The document discusses various methods used to categorize audiences for advertising and marketing purposes. It describes how advertisers segment audiences based on demographics like age, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic factors. One common system described is using social grades based on occupation, though it is noted to have limitations. Young & Rubicam developed the 4Cs model that categorizes people into seven types according to their core motivations and needs, as defined by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Understanding audience psychographics and what motivates different groups allows advertisers to better target their campaigns.
2. Target Audience/Market: Categories
In order to successfully promote and market a product, the advertiser needs to have a clear
idea of who the intended target market or audience is. To do this, people are put into groups.
Can you think of ways you could categorise people for this?
•Age
•Gender
•Ethnicity
•Social Background
•Economic Status
•Personal interests
•Aspirations/desires
•Lifestyle
•?
4. Social Grades
• The NRS social grades are a system of demographic classification used in the United
Kingdom. They were originally developed by the National Readership Survey (NRS) to
classify readers, but are now used by many other organisations for wider applications and
have become a standard for market research.
• They were developed over 50 years ago and achieved widespread usage in 20th century
Britain. Their definition is now maintained by the Market Research Society.
• The distinguishing feature of social grade is that it is based on occupation.
• The classifications are based on the occupation of the head of the household
• It is particularly important for media companies, as the composition of their audience affects
how much they can charge for advertising.
5. Social Grades
What social grade are you?
social grade social status occupation
A upper middle class higher managerial, administrative or professional
B middle class intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
C1 lower middle class
supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or
professional
C2 skilled working class skilled manual workers
D working class semi and unskilled manual workers
E those at lowest level of subsistence
state pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or
lowest grade workers
The grades are often grouped into ABC1 and C2DE, these are taken to equate to middle class and
working class, respectively. Only around 2% of the UK population is identified as upper class,[4] and
this group is not separated by the classification scheme.
6. Social Grades What social grade are you?
Only around 2% of the UK population is identified as upper class,[4] and this group is not separated by the
classification scheme.
Grade Social class Chief income earner's occupation
Frequency in
2008[3]
A
upper middle
class
Higher managerial, administrative or professional 4%
B middle class Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional 23%
C1
lower middle
class
Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional 29%
C2
skilled working
class
Skilled manual workers 21%
D working class Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers 15%
E non working
Casual or lowest grade workers, pensioners, and others who depend on the
welfare state for their income
8%
7. Social Grades
Can you see any drawbacks with this system?
There are a number of problems with this classification which reflect how society
has changed since it was devised decades ago. These limit its usefulness for
marketing and advertising. The worst of these drawbacks are:
•It classifies an entire household on the occupation of a single individual.
•It ignores groups such as wealthy people who do not work and some groups of
self-employed people.
•It contains no information about the size or structure of households.
•It is too broad brush: 55% of the British population are ABC1!
http://moneyterms.co.uk/social-grades/
8. Social Grades
This does not mean that this system is useless, it does capture much important
information in a simple form, however there are alternatives that can be used when
appropriate.
Examples include:
•education
•political leanings
•family size and family life cycle - e.g., single person, couple, family children, "empty
nest", sole survivor
•type of housing - e.g. affluent suburbs, council estates, agricultural areas, affluent
urban areas
•behaviour - brand loyalty, purchasing patterns etc.
•lifestyle and aspirations.
http://moneyterms.co.uk/social-grades/
9. Maslow
• Whilst the rest of the world was partying in 1969, Dr. Abraham Maslow
was studying monkeys.
• Monkeys, he found, always made sure they weren’t thirsty before looking
for shelter, and always ensured they had shelter before they looked for
love and companionship.
• Dr Maslow then went on to study the human beings around him. Humans,
he found, acted in much the same way. No human worried about love
before they felt secure. No human sought control before they felt
respected by their peers. Thus was born Dr Maslow’s famous Hierarchy
of Needs.
10. Maslow’s Pyramid
• Belongingness/Love
• Esteem
• Safety
• Self-Actualisation
• Biological/Physiologic
al
Maslow identified 5 ‘needs’ named as follows. Can you
match the title to the definitions/examples?
air, food, drink, shelter,
warmth, sex, sleep, etc
Protection from the
elements, security, order,
law, limits, stability,
financial securityWork group, family,
affection, relationships,
friendship, sexual
intimacy, etc
confidence, respect,
achievement, mastery,
independence, status,
dominance, prestige,
responsibility, etc
Realising one’s potential,
self-fulfilment, personal
growth, peak experiences
morality, creativity,
helping others
11. Maslow’s Pyramid
Draw the 5 tier pyramid.
Then place the following 5 ‘needs’ in the order you think they need to be
satisfied. The one at the bottom needs to be achieved first, then the next
one above and so on.
Biological & Physiological :
air, food, drink, shelter,
warmth, sex, sleep, etc
Safety
Protection from the
elements, security, order,
law, limits, stability,
financial security
Belongingness & Love
Work group, family,
affection, relationships,
friendship, sexual intimacy,
etc
Esteem
Self esteem, confidence,
respect, achievement,
mastery, independence,
status, dominance,
prestige, responsibility, etc
Self- Actualisation
Realising one’s potential,
self-fulfilment, personal
growth, peak experiences
morality, creativity, helping
others
13. Maslow’s Pyramid
Maslow explained that for most people the needs are the same.
On the first, bottom, layer are the most basic needs for survival (the physiological, physical
needs). Most people don't feel a need for other things until this basic need is met.
Once they are surviving they need to feel they will survive in the future by being safe and
secure. It is when these basic needs are met that people feel they need other things in their
lives.
For most people the next thing they need is to belong and be loved. Those who get this need
met will feel the need to be appreciated and respected by themselves and others.
The people who feel that they have security, love and respect then may feel the need to be
creative, spiritual, and doing good.
14. Maslow’s Pyramid
The pyramid shape shows that while everyone needs to breathe, drink, eat and sleep,
(the physical needs on the bottom of the pyramid) there are fewer people who need
the higher level needs.
The shape also shows that when the bottom needs are threatened, the higher needs
have no base. (Without air and water a person doesn't need love and esteem).
15. Needs vs Wants
• Consumerism confuses needs and wants so that we buy things we want as if they are things
we need.
• Advertisers and marketers are expert at making this confusion profitable for their clients.
They make us think we need things that we actually only want, (often because we're
persuaded to want them).
• How often do we see ads that make us feel we need things from the highest levels (for
example, a car that will get us the respect of our neighbours, or cosmetics that will give us
confidence) when what we actually need is to make sure we are secure in our employment
and are healthy.
• Advertisers often work hard to make us feel that we need things from levels higher than
where we are in our lives. We want them, but that is not a good enough reason to buy. So the
ads make it a need.
• Source: http://www.waronconsumerism.com/Needs.html
16. Young and Rubicam
• Young & Rubicam, Inc. (Y&R) is a marketing and communications company
specializing in advertising, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing
and brand identity consulting.
• John Orr Young and Raymond Rubicam established a small advertising agency in
New York in 1923.
• Young & Rubicam Advertising now ranks as the world's 10th largest advertising
agency, with revenues of approximately $907m
http://www.yrbrands.com/
http://www.yr.com/
17. Young and Rubicam & Maslow
• Young and Rubicam took
Maslow’s hierarchy, and
designed a probing research tool
to find out where people stood
within it.
18. Young and Rubicam’s 4Cs
• The result was a segmentation system powerful enough to segment all mankind, and deep enough to
understand all mankind’s basic motivations.
• Because Young & Rubicam also asked what brands people bought and how they felt about them, the system
also became a way of understanding the deeper appeals of those brands.
• The system accepted that people from different countries were influenced by their differing cultural
backgrounds, and removed the effect of those backgrounds.
• And so it was named the Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation, or ‘4Cs’ for short.
4Cs divides people into seven types, depending on their core motivation. Shades of grey within the types come
from the secondary motivations of their members.
19. Young and Rubicam’s 4Cs Task
Go to the Y&R 4Cs website www.4cs.yr.com
Download a copy of their booklet entitled Seven kinds of people
Read through the definitions of each type. Which one do you think is you?
Can you suggest two brands that might appeal to each of the types?
What might this say about the kind of products you would be interested in and the kind of brands
and adverts that may be aimed at you?
20. Young and Rubicam’s 4Cs
• Use the website and downloaded material to complete the following table
Type (e.g. Succeeder) Need: (e.g. status)
Which one do you think you are? And the class?
21.
22. Young and Rubicam’s 4Cs
Which of the following brands would you expect to appeal to each of the 7 Y&R
categories? Why?
23. Psychographics
• market segmentation strategy whereby the intended audience for a given
product is divided according to social class, lifestyle, or personality
characteristics.
• Marketers segment markets by social class for the promotion of products
such as cars, clothes, home furnishings, and leisure activities. When
segmenting a market according to consumer lifestyles, marketers
promote their products as expressions of those lifestyles, such as the
promotion of natural fiber products as ideal for a natural, healthy, active
life.
• Marketers use personality factors to segment markets by giving their
products personalities that match consumer personalities. Typically this
strategy is used to promote products such as women's cosmetics or liquor.
• http://www.allbusiness.com/glossaries/psychographic-
segmentation/4963782-1.html
24. Psychographics
• Y&R’s 4Cs are one leading example of psychographics, but
there are many different models.
25.
26. Advertising & Audiences: Summary
• Who the right audience is for a product is vital to the people in
charge of selling it.
• Target audiences can be defined in numerous ways – gender,
age, interests, etc.
• A commonly used system is the Social Grades model that is
based upon socio economic status, although this has flaws.
• Ad agency Young & Rubicam developed the Cross Cultural
Consumer categorisation (or the 4Cs) which divides people by
their ‘needs’ into seven types.
27. Young and Rubicam TV AD playlist
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPck9d_Jn-
M&list=PL2zHVht6eqoFCK6CWhCODhcOszKN7nJXG