The document discusses research methods for understanding media audiences, including quantitative, qualitative, and demographic profiling. Quantitative research uses surveys to determine audience size while qualitative research uses focus groups and interviews to understand audience interests and needs. Demographic profiling involves analyzing audiences by age, gender, socioeconomic status, lifestyle, location, and other attributes. Understanding audience characteristics helps media companies create content that appeals to specific target audiences.

1. Critical Responses
By Shania Carter and Abygail Jones

2. The Audience!
• The audiences have a large impact on
the print industry
• They control the success or failure of a
media product
• A magazine/newspaper doesn’t depend
on the quality, it depends on it’s
audience
• There is an entire industry based on
finding out every detail about a
particular audience

3. Quantitative Research
Defining how big the audience is for a
product.
• NRS and ABC are the biggest companies
devoted to finding out figures and
audience numbers for print and digital
companies.
• A
continuous
survey
lasting
12
months, seven days a week.
• As an overview of what the NRS does:
• Asks about online behaviour/ personal
information.
• Short interviews at your own home.
Advantages?
• Get to find out how large the audience is
• Can adapt when the audience changes
• Better understanding of the audience
Disadvantages?
• A large amount of people could not take
part in the survey.
• Receive bad comments from a lot of
people.
•
How Could PB Media use this?
Contact one of the companies (NRS or ABC)
and ask them to develop an online survey or
interviews for them.

4. Qualitative Research
Used to find out the requirements, interests and
needs of individual audience members such
as their:
•
Likes
•
Dislikes
•
Salaries
•
Where they live
This information is collected using techniques such
as:
•
Focus Groups
•
Questionnaires
•
Face-to-face Interviews
Advantages?
•
From face-to-face interviews the interviewer
receives a more personal and true statement.
•
Questionnaires are quick and easy.
•
Makes it easier to meet the requirements of
the audience.
Disadvantages?
•
People could lie in their answers.
•
People might not like to be approached for
face-to-face interviews.
•
Hard to form a focus group.
•

5. Audience Profiles
Audience profiles give specific details
about different types of people buying
certain products. Including:
• Age
• Gender
• Class etc.
• Magazines such as Q use audience
profiles to sell advertising space and
present their statistics In front of their
magazine.
• Companies who appeal to similar
audience profiles often approach others.
These statistics show, on average how many
people buy this magazine, what age they
are, their readership specific and many more
facts that will help choose what goes in to the
magazine/newspaper.
•
Advantages:
•
Easier to find out the relevant information about
the audience.
•
Easier to produce products that please the
chosen audience.
•
Easier to avoid stereotypes.
Disadvantages

6. Socio-Economic Status (SES)
•
•
•
•
•
This is measuring the social position of an
individual or a family.
SES focuses on 3 categories which are:
Income
Education
Occupation

7. The NRS use 6 categories:
These are marked down as grades, starting from A
and finishing at E.
• Grade – A – Upper Middle Class (4%)
• Grade – B – Middle Class (23%)
• Grade – C1 – Lower Middle Class (29%)
• Grade – C2 – Skilled Working Class (21%)
• Grade – D – Working Class (15%)
• Grade – E – Lower Level of Subsistence (8%)
• Also, according to the NRS only 2% of the UK is
respectively upper class, whilst the rest of the
population is grouped in to ABC1 and C2DE.
• The NRS social grades were developed 50 years
ago and are now widespread across the UK.

8. NRS Social Grades
•
•
•
•
Developed by the NRS to distinguish the
differences between readers using social
classes.
Information received from this is then used
for market research.
Overall status of a household depends on
the occupation of the head of the
household.
The population is separated in to two main
social groups, one including: Upper Middle
Class, Middle Class and Lower Middle Class.
The other group includes: Skilled Working
Class, Working Class and Unemployed.

9. Lifestyle or Psychographics
There are 7 different types of categories for
Psychographics:
•Belonger – Family oriented, e.g. Iceland
advertisements.
•Achiever
–
Wants
to
achieve
more
power,
craves
success
e.g.
ASDA
advertisement.
•Emulator/Wanna be – Wants to achieve but
can’t quite get there e.g. Go Compare
advertisement.
•Socially Conscious Type A – Are very aware of
how their actions effect the world e.g. Sony’s
recycling advert.
•Socially Conscious Type B – Don’t care for how
their actions impact the world/anything e.g. The
Tango adverts.
•Balanced/Totally Integrated – People who
strive to achieve when it comes to saving the
Earth e.g. McDonalds.
•Needs Driven- People who shop/buy on
impulse – buy items they don’t really need e.g.
Any infomercial.

10. Postcode or Geodemographics
•
•
•
•
•
•
Collects information from the national
census.
Collect
knowledge
in
certain
neighbourhoods and compare how similar
some households are to others.
Important information is obtained such as:
the amount a household earns, their class
etc.
Enables advertising to the correct
audience
Also used to direct mail to certain
addresses.
Looks at retired couples, young families
and young adults

11. Age
•
•
•
Extremely important to any media product.
Uses the idea that: similar ages have similar likes
and dislikes.
Using this idea it will appeal to most of the targeted
audience – may not appeal to some.

12. •
•
•
•
•
Gender
Two main types of gender structures – male
and female
Men and women want different things
Some magazines push one gender away from
the other to make specific gender magazines
such as:
OK!
Men’s Health

13. Mainstream
•
•
•
•
Mainstream audiences tend to be larger, reading
magazines/newspapers to do with:
Chart Music
Blockbuster Films
Majority all like the same things e.g. Hollyoaks or
Eastenders.

14. Niche
•
•
•
•
These tend to be smaller groups with more specific
needs such as:
Doctor Who magazines
Kerrang Magazines
Adventure Time magazines