Research - Audiences

1. A2 Media G324 – Arlind Malat

2.  For every production there is a specific target audience that will be essential to its
success. An audience forms a group of people who will consume the product and
engage with it. Production companies will always try to find the right audience that
will respond to the product. Reaching out to an audience is pivotal in the success of a
production as finding out their habits and needs, production companies will be able
to produce a successful product that will appeal to them. As a result, the success of a
product is measured through how far the audience is reached which equals profit.
 A target audience is important because they will be the audience that are most likely
to consume their product because of the way the product is presented and sold. The
product will have certain characteristics that will specifically appeal to the target
audience. For instance, an advertisement about financial services will naturally appeal
to a older target audience who will be concerned with such services. The target
audience is always established during the pre production stage to be able to identify
all the key conventions that will result in their attention.

3. A
Senior managers of large-scale organisations , bankers,
lawyers, doctors (very well paid professionals)
B
Middle management, teachers, liberal professionals (fairly well
paid professionals)
C1
(White collar workers) Office supervisors, junior managers,
nurses, bank clerks,…
C2
Skilled (blue collar) workers and trades persons, such as
electricians, plumbers,...
D
Semi-skilled and unskilled
manual workers, such as retailers, drivers, waiters,...
E Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers.
The Socio-Economic
model categorises people
in terms of their
occupation or income.
You can describe audience
through the letter code to
show their income bracket.

4.  In the media world, there are audience categories that allow production companies to
easily target them via their category. The different categories depend on people’s
social class, occupation, age, gender or racial/cultural background. The different
demographics enables people to share similar interests and thus they are categorized
together. As a result, production companies will produce adverts that will aim at them
and their interests. Young audiences are most likely to not have an occupation, thus
they will be classed under unemployed or ‘Category F’. Adverts that sell toys for
young children will be presented in a likeable way for them through animated forms
especially. They will want the children to be appealed or the parents who feel that it is
suitable for them.
 The different audience categories are defined in the socio-economic model that was
previously shown. It clearly defines the different categories through their social class
and other factors that were previously mentioned. Despite this, the model can be
inaccurate as audiences are not restricted to specific interests and ideas.

5.  There are several advantages that audience categories present for production
companies that I can utilize when identifying my own target audience for my TV
adverts/sponsorship and radio advert. These involve:
 Identifying a target audience with ease.
 Identifying the key conventions and characteristics that audiences will appeal to.
 Establishing a price for the product that the audience will be happy to pay.
 Contacting your audience through questionnaires, etc.
 Despite all the advantages that audience categories offers, there are a few
disadvantages for production companies that involve:
 You can lose out on an audience just because of assumption.
 It is unclear where an audience actually fits in audience categories.

6. Mainstreamers The largest group. Concerned with stability and security.
Mainly consumes well-recognised brands and mainstream
texts.
Traditionalists Those who believe in traditional ways.
Aspirers Seeking to improve themselves. Tend to define themselves by
high status brand names, absorbing the ideologies of the
products as their own and believing that their status is
established by this conspicuous consumption.
Succeeders People who feel secure and in control, generally in positions of
power. Consumes brands which reinforce their feelings of
control and power.
Reformers Idealists who actively consume eco-friendly products and buy
brands which are environmentally supportive and healthy.
Caring and responsible ideology.
Individualists Highly media-literate, expects high-production advertising and
buys product image, requiring high-profile, sophisticated
campaigns.

7.  A target audience can also be identified through psychographic profiling. It
categorizes people based on their personality, values, attitudes and lifestyles. In
response to all these factors, production companies are able to engage with their
audience even better. They will be able to find out how exactly they can reach out to
their audience. Psychographic profiling mainly involves the idea of culture defining an
audience.
 A TV advert from ‘Apple’ that is trying to sell the latest phone can appeal to all
audiences on the model. However, the target audience will be ‘Aspirers’ because they
will seek to improve themselves through acquiring the latest phone. They will be very
interested in high status brand names such as ‘Apple’ but this does not stop
‘Mainstreamers’ or ‘Individualists’ from also being interested in the latest phone.
 It is important for a production company to locate their audience through
psychographic profiling as it will allow them to further understand their audience.

8.  The demographic profiling model is similar to psychographic profiling, however it
categorizes audiences based on terms such as age, gender, social class and ethnicity
rather than a ‘culture’. A production company will try to identify their target audience
through their demographics which will make them exactly aware of who is consuming
their product. For instance, a TV advert informing people about financial services will
most likely have a target audience with specific demographics. Their age will be
between 25-35 as people between these ages will be interested in different financial
services. The gender will be both male and female and of all races and they can be of
all classes.
 It is clear in the way that the demographics of an audience is used to target them. It
allows production companies to better understand their audience and produce a
product that appeals to them. Younger and older audiences or Asian and white people
may have different interests which shows in the way demographics can help you to
understand the target audience.

9.  There are different audience reactions that a production company needs to anticipate
upon the release of a product. The different reactions and responses involve:
Audience Engagement The way in which the audience engages with the product or advert and whether
they are passive or active in response to it.
Audience Expectations This is where an audience has their own expectation of the advert. They will
have their own ideas that the audience will try to find out and present to them
to fuel their expectations.
Audience Foreknowledge This is where the audience are made aware of the brand product that is being
advertised.
Audience Identification The way in which an audience identifies the brand product with their own
experiences where the audience will then either accept or reject the brand
product.
Audience Placement This is when an audience is personalized and made to feel special through
different advertising techniques which appears as if it is just for them.
Audience Research This is the way that production companies research the audience to find out
more about their needs and desires to improve the communication.

10.  It is important that a production company understands the audience reactions so that
they can improve their brand product. In terms of advertisement, a company will
utilize a successful technique of communication to further engage with the audience.
For instance, the use of product placement in TV Adverts will make the audience
aware of what they need to go and purchase.
 As well as this, the different audience reactions can be related to a number of media
theories. For example, the audience expectations can relate to Goodwin’s theory of
key conventions being put to place so that the audience can understand and identify
it. A TV advertisement about sportswear clothing will show product use to present its
uniqueness and effect. The advert will have a specific characteristic that the audience
will identify and respond to. Also, Barthes’ semiotics theory can be linked to audience
engagement. This is because, a TV advert will use product placement to interact with
the audience so that they can identify it and respond to it. The product, such as a
sports shirt, will serve as a signifier to the audience that the audience will react to.

11.  To conclude, researching into the different ways an audience can be
identified has benefitted me as now I know how to do this with my
audience. I will be able to identify my target audience based on the
different audience categories, psychographic and demographic models,
as well as anticipate the different audience reactions. I have realised
the importance of locating a target audience in the pre production
stage in order to produce a successful TV Advert/Sponsorship and
Radio Advert. I will know what category my audience will fall in and
thus will be able to alter common conventions so that they will appeal
to my production.