Companies and advertising agencies try to ensure consumers buy their products by understanding audience characteristics and targeting their advertising appropriately. They gather data on audiences through measurement panels, surveys, and research agencies to classify audiences based on demographics like age, socioeconomic status, and location. This information is used to highlight relevant product benefits, advantages over competitors, brand identity, and lifestyle appeal. Television advertising in the UK is regulated by organizations like Ofcom and the ASA to ensure advertising content and placement is appropriate.

1. AUDIENCE,
CHARACTERISTICS
OF PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES &
REGULATION
HOW DO COMPANIES AND ADVERTISING
AGENCIES TRY TO ENSURE CONSUMERS BUY
THEIR PRODUCT?

2. CHARACTERISTICS OF
PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES
Benefits offered:
what can this product or service do that will enhance your existence / improve
your life?
For example, the British Gas adverts ‘sell’
the benefit that their engineers will call
ahead to let the homeowner know what
time they will arrive so you can “get on with
your day”.

3. CHARACTERISTICS OF
PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES
Advantages over other similar products:
why is this product better than the rest? What sets it apart?
E.g., Cillit Bang VS. Flash

4. CHARACTERISTICS OF
PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES
Unique selling point (USP):
what can it offer that no-one else can?
e.g., “if you buy this product you will…”

5. CHARACTERISTICS OF
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Brand identity:
relates to the way a company/ brand want the audience to perceive them. For
example, how do think the following brands want to be viewed by a consumer?
• Pepsi
• Phones4U
• Saab
• Harley Davidson
• Bisto
Brand identity also encompasses the use of a recognisable logo
e.g., the McDonalds ‘M’.

6. CHARACTERISTICS OF
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Lifestyle appeal:
a product or service will be targeted at a specific consumer. This may be based
on the way that consumer lives/aspires to live. E.g. BMW and Mercedes are
largely associated with middle/upper class consumers.

7. AUDIENCE
INFORMATION
HOW CAN COMPANIES AND ADVERTISING
AGENCIES GATHER AUDIENCE DATA?

8. AUDIENCE
INFORMATION
Audience Measurement Panels
“Viewing estimates are obtained from a panel of television owning
private homes representing the viewing behaviour of the 26 million TV
households within the UK. The panel is selected to be representative of
each ITV and BBC region, with pre-determined sample sizes. Each
home represents, on average, about 5,000 of the UK population”.

9. AUDIENCE
INFORMATION
All panel household residents and their guests register their presence when in a
room with a television set on. Each individual panel member does this by
pressing the button allocated to them on each meter handset.
An LED screen on the front of the meter reminds panel members periodically to
register their presence if they have not already done so. Whenever a panel
member leaves a room they de-register their presence.
The metering system monitors all registrations made by each individual for each
television in the home.

10. AUDIENCE
INFORMATION
How do audience measurement panels relate to advertising?

11. AUDIENCE
INFORMATION
Other methods include;
Face to face interviews
Questionnaires
Broadcasting Audience Research Board (BARB)
Television research agencies
Ratings

12. AUDIENCE
CLASSIFICATION
HOW DO WE CLASSIFY AUDIENCES?

13. AUDIENCE
CLASSIFICATION
S.O.C (Standard Occupational Classification)
This system is used to compare audience data based on the audience member’s occupation
or job.
“The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) is a common classification of occupational
information for the United Kingdom.
Within the context of the classification jobs are classified in terms of their skill level and skill
content. It is used for career information to labour market entrants, job matching by
employment agencies and the development of government labour market policies”.
www.ons.gov.uk

14. AUDIENCE
CLASSIFICATION
“SOC2010 is the latest update and is divided into three volumes:
•SOC2010 Volume 1 Structure and Descriptions of Unit Groups
Outlines the background, resources, concepts, and processes of the Standard
Occupational Classification
•SOC2010 Volume 2 The Structure and Index
Provides the coding index for the Standard Occupational Classification
•The National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC rebased on
the SOC2010)
The National Statistics Socio-economic Classification has been constructed to
measure the employment relations and conditions of occupations”.
www.ons.gov.uk

15. AUDIENCE
CLASSIFICATION
Demographics
Refers to types of people and ‘selected population characteristics’, we can talk about target audience
and key consumers by looking at demographics. Commonly studied demographics include;
•Race
•Educational attainment
•Gender
•Age
•Social Status (A, B, C, C1, D, E classes)
•Home ownership
•Income
•Disabilities
•Employment status
•Location
•Mobility- (in terms of travel time to work or number of vehicles available).
Demographics stems from anthropology, sociology and economics.

16. AUDIENCE
CLASSIFICATION
Social
Grade
Social Status
Occupation
A
Upper Middle Class
Higher managerial or professional
B
Middle Class
Intermediate managerial or professional
C1
Lower Middle Class
Supervisory and junior managerial or
professional
C2
Skilled Working Class
Skilled manual workers
D
Working Class
Semi and unskilled manual workers
E
Those at the lowest
levels of subsistence
State pensioners or widows (no other
earner), casual or lowest grade workers

17. AUDIENCE
CLASSIFICATION
Psychographics:
A term that describes consumers or audience members on the basis of psychological characteristics
initially determined by standardized tests. These characteristics are dictated by where a person is
living and the conditions of their habitat.
Some categories of psychographic factors used in market segmentation include:
• Social class
• Lifestyle
• Behaviour
• Opinions
• Values

18. AUDIENCE
CLASSIFICATION
Psychographic profiles (1960s)
Include:
Mainstreamers
(40% of the population – ‘the norm’)
Succeeders
(rich)
Aspirers
(want the luxury lifestyle)
Reformers
(want to improve the world)
Individuals
(hard to classify, often young)

19. AUDIENCE
CLASSIFICATION
Geo-demographics
The study of people due to their location.
For example, you may wish to compare a twenty year old male consumer
from Glasgow to another from London to see how their views, values and
characteristics differ.
When we talk about geo-demographics it is important to consider the time of
study for example, a comparison of the two males in the present day would
contrast hugely to a study of them in the 1950’s.

20. SOURCES OF
INFORMATION
WHERE CAN YOU GET INFORMATION ABOUT
ADVERTISING?

21. SOURCES OF
INFORMATION
Rates Cards:
Detailed lists of equipment for hire and how much it would cost if you
were outsourcing your equipment and staff.
Advertisers’ Information Packs:
Information and guidance from companies for those who are
interested in advertising their products. It may also be from
broadcasters detailing who could advertise on their channel(s).
Research agency websites:
Agencies that exist for those who cannot or decide not to research
consumers and audiences for themselves.

22. REGULATION
WHO REGULATES TELEVISION ADVERTISING?

23. REGULATION
Research
In what ways does Ofcom regulate television advertising?
•
What is their role?
•
What aspects of television advertising do they preside over?
In what ways does The
ASA regulate television advertising?
•
What is their role?
•
What aspects of television advertising do they preside over?