communicationto

Communicationto is a term used to describe the practice and study of directed communication to a specified recipient or audience, with content and delivery tailored to the recipient’s characteristics, needs, and the constraints of the communication channel. The term is not widely standardized but appears in contemporary discussions as a way to emphasize recipient-oriented design in messaging.

Core elements of communicationto include the sender, recipient, message, channel, context, and feedback. The central idea is to maximize relevance and clarity by analyzing audience attributes such as prior knowledge, cultural norms, and information needs, and by selecting an appropriate channel and timing while incorporating feedback mechanisms to adjust messages.

Applications span across marketing, health communication, public policy, education, organizational communication, and digital platforms where personalization algorithms influence delivery. Examples include public health campaigns that tailor materials to different age groups or languages, a corporate update sent as role-specific information, and social media campaigns that segment messages by user interests to improve engagement.

Relation to related concepts: communicationto overlaps with audience design and tailored messaging and is distinct from generic one-size-fits-all approaches or from two-way communication when recipient feedback is limited. Potential advantages include increased relevance and efficiency, while criticisms focus on ethical concerns, privacy implications, possible manipulation, and the risk of reinforcing biases or misinterpreting attributes used for targeting.

See also: audience design, tailored messaging, targeted communication.