2. Defining an Audience
Quantitative research is in the form of number/statistics.
Creative Media Production 2012
Quantitative research is in a form of numbers/statistics. It is about knowing how big your audience is for a product. It their for
you to ask people/the audience opinions to produce facts and statistics to guide you when come to making or selling your
product.
Quantitative research tells you, is there a market for your product, are people aware of your product, how many people are
interested, what type of people are your best customer and better to aim at as well as their buying habits and how the target
market is changing.
There are 2 major companies in the UK for this.
NRS (National Readership Survey) established in 1956, is a form of audience research that covers 250 of Britain's major
newspapers and magazines, showing the size and nature of the audiences they achieve and also provide socio-economic
breakdowns of audiences. In a dynamic changing digital media age, the NRS was introduced to provide a unique measure
of combined print and online audiences.
http://www.nrs.co.uk/purpose/
ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations)http://www.abc.org.uk/About-us/Who-we-are/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audit_Bureau_of_Circulations_(UK)
Bring the industry together to agree measurements and process reporting standards to define what counts and best
practise. Reporting standards are evolving to keep the pace with industry developments.
Its there to manage and uphold standards which reflect media industry needs. They produce figures on audience numbers
for both print and digital formats.
This type of research is useful because it lets you know what the audience wants and needs and their opinions on your
product or service. Without an audience your product would fail and this lets you know what you need to do to gain an
audience or gain a wider audience. It lets your also defines whether people are aware of your product, who’s interested and
the best customers for your product/service.
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3. Defining an Audience
Qualitative Audience Research
Qualitative research lets you get a better in depth understanding of your audiences.
This research technique helps you find how many readers or users you have as well as breaking down in who they are, what
they like, what they don’t, where they live as well as there income etc..
There are many different methods to gather this informationFocus groups
Questionnaires
Face to face interviews
This is also useful for the reader/user as it enables them to express how they feel about the product, which will enable you to
improve your product from the response of the customers
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4. Profiling an Audience
Social economical status can be defined through what status your household falls in to. They
are categorized with letters and numbers, meaning the higher the letter the higher the class.
This can be shown because if a house is in the (A) class, then they are much higher then
say, a (C2) classified household. An (A) status is an upper middle class, which would mean
that a member of the family would be very high in a company, such as a manager,
administrator, or a professional. This is stereotypically people who have degrees, or a trained
profession. A (C2) status is a skilled working class. This shows that the highest member of
the family is a skilled manual worker. An example of this is a senior care assistant, and often
pay around £15,000 a year. The status of a household can therefore be determined by what
job a person has, and how much they earn in a year.
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5. Profiling an Audience
Creative Media Production 2012
A specific geographic area often shares a specific status class. This means that a certain
village or area of a city will home a certain type of people. So an area can be determined as
an A, B, C1, C2, D or E statues based area. This can be helpful in the print industry because
it allows a researcher to define what class of people are buying their product. This can
determined what vocabulary a magazine uses, and how they layout the print. This means
that if the main purchaser of a magazine or form of print is an A class buyer, they will
stereotypically use more complex vocabulary and would want a more basic layout with more
written information and text in. The opposite of this is that if a buyer is an E class status then
they will stereotypically want basic vocabulary with not as much text. Additional examples to
support your points. Psychographics shows what type of person is buying the product
through a list of assessed aspects that consist of: Personality, values, attitudes, interests and
lifestyles. This is gathered through a series of questions that put the person in to one of
seven categories. Each category describes a different type of person. Bit of background
information here. Advantages and disadvantages. The seven categories are Reigned,
Struggler, Mainstreamer, Aspirer, Succeeder, Explorer, and reformer. Each category has a
stereotypically age range which falls in to it. For example, a reformer is usually a pupil in
higher education, whereas an explorer is a younger student. Resigned is often looked at as
only being an older or elderly person. This makes it possible to find out what the reader of the
print’s opinions are on topics, determining what content they will put in the magazine and
what opinions the print will share. This will allow them to put opinions in the text which the
reader shares and therefore make the reader feel like they are on the same wavelength as5
the print, meaning they will come back to the print week after week, building a strong client
bond with the company.
6. Profiling an Audience
Creative Media Production 2012
Geodemographics are based on the national census. They look at whereabouts the best place to sell a product is. It does
this by looking at what kind of people live in specific areas. They will look at how wealthy an area is, determining weather the
price is suitable for this set of people, meaning they can see weather people in these area’s would be able to afford it or not.
Geodemographics states that there are usually groups of people with similar income, and similar lifestyles living in the same
area. This means that the people in an area will either be able to afford it or will not have a high enough income. This gives
the company a good idea of whereabouts they should advertise their product, so that they do not waste money advertising in
an area which has not got a lot of people who could afford the product in. Geodemographics also give a rough idea of what
age the people are who live in certain areas are. Such as there being a lot of young student aged people living in somewhere
near a university, or a lot of older people living in an area where there is a retirement home. An example of this is is that they
would not advertise nuts magazine in a retirement home due to the fact that the target audience is not pensioners. This
method is not very useful if the print marketer is part of a very large company, due to the fact their name will already be
known and they will not need to choose what area’s to advertise because the people who know about it will already know
where it is available.
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7. Profiling an Audience
Age:
Creative Media Production 2012
Age is important when clarifying audiences as most media products often have a target age that they aim
for. Making products that are more age appropriate for the audience and finding where's best to put
advertising, as similar age groups often have the same likes and dislikes. Such as children tend to watch
the same programmes which have their own magazines, an example would be that kids tend to buy
magazines for the cheap toy inside it. Age can also tell producers what kind of lifestyle certain people
would have. Such as; 20 year olds are more likely to live at home or rent somewhere rather than people in
their 30’s due to the fact that people of that age group don’t tend to still be living at home.
It would also be useful finding existing products that are directed at a similar age group and seeing why
this product is working for that particular age group.
Age will also figure out what language you would use. Such as, for children you would need to use
language that they would understand with basic words that are clear and easy to read using a simple font.
Age groups are split up in to different categories due to their interests. One age group will tend to read
something involving a topic that is more appropriate for their age. For example, Miley Cyrus. People in
there 60s may know of her but not be interested in her, whereas children and young adults will due to the
fact that they have grown up watching her etc.
When it comes to magazines/newpapers, young adults are more into their gadgets and would most likely
prefer their magazines uploaded onto their smart phone or tablet etc whereas the older generation haven’t
grown up around technology as much so are most likely to purchase the magazine/newspaper from the
store itself, or subscibe so that it could be delivered to their home
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8. Profiling an Audience
Gender:
Examples of different gender magazines:
Men's magazine
Model icons,
women’s fashions
and accessories.
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Woman’s magazine
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Gender is key when it comes to the style of the product from packaging, advertising and the actual product itself whether
its for mal, female or both. If it was for a woman's magazine when it comes to adverts in the magazine you’d want
something that would appeal to them such as makeup, clothes, accessories etc.. Then if it was a men's magazine. If it was
aimed for both the use of advertising and layout of the product must be done in a way that would appeal to both such as
the colours used in the product. Most magazines would only aim for one gender.
Magazines that don’t are home magazines and vacation magazines.
Gender lets you get a stereotype of the audience which can be useful for when making the product but doesn’t give away
too many details. Although it doesn’t give you many details unlike age, its one of the most important one to include for your
audience as many magazines are aimed to one gender.
9. Profiling an Audience
Mainstream and Niche are two different categories in which an audience can be divided too.
A mainstream audience is often a very large audience that follow trends and like well-known
items such as pop music such as Miley Cyrus or Katy Perry.
An example of a mainstream for of print would be a national paper such as the sun. This is
because it aims to target a very large audience nationally.
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10. Profiling an Audience
Niche:
Creative Media Production 2012
What does this mean? Niche prints have a small target audience who have very specific
similar interests. This means that the audience will not be spread out throughout a large
group of people, but instead, focused on a smaller audience with unique tastes. This means
the print may not be as well known as a mainstream magazine or paper, but it will satisfy its
audience more then a large form of mainstream print. This is useful to the print industry due
to the fact that it allows a printer to choose what kind of audience they want to focus their
print on. This research can be collected through polls.
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