Tailored Communications

William Rakowski

As used most often in current intervention research, tailoring denotes the strategy of providing materials, messages, and/or activities that are matched to characteristics of each individual participant (Kreuter, Farrell, Olevitch, & Brennan, 2000; Kreuter, Strecher, & Glassman, 1999; Rimer & Glassman, 1998). In effect, each individual receives a different version of intervention content. The individual-level specificity of tailoring is often contrasted with “one size fits all” strategies in which all participants (presumably from a diverse population) receive the same intervention. Tailoring is also distinguished from the approaches of “targeting” and “personalization.” With targeting, broadly defined subgroups are identified and each gets a different intervention, but all members of a subgroup receive the same intervention. Tailoring can then be directed to the individuals within a targeted group, using an additional set of variables. With personalization, intervention materials are labeled with the participant's name and perhaps other standard demographic identifiers to The ...

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