Immunization and child health materials development guide pdf

A Letter from the Director of Advocacy,
Communications, and Training
Involving Your Audience in Materials Development—
Why Bother?
Sometimes, the health materials development process happens sitting around a table in the
office. Someone writes a draft, then calls in technical advisors to check the facts and
proofreaders to check the punctuation. Unfortunately, the development team neglects to
consult the most important experts of all—the decision-makers, health care providers, or parents
who are supposed to understand, appreciate, and use the material itself.
The result? Sometimes it can be disastrous! Consider these true stories:
• An American beer company translated its slogan “Turn It Loose” into Spanish, but staff
didn’t test the translation carefully enough. Many potential customers in Mexico
understood the Spanish slogan to mean “Suffer From Diarrhea.” Needless to say, beer
sales did not improve!
• When a well-known soft drink company first translated its name into Chinese, staff tried to
find words that sound like the English words. They settled on “Kekoukela,” but soon learned
that it means either “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax,” depending
on the Chinese dialect! Finally, the company decided to do audience research, using
many of the same methods described in this book. After investigating 40,000 Chinese
characters, a phonetic equivalent was found—“kokou kole,” meaning “happiness in the
mouth.” What a great solution!
These examples focus on problems resulting from poor translation—a relatively simple error to
avoid. Other problems can be harder to predict. But there are low-cost, relatively easy-to-use
methods that can help make your materials more effective and attractive. The purpose of this
book is to help you master those techniques.
Along with creating better materials, there are other reasons to invest in the process:
• Audience research provides a window into the minds of the people you are trying to
influence. You will have a better understanding of their world—their information needs,
their concerns, and their motivation for changing behaviors. This knowledge makes you
a stronger materials developer.
• As you move through the pretest and revision process, you’ll see the material improve
before your eyes. You’ll feel confident in your product and proud of it! And you’ll be
able to justify your materials development decisions with actual field data, instead of
assumptions or general impressions.
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