2. What is an audience?
• An audience is people that either watch, read, view or interact with a product.
When making any form of product (media) you will need to define an audience in
whom you are aiming your specific product at. They do this so that they can find
out who will be the people that buy or use this product which will in turn keep the
product relevant resulting in the continuation of the products sales. This can
otherwise be referred too as audience profiling. Audience profiling can be
achieved by looking through multiple key elements that define a person. These
elements include a persons age, gender, psychographics, socio-economic
status, geodemographics and/or whether they are of the mainstream or
niche audience.
• In order to find out all of these elements about people there are two different
types of research in which you can undertake. 'Qualitative Research' and
'Quantitative Research'.
3. Qualitative Research
• Qualitative research is unstructured data that helps
you to really understand your audience. By using this
research it will help you to define who the people are
and what they like and dislike about certain things.
Ways in which to get Qualitative information:
• Focus Groups
• Questionnaires (Online or in print)
• Face-to-face Interviews
4. Advantages and Disadvantages of Qualitative
Research.
• There are multiple advantages of using qualitative research. Firstly using this type of research gives
producers a better understanding of what people are going to like and dislike in a product, it allows them to
discuss in depth and in detail of what the persons specifics interests are and how that correlates back to the
product in which they are producing instead of just asking them one specific question which only requires a
factual one worded answer ( like Quantitative research)
• The disadvantages to using Qualitative data however include that the person answering the questions can
easily go off topic and influence the researcher into finding out more about other things instead of focusing
on the key points. It is also a lot more time consuming than Quantitative research as it requires longer and
more in depth answers to note down which you will then need to analyse.
• An example of qualitative research being used within media is the company TimeSpunge. TimeSpunge are a
media marketing company that specialise in helping media producers and advertisers to understand and help
profile their audiences in order to increase revenues and to get a better return on advertising spend.
5. Quantitative Research
• Quantitative research is statistical and mathematical data. For example,
finding out the number of people who would be interested in your
product. Quantitative research can be carried in numerous ways, such as:
• Surveys- Multiple questions given on certain topics that the person must
directly answer. Mainly obtained via doing a questionnaire (online or in
print format)
• Statistical analysis- A database that collects and organises data into set
samples. These samples can then be drawn out and used.
• Primary Research- Form of research in which you ask people on a
certain topic and require a certain answer for that topic. This can be done
through surveys and/or interviews.
6. Advantages and Disadvantages of Quantitative
Research
• There are again multiple advantages and disadvantages to this type of research. One of the
main advantages being that you can receive factual information about the subject/focus in
which you are looking into that they can then record and analyse it.
• However there can be some disadvantages to this type of research, for example the
researcher is ignoring the main context of where their information is coming from and is
just purely focusing on the data that they are receiving.
• An example of when quantitative research is used is the National Readership survey. The
NRS provides an estimated readership as well as circulation figures for the print media
industry. They also create socio-economic breakdowns of audiences so that they can see
what types of people view their product.
7. Audience Profiling
• An audience profile is a way for companies to determine their target market of
consumers. Audience profiling is important for a number of different reasons.
Firstly companies will need to have an audience idea in mind of whom they're
wanting their product to be aimed at. To do this they can complete an 'Audience
Profile' so that they can be aware what type of people (e.g. Age, Gender, socio-
economic status, psychographics, geodemographics) are viewing their product. By
doing this helps them to sell advertising space as this gives them the information of
what type of audience reads and/or views their product and what the stereotypical
things in which that specific audience would be interested in and would be most
likely to want to purchase.
8. Audience Profile Examples:
• Cosmopolitan Magazine is an international fashion magazine for women. The
audience profiling for this magazine is clear and concise. It clearly covers their
overall circulation and breaks that down into both the digital and print edition(
289,044 combined circulation with around 6,551 reading the digital copy) It also
shows us what the socio-economic status is of their readers. They look at this
factor so that they can see what type of class of people read the magazine
resulting in the magazine selling advertising space to companies whom; in
Cosmopolitans case Upper- lower middle class (394,000 being upper to middle
class) people would be interested in and would be likely to buy. This is a clear
way of quickly representing who reads this magazine and what it is about.
Furthermore it provides us with extra information and facts on the readers. For
example it says that 'Cosmopolitan has the most loyal readership in the UK
market, with 41% only choosing to read the brand' this tells us that thousands
of Cosmopolitan readers only choose to read Cosmo and no other brand of
magazine. As well as providing us with all the usual facts Cosmo also tells us its
social media popularity as nowadays social media is a predominant platform
within todays society which would imply that the bigger the following on social
media ( 252,000 twitter followers, 883,000 Facebook likes, 65,000 Instagram
followers) the bigger and more popular the magazine will be. These figures
show that Cosmo has a relatively large social media following which implies
that they are a relatively big brand which is exactly what they are.
Cosmopolitan
9. Audience Profile Example:
• 'Take a Break has comfortably been the biggest selling women‘s weekly in the
UK for over 20 years. One in fourteen C1C2D women in the UK read Take a
Break every week and it sells 1 copy every second.' From the audience profile
we can see all the information we need to know about the readers of this
specific magazine. Immediately we can see that the overall readership of this
magazine is around 1,775,000, 1,553,000 of these people being women which
shows us that their aim of targeting a more predominantly female audience is
working for them. We can also quickly glance on the socio-economic status of
'Take a Break' from the audience profile we can see that they're targeting
C1C2 women (lower middle class- skilled working class) by learning the socio-
economic status of readers helps sell advertising space as it informs us of
what type of people are reading the magazine which helps them to decide
what companies these types of people are more likely to want to use and
purchase things from. For example if they are of the lower middle to skilled
working class they may not be able to afford overly expensive things (like what
can be advertised in Cosmo) so they need to advertise products in their
magazine in which their target audience will be able to afford.
Take a Break
10. Age
• Age is a simple but vital element when it comes to classifying your target audience. It aids
developers and creators of products make assumptions purely based on a persons age, not
all of this assumptions will be accurate for everyone however they are a good basis for the
majority of people. For example people in their 20's are more likely to live at home or rent
than people in their 30's and people in their 60's are less likely to have children living at
home with them than people in their 40's etc.. Once you have figured out what the target
audience for your product is you can then develop your product further keeping the target
age range in mind and looking at other pre made products that also have a similar age range
to you and see what they have done and how you can improve upon it/ change it to suit
your product. This is an advantage to knowing your target age range, another advantage
would be that it gives you somewhat o f an outline on what interests and hobbies they like/
appeal to them. The disadvantages to this include that developers guarantee what their
audience is like and what their hobbies or interests actually are.
11. Target age range examples:
This first magazine is called 'Total Girl' you can easily tell just by looking at the
front cover that this magazine is aimed at younger girls aged around 7-14. You
can tell this due to the more bright and 'girly' colours that cover the entire front
cover attracting younger girls as it shows the magazine is fun and youthful. On
the cover it also shows us headlines of some of the stories that will be included
in the magazine, one of these headlines being about a childrens TV show called
'iCarly'. Putting the name of a popular television programme on the front cover
further draws younger children in as they will be wanting to know everything they
can about one of their favourite childhood shows. Furthermore there are a lot of
pictures and cartoon icons to capture girls attention as it stands out to them with
the multiple images of their favourite celebrities, the cartoon icons (e.g. stars and
hearts) also make the magazine look more youthful and bold which will appeal to
children more.
12. Target Age Range Examples:
The magazine 'Womens Weekly' is a magazine that is again aimed at the female
gender but to the more older generation (50+). This extravagantly differs from
'Total girl' is multiple different ways. One of the main ways being that 'Total
Girl' appeals to its younger audience through each of its different article
subjects. For example 'Total Girl' includes articles about children's TV shows
such as iCarly as well as it giving us updates on all the kids favourite celebrities,
whereas women's weekly is about more a magazine that includes helpful advice
about issues that revolve more around older people eg. Alzheimer's and 'how to
reduce your risk' as well as updates about soap programmes such as Emmerdale
as this is the kind of thing that older people enjoy to watch an then read about.
Other topics include arts and crafts, recipes and health and lifestyle tips/advice.
13. Gender
• One of the key elements to defining an audience is by their gender. Gender is an important part in defining your
audience as both genders tend to have multiple different opinions, values, interests and personality traits. However
this isn't necessarily always the case. Past socialisation makes these assumptions about both genders, an example of
this being that a girls favourite colour is pink compared to a boys favourite colour whose is blue which clearly isn't
always true.
• There are multiple advantages to defining your target audience using their gender, an example of an advantage is
that it can give you a brief but vague outline of what kind of product you can produce that will appeal to one
gender more than the other, it will especially help you in the designing area of the product as it can help us to
discover which elements would be more likely to appeal more to the female gender and what the male gender would
appreciate more.
• This isn't always helpful however as doing this is a large assumption of what each gender likes and dislikes which is
rare to be 100% accurate. In the 21st century people nowadays are not as concerned about gender specific products
as if they are interested in the product themselves whether it is targeted at their gender or not they can make their
own opinions on whether or not the product is good and whether or not they want to purchase it.
14. Gender specific
examples:
• Many years ago it was thought that we were to genderise certain
product that would be targeted more towards one gender than
the other. For example girls would be likely to purchase barbie
dolls which were 'girly' dolls who tended to wear pink and
included them doing more female specific activities (e.g.
cheerleading, dance, rollerblading etc..) Compared to boys who
would be likely to play with 'action figures' these were mostly
male figurines that were strong and muscular and were dressed in
sports and adventure gear that would occasionally come with
weapons to show how tough they were. This is a big difference
between both products teaching children that the male gender
were the stronger and more adventurous gender compared to
females who liked more 'girly' and less-strenuous acitivities.
Thankfully nowadays the gender stereotype isn't as heavily
marketed and practiced due to the fact that girls and boys can
choose themselves which products they would want to have as
opposed to products in which were 'targeted' for their specific
gender and feel they should have.
Girly, dressed in pink, comes with
makeup and outfits. Image of what the
'perfect' girl should be.
Strong, muscular, comes with weapons to prove
they're tough. 'perfect' idealisation of a man
back many years ago.
15. Gender specific examples:
• Gender stereotyping also occurs in adult marketing. These types of
products include skincare, haircare, drinks and even some snacks at one
point were gender specific. For example the brand 'Dove' Is a skincare
brand who have different types of skincare products aimed at both the
male and female gender. From the image you can immediately tell from
the name of the two different products which gender is meant to get
which product. 'Dove Men and Care' is aimed more towards the male
gender. As well as the name of the product being a giveaway to which
product is aimed at which gender we can also tell via the design of the
packaging, for example the 'Dove for men' is in a black bottle with dark
orange tones in the writing. This colour scheme makes the product look a
lot more masculine which people will think will appeal to males more and
will further persuade them to buy it. Moving on from this however the
female version is a lot more dainty and less bold in packaging as it comes
in a white bottle with hints of pink throughout the packaging to show us
how this product is one in which the female gender should purchase.
More bold and 'masculine looking'
packaging, emphasis in the name of the
product that it is for men
Elegant and simple packaging with hints of
pink showing how it is for the female gender
16. Mainstream
• A mainstream audience is people who tend to follow and keep up to date
with the latest news and trends that are going on around the world. Many
magazine, newspaper and social media publications such as Twitter tend to
encourage and popularise the latest trends or news stories of the week. Most
of our mainstream media comes from the latest movies, fashion trends, and
pop music charts.
17. Mainstream Examples:
• An example of mainstream music is music that you find in the charts. For
example One Direction and Ed Sheeran would be considered mainstream
artists as they are very popular and have a large fanbase. Boy-bands
especially are mainly known as 'mainstream' as the majority of their songs
are pop songs which is the most commonly known and most popular
genre of music there is about. Another point is that all boy-band songs are
seen as relatively predictable due to the fact that the majority of their songs
in some way relate to a girl or a falling in love, these songs can be produced
one of two ways, either slow and more romantic or upbeat and lively. Boy
bands tend to be more popular than solo artists especially with music
publications as they believe bands will sell more merchandise, tours etc..
However solo artists can also be extremely popular, for example Ed
Sheeran is one of the most popular solo artists around as he regularly sells
out all of his tours and all his new music regularly fly's to the top of the
charts. He would be considered 'mainstream' as he tops charts all around
the world and almost everyone around the world will have heard his name.
18. Niche
• Niche audiences are known as much more reclusive and specific to a persons interest. This is a
much smaller audience than mainstream audiences as these groups of people have a specific
interest in common with one another whether that be music, film, sport, hobby related. Niche
audiences can be a lot more difficult to target due to the fact that you are unaware what specific
interests people have and how many people share the same interests in order for the product to
keep momentum and continue to sell to a still large enough fan base. Another point is that niche
audiences often tend to steer away from more 'mainstream' works.
• There are both advantages and disadvantages of a niche audience, one of the main advantages
being that there is less competition. When you have a highly specific product or service, there will
be less companies out there with the exact same offering. The more specific your product or
service, the less companies there will be to compete against for customers. However this can also
be a disadvantage as there will also be less customers looking for your product and/or service
which will reduce the overall profitability.
19. Geodemographics
• Geodemographics is the description of people according to where they live, derived from the study of
spatial information. The meaning behind this is that people who live in the same/similar area are likely to live
similar lifestyles and have a tendency to have the same sort of personality. By completing this study it allows
creators and developers to get a good idea and background of where they should target their products.
People who live in the same area tend to have the same income, age range, profession and in some
circumstances even race and/or class, all of these factors helping determine the products target market.
• Advantages of this type of research include the fact that production companies can get a better
understanding of their audience from where they live, by knowing about the size of their family, their
income, class, race etc... allows creators to understand how to adapt their product to fit these types of people
ad how to keep the costs of the product within certain budgets so that their audience are comfortably able to
purchase it.
• Disadvantages however can be that there is no guaranteed assurance that your product will comfortably sell
as you cannot be positive that the people you are targeting will actually like the product enough to spend
money on it.
20. Geodemographics Example:
• One of the most common ways in which people can follow
geodemographics is via 'ACORN Systems' This system uses a map of any
city to detect the wealth across each said city.
21. Psychographics
• Psychographics is the study and classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, and other
psychological criteria, especially in market research. The reasoning behind this is so that developers get a
clear image of who will be buying their product and how you can target your developing product more to
this particular audience in order for it to appeal further to them and make them interested in purchasing the
product. Finding out someone's psychographics is usually done through a questionnaire.
• As usual their can be its advantages and disadvantages to finding out a persons psychographics. The
advantages being that creators of the product have a much deeper and clearer understanding of what will
make consumers happy and how they can alter their product in order to benefit the audience as much as
possible resulting in as high a profit as possible.
• The disadvantages of this is that as well as geodemographics, psychographics don't provide you with the
assurance that the product will sell and make you a profit. This is due to the fact that you will only be made
aware of their personality and not of their income and/or class meaning that you will have no idea what the
audiences price range would be and if they could even afford to purchase the product or not.
22. Socio-Economic Status
• Socio-economic status is where you get to know your audience on the basis of
income, class and education. For example the higher up in class you are the more
likely you are to earn a higher income meaning you are able to spend more money
on a product than those of a lower class. Knowing someones educational
background can help you discuss the formality of your product. For example when
it comes to magazines if someone has a higher educational background they will be
more likely to purchase a newspaper or magazine that has a much more formal
language tone (e.g. The Independent) compared to those who have little education
who would be more likely to buy magazines such as 'Take a Break' due to the
simplicity of its English language that its written in.
