1. Unit 6
LO1
There are several different methods and techniques that producers may use to define their target
audiences, these procedures are carried out to ensure maximum success within their chosen area.
Quantitative research explores figures, statistics and graphs to gain an understanding of which
audiences watch/listen to certain products. These types of information can be found in various
places, but some of the most accurate and up to date statistics (regarding the viewing of television
channels) comes from http://www.barb.co.uk . They continually update and measure what
audiences are tuning into all over the UK, with records of up to 5 years of prior statistics. This is a
great way to gain an understanding of what audiences are tuning into, what is popular, what viewing
times are most popular. However, it doesn’t give any indication of the people as individuals in terms
of age, gender, cultural background etc. For other forms of media there are also useful methods to
gain the same information. For example, radio statistics can be found on http://rajar.co.uk .
Another method of research that is often contrasted with quantitative research is qualitative
research. Techniques to gather information via this method of research may include; focus groups,
questionnaires/surveys, face to face interviews and internet forums. The ways of research that
include you talking face to face with the consumer are a great to collect views and opinions that you
may not necessarily gain if it was read of a chart or a graph. You are able to listen to criticism and
construct as a group ideas to improve. Although these are good ways to get a visual understanding
of your audience, it is not the most practical way to gather mass amounts of information. Focus
groups and interviews are best held between 10 – 15 people, this restricts the amount of research
you can gather within the time constraints. Internet questionnaires and forums can gather slightly
more information but it isn’t a guarantee that everyone will get involved and answer. So although
this technique can only gather limited information, it is a great way to understand your audience on
a lesser scale.
It is important to research the social status of your audience in order to fully understand their wants
and expectations. However, during recent studies it is said that it is to vague to split the public up
into just ‘Upper’, ‘Middle’ or ‘Working’ class, and that there is now up to seven different social
status’. In order to gain maximum knowledge to of your target audience you can refer to the socio-
economic table:
The Standard Occupational Classification system (SOC) is
used to categorise workers to collect, calculate or spread
data accurately. With regards to my music video, this music
would be beneficial dependent on the genre of the song.
Less popular music such as classical may slot in the ‘A’ or ‘B’
category of the SOC. But with more popular mainstream
music, it would be hard too generalise the song to just one
of the categories.However, it would probably sway slightly
more to the ‘C2’, ‘D’ and ‘E’ sections. This research may not
be as important to gather as you can take an educated guess
at what sections your audience will fall under. However,

2. knowing the audiences socio-economic group will have an impact on the content and outcome of
the music video.
Psychographics is an examination of the public and
consumers lifestyles. In terms of marketing and social
research, psychographic variables the attributes or
factors that relate to the audiences personality, values,
attitudes interests of lifestyles. These can also be named
IAO, (Interests, Activities and Opinions). The results of
this research can be contrasted with demographic and
geo-demographic research. For example, it is often that
are correlations between age/gender and activities or
interests of the consumer. When defining your audience,
psychographics, demographics and geo-demographics
are a good three to do together. A lot of information
found will coincide with each other and give you a
greater understanding of your audience. When it comes
to the planning and creation of my music video, the
information collected from the psychographics research
will show me what type of people my video will be
targeted at in terms of motivation and innovation. This information will help me know what content
to involve in my video, however, the information regarding my audiences motivation/innovation
may not be the most beneficial to the outcome of my video. This type of research would be much
more useful on the creation of a documentary, or a drama
Geo-demographics can be used as a format to geographically understand factors, trends or lifestyles
in specific areas. For example; area of residence, population, climate, healthcare, spending patterns,
leisure activities or even density can all accumulate important information concerning my audience.
To ensure success film makers will adopt this technique to identify where certain films are more
popular than others. This will then help to choose which cinemas to promote/show their films in,
where to advertise, and where to sell their merchandise. For my music video I will be able to
accurately identify where certain genres of music are popular and where it’s being bought. Just like
geo-demographics, demographic research will include information such as age, gender, sexual
orientation etc. This information can be easily collected and looked in to, but definitely one of the
most important and essential areas of audience research. It will allow me to accurately see which
age group is listening to certain genres of music, which genres are more popular in regards to gender
and which current and existing music is popular with different age groups.
Recognising the size of your audience is incredibly important before beginning to produce anything.
For example, magazines such as NME and Q are very mainstream magazines with a mass amount of
readers. But other more specialist magazines for a more niche target audiences will recognise the
lesser scale of actual magazines they need to produce and what type of expectations the audience
have in regard to the magazine content. My music video will be targeted at mainstream music fans.

3. However, with the vast amount of sub-genres of music being created I will need to accurately
identify how popular my genre of music is during the current time.