1. Defining an Audience
Haris Shaikh
Creative Media Production 2012
1

2. Defining an Audience
Quantitative Audience Research:
Quantitative research is research regarding numbers.
In the UK there is 2 major companies carrying out quantitative
research relating to the print industry.
Firstly is the NRS.
Second is the ABC.
Quantitative research is useful because it allows companies
to see how many people are consuming their product.
Creative Media Production 2012
2

3. Defining an Audience
Qualitative Audience Research
Qualitative research is about the audience rather than
numbers.
The aim of qualitative research is to get a better
understanding of your audience.
There are many methods of qualitative research:
• Focus groups
• Face-to-face interviews
• Questionnaires
Creative Media Production 2012
3

4. Profiling an Audience
Socio-economic status:
Socio-economic status is a way of measuring a family’s or
individuals economic and social position in relation to others.
It is based of occupation, income
and education.
It can tell you a lot about an audience.
It is useful to know as it allows you to better target your
audience.
The National Readership Survey (NRS) use six categories to
define readers of magazines and newspapers within the UK
Creative Media Production 2012
4

5. Grade
Social class
Chief Income Earner's Occupation (% of Pop. 2008)
A
upper middle class
Higher managerial, administrative or professional.
(4%)
B
middle class
Intermediate managerial, administrative or
professional (23%)
C1
lower middle class
Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial,
administrative or professional (29%)
C2
skilled working class
Skilled manual workers (21%)
D
working class
Semi and unskilled manual workers (15%)
E
Those at the lowest levels of
subsistence
Casual or lowest grade workers, pensioners and
others who depend on the welfare state for their
income (8%)
AS Media Studies 2009
5

6. Profiling an Audience
Psychographics:
Psychographics is the study of attitudes,
interests, personality and values.
The primary method of information
gathering for psychographics is through
the use of questionnaires.
The idea behind psychographics is that if you understand what type
of person is buying your product you can better suit your product to
them.
Grey Advertising company were the people to develop
psychographics.
Creative Media Production 2012
6

7. Profiling an Audience
Geodemographics:
Geodemographics is about location.
The idea behind it is that people living
in the same neighbourhoods have similar
lifestyles and spending tendencies.
This allows advertisers to make sure they are
targeting the right kind of people.
It can highlight important information such as how much money the people
in that area are likely to have.
It can also show you what kind of people are living in that particular area.
This is most useful to direct mail advertisers
Creative Media Production 2012
7

8. Profiling an Audience
Age:
Age is an important part of audience.
A lot of the time, people of similar
ages have similar interests and disinterests.
Although this is generalization and what
you are stating may not apply to everyone,
they normally apply to the majority.
An example of such statements would be ‘people in their 40’s are more
likely to have a secure job than people in their 20’s’
The vast majority of media products have a target age that they aim for.
Different media product will have different average consumer ages.
Obviously age is a very important thing as something that appeals to a 10
Creative Media Production
8
year old will probably not appeal to a 60 year2012
old.

9. Profiling an Audience
Gender:
Gender is one of the more basic
ways to define an audience.
A lot of products are targeted at a
specific gender.
The reason behind this is because men
and women have different interests and
values.
It is good for a company to know what gender their audience is so they
can make a more effective piece of media.
Often products that are clearly aimed at a specific gender tend to push
away the other
Creative Media Production 2012
9

10. Profiling an Audience
Mainstream:
Mainstream is the word used to describe
the majority, things like chart music and
blockbuster films are mainstream.
Products that are aimed at the mainstream
are targeting a large audience. It is something
that the majority of people will be aware of.
An example of a magazine aimed at the
Mainstream market would be vogue.
Creative Media Production 2012
10

11. Profiling an Audience
Niche:
Niche is basically the opposite of mainstream.
A niche audience is a lot smaller and very
specific. A media producer may target a
niche market in the hope of being able to
dominate the market and capturing a large
portion of it.
An example of a magazine aimed at a niche
market would me mixmag. It is aimed at DJ’s
and people who like Electronic Dance Music.
Creative Media Production 2012
11