Constituency

It is important to know who could help your group with its campaign. Anyone who is affected by the issue that inspired your campaign or could benefit from your proposed solution is a potential ally. Some good questions to ask are:
1) Whose problem is it? What groups are potential allies organized in?
2) What would they get out of helping you? What do they have to risk in order to help you?
3) How could they help? What power do they have? What resources do they have to offer?

The whole point is that the more people and groups that you can bring with you, the more powerful you’ll be. But remember that groups join for their own reasons. You need to understand their motives and needs and respect them.

Targets

A target is always a person. It is never an institution or elected body. Who are you going after anyway? Who are you trying to influence? In other words, who can give you what you want? This person is your primary target.

How can you influence him or her? What kind of power do you have to do it with? If you can’t influence the target directly, who can you influence that might be able to influence your target? These people are secondary targets. They act as stepping-stones through which you can extend your power to your main target. The more secondary targets you can arrange to “encircle” the target with, the better.

For instance, suppose you’re trying to get the CEO (chief executive officer) of Splex Inc. to stop selling radioactive baby formula. Even if you can’t get at him or her, stockholders can. Consumers can. The government can. If you’re trying to influence a merchant, what about advertisers, distributors, suppliers and consumers? Think about all the people your targets are surrounded by through the various social connections and networks they are part of.