1. DEFINING AN
AUDIENCE
Rachel Hewitson

2. What is an audience?
For businesses an audience is a group potential clients and customers. An audience are the people that buy and
interact with a service or product. It is important for anyone who is making a product to research about the
audience; define them so they can know what they want to buy, watch, download and take part in. This is called
audience profile and this will help them keep generating sales, keeping the business and product alive.
They can use this method to find out that age, gender, social grade, demographic, if they are in to mainstream
things or niche and geodemographic. To find out this things you can use two different way or researching.
Quantitative date and Qualitative research. Qualitative date is primary date that is used to find out reasons,
opinions and motives by carrying of surveys and focus groups. Were as Quantitative date uses numerical data or
data that can be transformed into usable statistics to find these reasons.

3. Quantitative audience research
Quantitative date is the information that can be measured and written down with numbers. When using quantitative date you are usually
analyzing raw date with the help of a spreadsheet software program like Microsoft Excel, or a statistical package like SPSS. Some example of the
date that gathered using this method are your shoes size, height and age. These are questions that the answer are 100% correct, you can’t
change the due to your feelings. This date can be carried out by different method such as:
Surveys: A detailed study of a market or geographical area to gather data on attitudes, impressions, opinions, satisfaction level this can be done
with a questionnaire that people have to fill out multiply questions and also can be do with interview but questionnaire are more popular in
gathering information.
Experiments: They generate a hypothesis that can be proved or disproved. It must been proven by mathematical and statistical means, and is the
basis around which the whole experiment is designed. A study group must be randomized and a control group is essential. Quantitative design
should only manipulate one variable at a time.
Structured data: Structured data is a simple method that allows company's to ask questions simply so they can gather the information more
easily. For example if a website asks where you live they could used structured date and give you a drop down box with list of places so its easier
for them to gather the information than letting them right there own location as lots of different people will right different answers and it will
take ages to collect the information and group it.
Statistical analysis: A statistic is a number that is derived from data, for example a mean (average). In particular, it can be very interesting to
compare statistics obtained from different but related columns or between levels of a factor. This gives an idea of the similarities or differences
between the data.
Objective conclusions: This is were you find your answers through facts and figures rather than people opinion's.

4. Advantages:
Using quantitative research allows for a broader study as it involves bigger numbers of
subjects. An advantage of quantitative research is that its more reliable as the data is
gathered in numbers and graphs it show you exactly the answer instead of showing
opinions that could be wrong or bias. It also allows them to test theories or hypotheses
that they have found to give them a view point before creating a qualitative research
project and also allows them to compare their date to similar studies as the research can
be replicated and analyzed so it allows them to summarize sources of information and
facilitate comparisons across categories over time.
Disadvantages:
A disadvantage of quantitative research is that the date is limited as they only provide
numerical descriptions rather than detailed descriptions. This can produce less
information as people can’t give their opinion to why they feel this, making it harder for
the researchers to understand their date and how they can change it. Another
disadvantage is that by giving them straight questions with no room for opinion their
answer might not reflect what they actually feel it might just be the closest match giving
them false date.
Quantitative audience research

5. Quantitative audience research
An example of quantitative research is the National Readership Survey. This company carries out surveys/audience research for
print and digital advertising such as papers, magazines and online advertising. They cover over 250 major news brands in the UK
and give information to the audiences they achieve. This allows magazine company to come on to there website and see
statistics to how what gender, age and how many people read magazines/papers every month. They can be regularly updated if
they subscribe to them.
On their website they have a page of information about the population reading magazines.
For example if a company wanted to create a women's monthly magazine they can come
onto the website and see what percentage actually reads them. They have gathered the
information and presented in a pie chart. It says in the UK 19.6 millions adults read women
magazines either in person and online, that’s 37% of adults over 15 in the UK. This then
gives the company and idea of how popular women magazines are and help them decide
whether it’s a good idea or bad.
They don’t also just give you the information they give you date that can help you increase
your sales. In a graph they have collected date that proves having a website for your
magazine adds a 104% audience reach. So by paying a monthly subscription they can help
your magazine become better and give you all the information you need.
They are partnered with Ipsos MORI that research date for them. They
have has a standing relationship for 40 years. The NRS pay this
company to research date for them so they can put all their date
together to create statistics about who and how many people are
interested in magazines and papers in the UK.

6. Qualitative audience research
Qualitative research is primary research used to to understand the underlying reasons, opinions and motivations. They
don’t just find out information they find out the reason behind it and to why people have picked that answer and helps
to provide idea and hypotheses for potential quantitative research. They use unstructured or semi structured
techniques such as focus groups, individual interviews, observations and questionnaires.
Questionnaire- a questionnaire is a set of questions used for obtaining useful information from people about thing you
want or need to know. This is done in a written or printed form with spaces below for people to write there answers.
Interviews- Interviews involve lots of key questions to help define the areas you want to know about but also allows
you to find out this information in more detail as you can talk to the person and gather more information about he
subject as they can tell specifically how they are feeling something that they might of not wrote if you did a
questionnaire.
Focus groups- it is a group discussion on a certain subject organized for research purposes. They are used for
generating information on collective views.
Observation- This deals with date that can be observed with our senses such as sight, smell, touch and hear. An
observation would be describing a quality of a thing for example who round it is or what colour it, and how hot it is
without using numbers.

7. Advantages-
An advantage of using qualitative research is that it provides depth and detail as it
looks more into the attitudes, feelings and behaviors. Another advantage is by
creating focus groups and interviews of a way of gathering information it encourages
people to expand of their response more this can open up new topics that weren't
intended. Qualitative data can be used along side quantitative date and can explain
why a responses was given so this way of research can help figure out why the
statistics are the way they are by asking people the feeling about it can help the
company change something or make better as we know exactly what to change
because we know how the people are feeling.
Disadvantage-
A disadvantage of qualitative date is that it is quite time consuming as you have to
go out and ask public questions, you need a budget to be able to create focus
groups and interviews and also pay staff to do all of this work. Another disadvantage
is that it is hard to make comparisons as lots of people give different responses that
are highly subjective.
Qualitative audience research

8. Audience Profile
An audience profile is a profile of an audience that allows company’s to gain detailed
information about there audience about there age, gender, social grade and
geodemographic This helps them decide how to sell and make there product by doing
further research into each of the areas so they can keep the audience happy and keep sales
high.
Advantages- Lots of media products reply on advertising so by gathering lots of
information on the audience is important as they can use it to target potential advertisers.
It also allows them to keep track on who they are and how they can keep them happy
through further research into there intreats through their geodemographics and social
economic status as this allows them to get a better understanding of what they are in to.
Disadvantages-
After the information is gathered they start to focus there product on this research and miss
out on optional clients due to there class, age, gender etc. This can lead to products
becoming the same because they all end up targeting them to one specific group rather
than individuals.

9. “Vogue magazine” shows a clear picture about who there
audience is. The cover uses colour such as purple and greys
and has Salena Gomez on the front cover this straight
indicates this has a large female audience involved. By
looking the audience profile for Vogue the shows that’s
81% of women's read vogue and only 19% of males read it.
This is shown in the style of the magazine as it talks about
dates and beauty tips. With the style of the magazine I
would think this was aimed foe older women as its quite
elegant and sophisticated but looking at the audience
profile it states that 36% of 16-24 year olds buy the
magazines showing that lots of young people read this
magazine. This is shown however through the price. The
English vogue magazine is £20 for 12 issues this is
reasonable priced but by looking at the profile makes
sense as young people buy it so it need to be a good price
for them. By gathering this information it allows the
company to know what to aim for in there magazine by
knowing who there audience is they can cater to them and
there interests.

10. Age
Age. It’s a staple way of categorising target audiences in our industry and always has been. It is a really good way
of understanding your audience in more depth as you can define what hobbies, interests, relationship status and
income they have just due to their age. This helps company’s create a product that will suit and satisfy that age
range in particular by targeting there product around what they enjoy and what they can afford.
Advantages-
By knowing the audiences age they can create a product that will hopefully suit there interests and also by there
age you can define if there will be in full time work so it can help the company agree a good price for the
product some suitable for that age range, for example if the age range is from 10-15 there likely to not have a
job or a source income expect from there parents so by knowing this they create a product that is a reasonable
price for them to buy. If the age range was older such as 20-25 they are likely to have a job so can base the price
higher as they can afford it.
Disadvantages-
You might not always get the product and price right for your age range as
everyone is different and people are not just the same/have similar interests
because they are the same age. So age does not always helps as people
can be a lot different then you think.

11. M magazine is an American magazine priced at $3.99 dollars that is £3.03 pounds in the UK. This
magazine is aimed at teenager aged 11-17. This magazine is clear as to who there target
audience is, young people. You can see this as the front page stands out a lot grabbing the
audience attention with lots of pictures of celebrity's such as one direction and big letters using
the words “crush” draws attention to that age group as one direction and Justin beiber are very
popular to young people and especially girls and the pictures make the teens want to look more
on the subjects of them as they are very popular and trendy.
Glamour magazine price range form £1-£2, so less expensive them the children's magazine. The
front cover is completely different to m magazine. There is only one photo and it is the whole
front cover, it is of a Alicia Keys a famous singer. You can tell straight away this is more for the
older generation such as 20+ as she is quite a older singer something people over 20 can relate
to more and listened to more as she is mature singer. Also the cover is more calming and
relaxing, there isn’t lots of photos its not busy at all, also the colour are much more subtle even
with the yellow they all work very well together this would not stand in a shop this is magazine a
person is specially looking for instead of catching your eye. This magazine has a higher level of
English as it aimed for an older generation with more detailed article talking about subject such
as skin care and makeup and fashion something kids do not have to worry about and more for
older ladies that want to know where to buy the best stuff.

12. Gender
Gender is a big part of defining an audience as both gender have very different interests in lots of
different things. By researching about the gender of your audience it helps you identify what personality,
traits and interests are that you can put into your product/service. Gender has changed over the past
decade and now you can’t always tell what people traits just because of the gender as now people identify
as gender fluid, people that does agree with gender or people that are both, so you cant always judge a
person on their traits because of the gender.
Advantages- Allows you to work off a outline of what the gender is interested in and how you can display
this in your product/service to interest them into buying it.
Disadvantage- A lot of people stereotype gender with blue and pink and that all girls like pink and boy
like blue, this can ruin a product sometimes as now a days people are not as concerned about it and are
interested in gender neutral products so by basing a product on just a certain gender sometimes might
not interest some people.

13. Gender is a very big part in how product are made these day and how the society think girls and boy should
act. Girls has the representation that they should be skinny and very girly by wearing bright colour such as pink
and purple. This is shown in the dolls that are presented to girls such as Barbie. Barbie dolls are dressed up in
certain ways like nurses and flight attendant, these jobs have been given a role that only girls can do them and
that they cannot do anything else. This is also shown in colouring books. These book have different one for
certain genders meaning they can only colour in certain things because of there gender for example girls
should draw butterfly's and love hearts and boys should draw cards and monsters because there more mainly.
This gives children an idea that girls cant be strong and boys cant be sensitive.
Lego has gender appropriate products. For the boys they can build
trucks and play with figure such as diggers, this shows the children
that boys are the hard working ones and who should go to work
compared to the girls toys were they can build castle and relax.
Colour is a big thing in gender stereotyping too as pink is indicated a
girl colour and blue for a boy.

14. Gender
Some company's have gender neutral products to stop gender stereotyping. John Lewis have brought out a new
clothing range were there are no specific clothes for a certain gender boys and girl can pick what ever they can
to buy in the section without it saying its for the opposite gender. Company's in Sweden are using the opposite
gender to represent the products that wouldn’t normally be suited for them to show kids you can play with
whatever you want.

15. Mainstream
Mainstream is what's the new trend. when one style gets old, a new one is reborn, a
mainstream person is someone who jumps from trend to trend so that they fit in with the
rest of the crowd. Mainstream is being what society thinks you should be, and look like.
Magazines and newspaper and social media platforms such as Facebook, twitter and
Instagram show what the most trending thing that week or month and what's popular to
there audience and usually the audience take up these trends as they have seen lots of
other people doing it. Trends in media normally come from fashion, music and movies.
Advantages- an advantage of having a mainstream audience is that mainstream products
are that they will have a bigger budget, a bigger pay out, a bigger audience, a better marketing
campaign, universal appeal and better franchises. Lots of people know about the current trends
so are more likely going to interested in the magazine the promoting it then a one that doesn’t
have anything relevant in it.
Disadvantages- Trends are changing all the time so keeping up with the trends can be very
time keeping and expensive. Mainstream products can become quite boring also as the
audience always know what the expect such as a princess being recused by a prince in a
film, it can become to predictable. Eventually people will start to look for something new a
different.

16. Mainstream films are films that are widely released in cinemas. They are
typically released in cinema for a short time and then commercialized to
attract customers then released in stores. Mainstreams have high
budgets which mean they can spend more on the film making it better
and bigger. This means they can cast A-actors that are sure to bring in
a audience. An example of a mainstream film is “Suicide Squad”. Suicide
squad was released in 2016 making 745.6 million USD in the box office.
This is a very mainstream film and its got everything that popular in it.
Violence, love, fantasy all things audience like to watch. This film had a
big budget with 175millon dollars there were able to cast very big
actors such as will smith and Margot robbie. With these being be a-list
actors these brought in very big audiences.
Another film is Bridget jones baby, being the third one out of the
collection this already had a big audience before it was made as people
were expecting big things since the last two films did so well. Being a
very famous classic film in the UK this could never be a niche film as it
has to much history. Sometimes a film being mainstream can ruin it as
it has to much pressure and it doesn’t turn out as well as you think and
can ruin a collection of films.

17. Niche
A niche market is the market on which a specific product is focused. The market niche defines as the product
features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and
the demographics that is intended to impact, It is also a small market segment. For example, sports channels
like STAR Sports, ESPN, STAR Cricket, and Fox Sports target a niche of sports enthusiasts. Niche in the media are
the movies that aren’t the big bloster movies they are the one that are that aren’t very popular worldwide but
popular for there audience.
Advantages-
An advantages of a niche audience is that they are very dedicated to their product as not many people know of
it only them. This means the company will want to keep that niche audience from leaving as they do not want to
become mainstream they want to keep there little audience separate and cater to there needs.
Disadvantage-
A disadvantage is that it can very hard to find a niche audience as they are very small groups and getting your
product out there to only a small targeted audience instead of the whole world can be hard. Another
disadvantage would be if the brand/person suddenly became mainstream can leave your previous audience feel
angry as they were there before everyone and now its not as special anymore as everyone knows them. For
example bands such as blossoms and catfish and bottle men were very niche bands with only a small audience
and they are very popular they have lost there touch.

18. Niche audiences are smaller but have specific interests. Some niche films include
“me and earl and the dying girl” and “the squid and the whale”. These film I
would class as niche as they do not have very big audience and box offices
figures. “me and earl and the dying girl” I would class as a indie film as it is filmed
very different to a standard film. It has weird long shots that are quite trippy and
unusual, its also quite a slow film; a film were you have to appreciate every little
bit. The audience its at would be targeted at the indie genre, it would not be a
mainstream film as it does not have the classic stereotypes like love interests or
action, they do not follow a set pattern making them more unique as they do not
reply on other films of there genre so it only benefit the small group. A good
thing about niche films is that they can talk about unconfutable subject that big
films don’t want to get involved with such as in this film it is about cancer and
how it really effect them and everyone around them. It has no love story just
what real life is really like. The way niche advertise there products also is different
to mainstream as they poster are much different and stand out compared to the
mainstream ones that are quite generic and boring.
There are also niche music bands such as blossoms and new hope club. Although
some of these bands start out as niche but turn into mainstream for example
blossoms was small with a specific audience but as time went on they were
invited to bigger events and now have a much bigger audience that they have
lost the touch with the old audience and have become like everyone else, this
can make the smaller audience quite angary as they feel like they support
doesn’t matter anymore.

19. Geodemographics
Geodemographics is the study of the population and its characteristics, divided according to regions on a geographical basis.
This involves techniques to group statistically similar neighbourhood and areas, this means grouping people based on there
income, age, location, job, class and sometimes race. This helps company's understand better about where to target there
product.
Advantages-
By knowing where the audience lives and what group there in allows the company to base the product correctly to the right
audience. By knowing a groups income allows them to put a reasonable price on the product so they can afford it and also by
knowing how big there family for example how many kids they a make an guess of the type of the product they will be buying
compared to people living alone.
Disadvantages-
You cannot confirm that the product will be a hit and that people are going to like. It is not a certain method that you can use
its just there to help indicate the type of the product they will like but it cant assure you that they will feel like that
towards your product.

20. A way of find the geodemographics of a certain area or age group is via website called “CAMEO UK”. This
website has research form 40 countries of peoples wealth, health, incomes, types of houses, age, class and
education. This brand helps company's be able to identify who there audience is and where to place a product
and where it would be more suited in different places.
You do this by going onto the website and registering, from there you can see the different aspects of people
there from their location. You can click more detail to see statistics of the income and education. Now company's
can see how much people make or if they are well educated and decide if there product is right for them, for
example a waitsrosé would not be suited in that areas because the locals have a quite low income so that would
not be suited for them as the prices are high but instead lidle would be appropriate and better for them.

21. Social economic status can be determined by the National Readership Survey. The NRS is a non profit but
commercial survey that monitors and analyses estimates on the number of people who read Britain's newspaper
and magazines. There provide a social grade that is made up of 6 different categories. This helps company
classify the social classes especially those who are in the advertising media in the UK.
Socio-economic status

22. Socio-economic status
Socioeconomic status is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of
an individual's or family's economic relation to others. This is based on income, education, and occupation. Magazines
and newspapers use this method to help write there articles for the right audience. For example if they wanted to
make a magazine for the lower class they would usually use a lower level of English so they can relate more as there
education will be basic, these magazines would be soap magazines etc. Newspaper such as the Huffington post would
use a high level of English as there audience would be more educated and satfisticated.
Advantages-
An advantage of measuring an individuals economic or social position helps a company determine how they can base
there product for the right audience, by knowing their class they can figure out how much money they make
averagely. This can help a company know how much to price there product. By selling a product at a lower price they
are able to sell more of the product to a ow income community but if they wanted to sell it a high price they are more
likely to get more sales if they promoted to a higher class.
Disadvantages-
By separating the audience by income and class you are restricting products from certain people, this can give a bad
image to a brand. Also you are leaving out potential buyers that might still want to buy the product but cant because
they are not in the right group. Just because research says more people in that areas are high class and you make
your product suited for them it doesn’t guarantee they are going to buy it, lower class people might turn out to like it
more but cant because of the price.

23. Dior eyeshadow- £43.50
Dior is a very popular brand/company that sells women's makeup, fragrance, skin care etc.
Dior has its own website with their own products. As it is quite expensive most of the
customer are higher class and also celebrity's and well known people use this brand so
celebrity endorsement encourages people to buy the product as gives the brand a high
end appeal and attracts a high class crowd from C1 to A-lower middle class to high class .
The advertising for the product has a lot of effort and time in give the product a classy
and elegant look to attract the right audience and let them know this is a good quality
brand and not tatty and cheap.
This is much different to Tanya burr collection. You can tell straight away known the brand
isn’t as popular and successful as she only has a collection in Superdrug. This is still very
good but as her main job is a social media star this was something extra on the side. Her
audience are young people form as little as 7 to 25. This means her audience income is
not going to be a set amount as most of them will not have jobs and be in education.
They are mostly likely to be in the C2 to E lower class to unskilled workers, this means she
will have to price her product quite low for the audience to buy them therefore the
product aren’t as well made and advertised but do have a better price that will attract
more people as price is better than quality for a lot of young people. A product that she
sells is Tanya burr blusher/eyeshadow- £7.49/£6.24 per 10g. This is a dramatic difference
of £36 and people might use the difference to spend on more stuff from the range
getting more for their money.