2. Task 1
1. An audience is a single or group of people which may vary between gender and
various age ranges. When a new product is offered or promoted to the general
public, this would become your audience.
Examples of audiences can vary from theatre to musicals or radio and would be
called listeners, whilst in the form of aft and literature you can group them as
readers, audience vary depending on the type of products they are introduced
to.
2. The reason audiences are important is, when a new product or technological
advancement is designed and made, it is viewed or purchased by the audience or
general public, if the audience don’t buy or participate in sales of these products
no profits would be made, there would not be any need for feed back, or point in
making any further products.
A good example of a product would be a new cream developed which makes your
skin feel softer and helps you look younger, the product would only work if the
3. the audience purchased it, and tried and tested it and also gave some feed back.
Audiences are key people in deciding the fate of a product, film or technology.
It’s the audiences feed back which gives reason to the success, failure and improve -
ment’s in products.
3. The impact of new technology on an audience Is a very important factor, Its allowed
audiences To receive and transmit data on a greater scale and speed. Technology
such as the introduction of the World Wide Web has allowed the public to view
media such as films, shows from within there living rooms, with the aid of a
computer.
4. The division of audiences into smaller groups due to the variety of media outlets.
EXAMPLE: Newspapers and magazines – you can now view the hard copy AND online
version (sometimes free). The aim is to hit as many people as possible/sell more
copies/generate a larger audience. But measuring that audience becomes hard! You
may have some people that only look online, some that only read the hard copy, or
some that do both.
4. 5. Institution’s continue making money by offering either new products or
implementing fresh new ideas into existing products. For example In the case of
shows such as who wants to be a millionaire, celebrities are called upon the show
as contenders to win. The show is renamed celebrity who wants to be a millionaire.
All winnings are donated to charity of the celebrity’s choice. Other format’s of the
show was who wants to be a millionaire USA. New products or better versions.
5. 6. Audience types : With examples (Images below).
• Mass: Audiences are those audiences which all share similar choices, or have likewise
interests, a show or production which is has high viewing ratings due to the interest and
appeal from that specific size of audience.
• Niche: A small group of people or a smaller audience who only show interest in that
particular product. This type audience is based around unique products.
6. 7. Audiences are categorised due to the fact that they comprise of various category’s such as
age, sex, occupation and income. The audience is not all the same example : A bank
manager may earn £60000 pounds yearly, whilst a shop worker may only earn £16000
pounds yearly. The bank manager may be a male whilst the shop worker might be a female.
Also some services or products may suit females only, whilst others are for men, Then
there’s products made for children only.
8. Demographics is the Studies of a population based on factors such as age, race, sex,
economic status, level of education, income level and employment, among others.
Demographics are used by governments, corporations and non-government organizations
to learn more about a population's characteristics for many purposes, including policy
development and economic market research.
Demographic trends are also important, as the size of different demographic groups will
change over time as a result of economic, cultural and political circumstances. (Below)is a
table of the groups, classes and/or bands the audience can fit in to. And also some results
of the population in (2012-13) each band grading. Image on below (Right).
7. Demographic classifications in the UK and the ABC1 grade an explanation.
• Demographic classifications in the UK refer to the social grade definitions, which are used to
describe, measure and classify people of different social grade and income and earnings
levels, for market research, social commentary, lifestyle statistics, and statistical research and
analysis.
• The National Readership Survey (NRS) is a non-profit but commercial British survey
concerned with monitoring, analyzing and providing estimates on the number and nature of
people who read Britain’s newspapers and consumer magazines. It is funded by the UK
Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA), and
Periodical Publishers Association (PPA).
• Statistics reveal that the past few years have seen a steady increase in the number of adults
who fall in the A, B and C1 socio-economic group. This can be attributed to various factors
such as the changes in the economic conditions, rise in educational opportunities and
changing employment patterns across the globe. All these factors have resulted in a shift of
focus from the traditional ‘blue collar’ jobs to those in the ‘knowledge professions.’
• The rise in the ABC1 social grade, and the subsequent increase in spending power, has had a
strong impact across industries and markets in the UK. It would be interesting to analyze the
change in spending patterns of the ABC1 category in the current economic scenario.
8. 9. Psychographics is an Analysis of consumer lifestyles to create a detailed customer profile.
Market researchers conduct psychographic research by asking consumers to agree or
disagree with activities, interests, opinions statements. Results of this exercise are combined
with geographic (place of work or residence) and demographic (age, education, occupation,
etc.) characteristics to develop a more 'lifelike' portrait of the targeted consumer segment.
Below is some tables and examples of how what grades audience sit under and an example
of the differences in there profiles to demographics.
The image above gives a good example of the
overview of psychographics it is a much riche
and detailed or informative breakdown of the
individual. Psychographics gives a more in –
view on a audience members life, covering
different topics to that of demographics.
9. 10. Quantitative Audience Research - is research which uses numbers to collect data and
carry out research, for example ‘8 out of 10 people said horror was their favourite genre’.
Quantitative research uses a large sample because it is all to do with numbers, its much easier
to question 1000’s of people with quantitative research than it is with qualitative research as
you only need a yes or no answer.
Quantitative research uses closed questions within a questionnaire such as yes or no answers.
This is because they want to compare with numbers, such as how many people said yes etc.
Quantitative research uses statistical graphs and charts to analyse the data that is gathered,
this is because it uses numbers and therefore graphs/charts makes it easier to look at and
analyse instead of looking at a bunch of numbers.
11. Qualitative Audience Research -
Qualitative research goes more into detail about peoples opinions, instead of saying how
many people liked the horror genre it would say ‘8 out of 10 people said horror was their
favourite genre because…’
Qualitative research uses a smaller sample because its harder to question 1000’s of people as
they will give you different answers based on their opinions. Therefore for example they will
only sample around 10 people to gain their research.
Qualitative research uses open questions within a questionnaire as they want to find out the
peoples reasons and opinions for their answer, so they will ask questions such as ‘Why do you
like the horror genre?’
Qualitative research will identify the key themes within the data because its difficult to
analyse the data received as every answer is different because its the individuals opinion, for
example they will ask for the data subjects opinions and then link these together by saying
‘people said they like the horror genre because of the tension the most’.
10. 11. Audiences are measured by how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to
radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and
magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites. Sometimes, the term is
used as pertaining to practices which help broadcasters and advertisers determine who is
listening rather than just how many people are listening. In some parts of the world, the
resulting relative numbers are referred to as audience share, while in other places the
broader term market share is used. This broader meaning is also called audience research.
12. NRS - National Readership Survey (NRS) is a non-profit but commercial British survey
concerned with monitoring, analyzing and providing estimates on the number and nature
of people who read Britain’s newspapers and consumer magazines. It is funded by the UK
Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA), and
Periodical Publishers Association (PPA).
ABC - ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations), the industry body for media measurement.
BARB - The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) is the organisation that
compiles audience measurement and television ratings in the United Kingdom. It was
created in 1981 to replace a previous systems whereby ITV ratings were compiled by
JICTAR (Joint Industry Committee for Television Audience Research), whilst the BBC did
their own audience research.
BARB is jointly owned by the BBC, the TP companies, Channel 4, Channel 5, BSkyB, and the
Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. Participating viewers have a box on top of their TV
sets which tracks the programmes they watch.
11. 14. Companies need to know this information so
that they can make sure they offer you the right
services or products, an example of this profile
information used would be in television. This
also allows the companies to know when and at
what time viewing is suitable and for what age
group do they intend on entertaining.
When a product is developed or made again this
profiling is essential, the product must meet its
target audience . As a good example you
wouldn’t wish to target sell a motor vehicle to
a 14 year old, Only 18 year olds and above
would be suitable.
