Media producers define their audience through research to understand consumer interests and behaviors. Quantitative research uses surveys and statistics to determine audience demographics like age, gender, and socioeconomic status. Qualitative research uses focus groups and interviews to understand audience psychographics, including hobbies, values and spending habits. Understanding the audience allows media to be tailored to attract specific consumer groups and maximize commercial and critical success. Key factors studied include age, gender, location, and socioeconomic classifications to help target advertising and content.

1. How do media producers
define their audience.
Jake Stanyon-Carr

2. What is an audience?
• An audience is a consumer, whether it be consumer as in purchasing shoes, or watching a film,
basically whoever is consuming that product is the audience. And these are vital for all companies
or people who create a product, especially so in media.
• One of the main objectives of producing media products is to find and attract your audience so
that you can tailor your product to them, which will make the product succeed commercially and
critically.
• In this new internet age, it is much easier to find out who your audience is, as you can see who
views your advertisements on social media and who visits your websites. Search engines such as
Google can use your search history in order to provide cookies with things that you may like.
• An audience can be very specific, for example, the cloud rapper Yung Lean has a very specific
audience, whereas as a leviathan company such as Warner Bros will have a much broader
audience and reach.
• An example of an audience that I have found from Yougov is for the video game The Witcher 3:
Wild Hunt, which has an audience of mostly older left-wing males, whose hobbies include video
games and computors.

3. Why are audiences important.
• There are a few reasons as to why audiences are important in media. The main
reason is that it helps the artist or the company understand what the audience is
expecting from he product that they are producing, so that they can make it
better for their wants and needs. This is important as it allows the product to
succeed both critically and commercially. Getting your product across to the right
people in the right way and at the right time can be crucial, for example
advertisements for Grand Theft Auto wont play on the Nickelodeon channel, as
that isn't the game audience, it will probably play after 9/10pm, on channels such
as Comedy Central, as that’s where the audience for GTA will more likely be.
• Take magazines as an example. They make their money from the advertisements
placed in them, not from sales. This means that they need to know who their
audience is so that they can advertise to them, for example, in Top Gear
magazine, you will only see typically masculine items, such as Breitling watches or
men’s deodorants.

4. What do publishers want to know about them
• They want to know everything about them essentially, from their gender, age, political views,
hobbies and interests and what type of person they are (psychographic). They want to know
these things to create a relationship between publisher and audience, as a good relationship
between the two creates a loyal consumer base. This relationship is built by the publisher of the
media providing the consumer with a unique value or selling point, and they can tailor these
selling points to the wants and needs of the audience by knowing them well.
• They want to know how old their audience is, as you can make assumptions about different age
groups that wont apply to all of that demographic but may apply to the majority, for example you
can make the assumption that elderly people prefer print media over digital, as they tend to read
newspapers instead of looking on news websites.
• They want to know where they live. This is especially important for physical media production
,such as billboard advertisements, for example, you wouldn’t see Waitrose advertised in a
particularly poor area, but instead see something such as Home Bargains or Aldi.
• The assumption with peoples age group can be used for gender too, as women's product are
typically lighter, and curved, whereas men's products are normally darker colours, with very bold
shapes, for example, men's and women's deodorant, they are the same product, but just put in a
different can with a different name to appeal to each gender.

5. Gender
• It isnt just media products that do thus,
here is an example of men's vs women's
deodorant. The men's one is bigger,
bolder and features darker colours, and
the women one is more elegant and
features brighter and more feminine
colours. What's inside will be pretty
much identical, but the packaging is
deferent as they are marketed to
different genders.
• ‘Gender is the most powerful determinant of how a person views the world and everything in it. It’s more powerful that age, income, race or
geography.’
• When advertisers market a product to a certain gender, they do it in the same way in which they market to a specific age group, they make
assumptions based on stereotypes and then use those stereotypes for the majority, as the majority of people of a certain age/gender follow
them, this is why they are called stereotypes after all.
• In media, it is typical for things such as films t be aimed at a specific gender, as gender is one of the biggest deciders of demographics and
audiences. It is not just the films that are aimed at a gender, it is the media and advertising that comes along with hem, for example, movie
posters. Movie posters are a great way to capture the themes, colour schemes and content of the film. Below are two good examples of a film
that is directed towards both genders. On the left is Sex And The City, which is al about strong women and just women in general, so it has a
few strong looking powerful women on the poster. On the right is Rambo, which is pretty much he most macho film ever, and it is shown here
in the poster, with explosions and a ripped guy on the front holding a bazooka. These posters are done this way because, for the most part,
these are the ideal looks for both genders, as in general, women want to appear strong, yet elegant at the same time, and men way to have
that typical ‘badass’ appearance, with explosions and rocket launchers.

6. Audience postcodes/geodemographic• Something that publishers want to know about there audience is where they live, so their postcode and the
products geodemographic. Where your audience live is useful information to have, as typically people who
live in the same area code will have 1) the same socio economic status, 2) the same income, and 3) the same
interests (this one not so much but its still worth adding) and 4) the same spending tendencies. This
information will also tell you whether they are, for example, young professionals or retired couples. These
four things allow advertisers to target specific audiences to better tailor their products to fit the audiences
needs.
• Advertisers use programmes such as CAMEO, which uses the ACORN system to find out these things about
their audience. This programmes are really easy to use, for example, I have typed my postcode into the
search bar and have found out a few things about the people who live in my area.
• This is the general information about the people who live in my area.
Even though this is not very specific (it has more specific details after
this) this is still very useful to advertisers and publishers, as it tells
them the socio economic status of the people, and it tells you he
average age, which is 55 and over, so this means that there are a to of
people who are retired and have a high social grade. This tell the
advertisers that the people who live in this area may have a lot of
disposable income to spend on things which aren't essential. This is
proven when you have a look at the brands that people in this area
are interested In, such as Waitrose and Hobbs, which are typically
expensive brands.

7. Audience postcodes/geodemographic-
advertising locations
Mercedes-Benz
Payday loans
Takeaway pizza
Life insurance
Home repairs
Estate agents
Letting agents Lidl
Waitrose
Tesco

8. Socio economic statuses.
• Publishers also want to know their audience's socio-economic status, which means an individual or a family’s
social and economic position in relativity to others. This is based on their occupation, education and income.
The National Readership Survey is used to catagorise the readers of magazines and newspapers in the UK,
and this is based on their occupation. The Head of a household will decide the social grade for the whole of
the family, kind of like a blanket effect with socio economic statuses. There are six categories of social grade
on the scale;
• A (upper middle class at 4%)
• B (middle class at 23%)
• C1 (lower middle class at 29%)
• C2 (skilled working class at 21%)
• D (working class at 15%)
• E (casual workers/old people/ people on benefits8%).
• A brand such as Waitrose will market to people who fall under A an B, as they are the people who will tend
to be able to afford to shop there. The reason why the scale doesn’t go past middle class as the people in the
upper class (super rich/royalty/old money families) is because they are such a small percentage of the
population that they are a niche market in themselves, so it will be hard for brands to market to them.
Waitrose will have a target
audience of A-B, as those are
the people who will be more
likely to afford Waitrose
prices.
Aldi will have a target audience of
c1 right the way down to E, as they
are the people who will have to
shop in Aldi as they cannot afford
to go anywhere else.

9. Lifestyle/psychographics
• Psychographic means the studying of personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. Normally, advertisers or media
producers will gather this information through questionnaires. This is done as they wan to know what type of person is
investing in their product, and from this, how to keep them happy.
• Psychographics are different to demographics, as demographic is more about a persons physical attributes, such as age,
gender, location and race. Psychographics goes deeper into he psyche of a person, telling us things such as their personality,
values and attitudes.
• The Young and Rubicam Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation is a good way of categorising psychographics. It is made
up o 7 types of character, which are all specific enough to tell you everything you need to now about a persons character.
These include, resigned, struggler, mainstreamer, aspirer, succeeder, explorer and reformer.
• An example of a mainstreamer would be a pop music fan, as they have a conformist and conventional character, they will
follow whoever or whatever is popular, for example, Taylor Swift.
The Audience for Taylor Swift’s
1989 will be made up of
mainstreamers, as she is popular
and easy to find.
The audience for Yung Lean’s
Unknown Death album will be
explorers, as Yung Lean is a lesser
known artist and is harder to find
than Taylor swift.

10. Mainstream and niche audiences.
• There are two overarching audience types, mainstream and Niche. The two audience will consume products that
are specifically aimed at them.
• For example, an example of a mainstream film with a mainstream audience would be Star Wars. Even though it
has more hardcore fans who could be considered a niche within its audience, the main audience for Star wars is
huge, it ranges from all ages, as the series spans over 40 years, it has fans who grew up watching the originals,
and then it has fans watching the prequels and the recent films. This means that the film cannot be aimed at a
small audience, as It has to please everyone.
• Adaptions of already existing material tend to have a much more niche audience, for example, the live action
adaptation of Death Note (anime) will have a very niche audience. This is because the anime itself already has a
pretty niche audience, and because not all of them will watch the live film, it means that it is another layer of
niche.
None of the dials are particularly leaning to
either side, meaning that there is not a specific
audience for Star Wars.
There aren't even dials on YouGov for Death Note,
proving that it is a much more niche film in
comparison to Star Wars.

11. Research Methods
• There are two main types of research that a producer or advertiser can do in order to find out who their audience is.
• One of these methods of research is Quantitative research. This form or research is all about numbers, through surveys and
experiments with closed questions and objective conclusions, in order for the researcher to put the numbers into statistics.
This is useful as it can tell you surface facts about your audience, for example, their gender, age and religion. These are all
things than do not require explanation or anything other than a one word answer, which makes it easy for the researcher to
put these answers into numbers in order to get a better overview of who there audience is. The main advantage of doing
quantitative research is that it is a lot faster, cheaper, and easier to organise than qualitative. Another advantage is that the
statistics are easier to count and to read, as they are just a number. The disadvantage of this type of research is that it tells you
who your audience is, but it doesn’t tell you things such as their interests, hobby's or spending habits.
• Qualitative research is the other main type of research method that a producer or advertiser can use in order to find things
out about your audience. Qualitative research is done to find out qualities of your audience after you have found out who
they are, so for example, after you have done a quantitative survey and found out that your products audience will be mostly
young girls, you will invite a bunch of young girls to do a focus group to find out how they think, their spending habits and
what their interests are. This data is subjective, and cannot be put into numbers, but it is useful for telling the researcher
about their audience. The advantages of this form of data are that you can find out so a good degree of detail what you
audience’s interest, hobby's and spending habits are. Also you meet the people who will potentially be in your audience, as
quantitative data is normally just collected through survey and censuses, whereas with qualitative you normally have to get
up close and personal with your audience. A disadvantage of qualitative data is that you cannot put it into numbers so it is
harder to collect and display in comparison to quantitative research and data.

12. Quantitative research-NRS
• There are two main companies who do research for the print media industry. These are the NRS (National Readership Survey)
and ABC (Audit bureau of Circulations).
• The NRS is a company in the UK, that is a joint venture between the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) and the
Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA). This company does audience research for print advertising in the UK. This research
covers over 250 newspapers and magazines, giving information on the nature and size of the audiences that these garner. The
NRS has a social grade that puts these audience into six categories, which all social grades. These grades are shown at the
bottom of the slide. These categories aren't based on income, but the occupation of the head of the household (even though
there aren't many typical ‘head of households’ anymore, it is just easier to take into account the occupation of the primary
earner). Whilst the categories aren't based on income, income is assumed to be higher as you go up the scale.
• The categories are often grouped into ABC1 and C2DE, as these will separate the middle from the working class. His type of
audience is much broader than just one category of the system.
• An example of one of these categories is ”A” which is the upper middle class.
These will be people who are higher up in their companies, who will typically
be making more money than the rest of the social grades. Companies with this
audience will include things such as Waitrose, John Lewis, and designer brands
such as Armani (the typically more expensive companies/brands). So basically,
these people are in this category as they will have more disposable income,
and companies who have this audience will up their prices as they know there
audience can afford their products.

13. Quantitative research- ABC
• Another company in the UK that does quantitative research for print media is the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which is a non-
profit owned and run by the media industry itself. It provides information on things such as Newspaper and magazine
circulation, (both print and digital forms) and another digital forms of print media.
• Anybody from any media company can make an ABC account I order to see the circulation figures for all areas of the print
media industry.
• The ABC is a lot more simple than the NRS (why I haven't written as much about it) as it doesn't catagorise any one or have
any complications systems in place, all it does is just count who reads or consumes a certain product.

14. Qualitative data
• Qualitative data is data that you cannot put into numbers and quantify. It can really help you get know who are on a deeper
level than through quantitative research. This for of research ill tell you things such as what they like, their hobbies, their
spending habits and who they are on a personal level. The level of detail you can go into with qualitative data is up to you, as
you can get to know absolutely everything about your audience, or choose to know just one or two specific things about
them, depending on the time and resources at your disposal.
• There are a few ways in which you can get to know your audience, including focus groups, questionnaire surveys and face-to-
face interviews. These will all be asking open questions that require a more detailed answer than a simple yes or no. this is
why you cannot put the answers into figures like you can with closed questions.
• Researchers are looking for concise answers that tells them what they want to know I a few words, this saves time for the
researchers and therefore money, as they can get through more peoples answers and record them in a more efficient manner.