In many cases, relating to your audience can be ineffective and exhausting. For example, being able to provide a clear understanding of a brand new technology to the customer is not an easy task. However, there is a useful document called the white paper that allows education for target audiences efficiently and successfully. It is a well organized document geared to your audiences for an informative analysis. A white paper is offered for those interested in learning more about an issue of concern accompanied by valid data and important details on the situation.
In “Steak Behind the Sizzle: Effective Marketing Using White Papers,” the author discusses several of the applications of a white paper and the powerful effect it can provide. The white paper can give several opportunities to sell a particular idea to the target audience. It can educate a great amount of information before the audience speaks with a sales representative giving the customer a foundation of knowledge. In the same respect, the same white paper can be posted publicly and broaden the customer base. In addition, a white paper can be utilized to inform another audience member of up to date information that might be of interest to them. For example, keeping staff in sync with the company’s progress can be consistently monitored by white paper documentation. Provided with the appropriate information, everyone in the company should have the same informative understanding.
Many times, a white paper is used to persuade an audience giving positive information and relevant data. Typically, this function of white papers is utilized in the marketing departments. Contrary to most marketing documents, white papers offer a deeper level of technical understanding. It will go into a detailed description accompanied by collective data to educate advanced technical audiences.
In another application, white papers are used strictly to inform. Government white paper documentation, such as the “Government initiatives regarding open source and their successes and failures,” provide a heavy amount of information and data collected to teach its audience the relative current events. Going into great detail, the government issued white paper allows the reader to have exceptional understanding without bias.
Always about the audience.
I agree with you that relating to your audience can be very difficult. Even if you know who your audience is, it can be a very burdensome task of trying to relate to them in a way that they will understand everything you say. You also have to make sure not to insult the audience’s intelligence when writing something like this because if it is too plainly written the reader may lose interest all together. I also agree with what you say in your third paragraph about white papers going much deeper in terms of detail in a technical sense. Like mentioned in one of the readings, they are a brochure type paper hopped up on steroids, that go into much greater amounts of detail to try and persuade or inform people about their products or services.
Technical Audience
In your response you said that white papers include detailed descriptions and collective data directed toward advanced technical audiences. Although technical in nature, why can't a white paper be directed at an audience with less technical knowledge? I wouldn't say that the government white paper on open source was very advanced, as anybody who understands the general idea of computer programming could probably also understand the applications of open source. It's very informative, but I also think that it would be useful for anybody with a novice- or intermediate-level understanding of computers. Depending on your topic for this project, the final paper may be of more informational value if it's directed toward less technical audiences, as it's main purpose to inform.
Inform Your Audience
I agree, our White Paper probably will be less technical descriptions and more technical discussions. Our readers will not need to know how every component functions, but they will want to know why Option A is better or worse than Option B. During this explanation some technical knowledge will have to be presented to make the case, but it is really to simply inform. You may not even state that A is better than B, but just want to justify pros and cons of each. As stated in one of the first week’s readings, if the primary audience needs more help or advice, they can always turn to the secondary readers.
How technical...?
I don't really see these getting too technical also. Many times persuading someone about a technology requires a more novice lingo. Most officials who will need to be persuaded are usually very non technical people; they usually speak the money language. So adhering to an audience like this can be quite a challenge! I guess that's the fun though. Knowing what this audience needs will make or break a persuasive article. It needs to address the audiences’ needs otherwise it’s rendered useless. I think the best way to analyze this is to directly research your primary audience. This way you get a first hand idea of what you’re up against.
White paper, distributing infromation effectivley
I too find relating to the audience is very difficult. In a lot of cases I find most of my audiences having different technical skill levels. Wording the documents in a way that most of the readers will be able to comprehend what the document is saying.
The use of a white paper is a real necessity in today’s technical world. In many companies there is a mass amount of new information that needs to be disturbed quickly to all of their employees as quickly as possible. With the use of a white paper, information can be disturbed effectively to all of the employees.
Zebulon Rouse