching Your Audience

### Three Grounding Questions
1. How will your call to action benefit your audience based on their specific worldview?
2. What beliefs do they hold that you'll be butting up against?
3. How will the change you want help them become their most authentic self?

### Research Methods

**Digital fieldwork:** Social media reveals tribal affiliations, fears, aspirations, and self-image. Look at what they post, share, follow, comment on, and avoid. You're looking for why, not what.

**Physical fieldwork:** Go where your audience congregates. Observe. Listen. T-shirt slogans, purchases, body language, and conversations reveal their story.

### Key Questions
- What matters most to them right now?
- What do they aspire to be?
- What do they fear?
- What would they have to give up to follow your call to action?
- What internal (emotional) cost would that trade carry?

## Finding the Real Resistance

### Surface vs. Real Resistance
The stated reason for not adopting a behaviour is almost never the real reason. People don't know their own misbeliefs, or admitting the real reason feels too vulnerable.

**The General Mills Cake Mix Case:** In 1947, instant cake mixes sat unsold despite being cheap, fast, and easy. Market research said the problem was time. Psychologists revealed the real issue: homemakers felt they'd contributed nothing. They felt guilty calling it "homemade." The fix: remove the powdered eggs and require the baker to add a fresh one. Sales exploded. Same cake; the baker now had a hand in it.

### The Drilling Technique: "Why?" and "And So?"
Start with the surface behaviour and keep asking "why" or "and so?" until you reach the emotional core.

**Example: Teenager texting while driving**
- "It's safe, I'm good at multitasking" → surface rationalization
- "I need to reply quickly or they'll think I don't care" → social anxiety
- "If they think I don't care, they'll text someone else" → fear of exclusion
- "If Becky texts Malik instead, I'll lose her" → fear of abandonment and unworthiness

This isn't about driving. It's about belonging. No amount of crash statistics addresses that.

### The Real Resistance Is Always Emotional
The universal tension: what I want versus what's expected of me — fitting in (hiding who you are) vs. belonging (being loved for who you are).

Your story must show the audience that your call to action is not a sacrifice of self — it is an act of becoming more themselves.

## What They Have to Give Up

Every call to action asks the audience not just to gain something but to give up something they're already doing. Identify it precisely. Understand what it means to them emotionally. You are not asking for a behaviour change — you are asking for an identity shift.

## Visualising Your Audience

Stop thinking in demographics. Close your eyes: who is the one person who represents your target audience? Give them a name, a day, a life. This person will become your story's protagonist.

**The Motrin Failure:** In 2008, Motrin launched an ad targeting baby-wearing moms that characterised the practice as a fashion statement. Baby-wearing moms did it to bond with their children. The ad was written by people who had never worn their babies. The backlash was swift. Lesson: if you don't understand the internal meaning your audience assigns to what they do, you will inadvertently attack their identity.
