Laura and I were driving along the back roads in the Smoky Mountains when we came across a sign that was a perfect example of what happens when communication is designed for a carefully targeted market. It boldly mixes goods with services, specialization with commodity, premium price with free. It breaks a lot of communication planning rules. But it really knows its audience.

As a flatlander, used to superabundance and specialization, I would hate to think that the same person who just sold me my antique Boston Terrier bookends also fixed my brakes. But I am not the market for this business. Even though the sign wasn’t for me, I found it interesting.

As a graphic designer I enjoy signs like this as a cultural expression. So of course, I “collected” it with my camera. Design is also problem-solving. As a problem-solver, I kind of admire its singularity of purpose. This sign is exactly right when one road leads into town, and the town is small.

In big towns, it’s harder to know which road your customers are traveling. People with cell phones and internet access and cable television and podcast players have a lot more roads. They can personalize their routes. Filter out the many roadsigns. Still, people know what they love and that is what they will buy. And that decision to buy happens along the roads they’re traveling.

This business owner wanted to reach out to a local audience as they drove into town on the only road. So they purchased a sign, made a list of offerings, no doubt based on their knowledge and experience of what draws local audiences in. They designed for the context, the medium, the message, and the needs of the audience. Perfect.

It feels a lot easier to make communication decisions when you’re thinking medium first. We understand brochures, websites, advertisements. They’re great repositories for our own thoughts and ideas about our comanies and products. They’re so enticing that it’s easy to take our eyes off the audience and focus too closely on the artifact we’re making.

Focus on the audience and the rest will follow. Until you get to know them, the people in your audience are an abstract, unruly, and unpredicatable target. Do you know your audience as well as this small-town entrepreneur does?

Audience blurriness makes it easy to keep adding on to the communications offerings list. Throwing everything you’ve got at them. But taking the time to pick the right tool and the right message could save us so much and make your audiences happier.

I am reminded by this sign to ask myself… What inspires my audience? What do they love? Hardware? Nascar? Antiques? How will my communication make that connection? This will allow unique, authentic communication to be created. It will also result in personalized, direct messages that fight through the other roadsigns to get their attention.

Even if I wasn’t the target audience, this sign is memorable. We didn’t stop for the antiques or the car service. But next time through, I might stop for some of that free advice.