Unit
6 Critical Approaches to Creative Media Products
Task 1
Safa Radwan
In this article, I will be writing about how media defines their audience,
and create products specific to their target market.
Defining
Audiences
Quantitative
Quantitative audience research is a type of research that uses numbers
and tangible data to give research. This method of gathering research prefers
quantity over quality.
·
BARB
Stands for broadcaster’s audience research board. It
is used to generate market research for companies like BBC, ITV, and Channel 4.
·
RAJAR
Radio Joint Audience Research. This does the same
work as BARB – provide quantitative research for companies, however this one is
for radio companies, then TV.
·
ABC
Audit Bureau of Circulations. Non-profit
organisation owned by the media industry. They set industry agreed standards
for media brand measurement, through prints, internet, and events.
Qualitative
Qualitative audience research asks specific questions to their
audience, (like surveys) so they prefer quality over quantity.
·
Focus groups
This is when a group of marketers, gather their
ideal target market into a small group, to allow them to provide feedback on
their product. This helpful because they get valuable feedback straight from their
audience.
·
Questionnaires
Includes a range of questions, and allows for
multiple answers, and are able to go into detail about what they like and
dislike.
·
Face-to-face interviews
A data collection method that allows the interviewer
to directly speak with one of their target audience. This can be good, because
the interviewer can go into depth, and the interviewee can give them their full
attention.
Audience Profiling
This is the process of finding out who your audience are, through
qualitative or quantitative research. The purpose of this is, through
understanding who your audience are, their socio-economic status, where they
live, their age, gender, sexuality, religion, etc., will allow you to more
effectively market towards them, and cater your product/service to their wants.
I will be going through factors used to profile these audiences;
Socio-economic status.
A person’s socio-economic status (SES), is defined by how much money
they earn, their education and occupation. In 2011, the UK office for National
Statistics created a social grading system, that put people into an algorithm.
Compared to the one released in 2001, which had 6 categories, this one was
simplified to 4;
·
Grade: AB
Highest grade. Includes intermediate managerial, professional &
administrative occupations. Makes up 22.17% of the UK population.
·
Grade: C1
Occupations that are supervisory, clerical & junior management.
30.84% of our population.
·
Grade: C2
Skilled manual occupations. 20.94%
·
Grade: DE
Semi-skilled & unskilled manual occupations, Unemployed and lowest
grade occupations. 26.05%
Psycho-graphics.
Falls under qualitative research. Pyscho-graphics is about researching
the specific personality of the audience, what their interests are, hobbies,
and general lifestyle.
For example, demographics may explain who buys your product/service,
while pyscho-graphics will explain the psychology of WHY they are buying it.
Geodemographic.
Based on area they live in. It is used to group an audience together
based on where they live. Examples of area-based marketing, are with Coco-Cola.
One third of their vending machines are hooked up to the internet. This gives
statistical results and data from people who buy products from their machines.
This data tells the company which machines are the busiest, and what drinks are
selling the most. (source: https://newgrove.com/clever-examples-of-location-based-marketing-in-action/ )
Age.
Depending on how old or young the audience are, they will have a
different approach to products and services. Their wants and needs will change
drastically.
Gender.
Another determining factor, for how audience approach their products
are defined by gender, for example, IPhone has a popular rose gold colour they
use on their phones, IPad, and other devices, that is very popular with woman.
They know that this colour is mostly used by women, however they do not
exclusively market it towards women, because surprisingly number of men buy and
use rose gold products. (This could be because Apple is a very mainstream
brand, and are almost universally used by everyone, regardless of gender).
Other products are marketed exclusively for one gender, because of
their wants and needs. Like razor blades, are marketed towards men, because if
they tried to market towards both genders, they would lose money, as well as it
being unnecessary, since women do not normally buy razor blades for themselves.
Sexual orientation.
This is one of the least used factors in defining a market audience. However,
it is starting to become used more as of recent years. Ways this is used, is
through games and media. When there are LGBT characters in popular mediums –
like Soldier 76 confirmed as being homosexual, this can boost sales, as LGBT
people like characters to identify with. However, this can also backfire. As
subjects including LGBT content are still, despite being more excepted in
recent times, a controversial subject, it can put off some audience members. Of
course, it works the other way around too – in 2010 Chick-file-A’s CFO was
reported to donate money to anti-LGBT organisations, (source: https://www.businessinsider.com/chick-fil-a-lgbt-twitter-jack-dorsey-apology-marriage-equality-2018-6?r=US&IR=T ) and choose to
boycott them.
Regional identity.
Regional identity, meaning the different regions someone comes from,
for example in the UK, there are different regions, and people associated with
them, like Londoners, Scousers for people from Liverpool, Geordies for people
in Newcastle.
Depending on a person’s regional identity, different products will be
catered towards them.
Mainstream.
The audience that most companies try to cater to. Examples of
mainstream media, are shows like Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones.
Although these don’t appeal to every single person, they have enough wide
stream appeal to be able to target their shows towards most people. Marketing
towards the mainstream can be difficult, if you’re not already a big company,
however if you are successful, it can be extremely profitable.
Alternative.
Away from the mainstream, alternative is like the second choice. The
Windows to Apple, the Pepsi to the Coke. Although it is not as popular, these
kinds of things are chosen because they are either cheaper, or easier to
obtain, and that is usually how these companies advertise with alternative
media – because they can’t compete with the top dogs, they have to have their
own unique selling point, an alternative reason to buy.
Niche.
Marketing to a niche audience is very different from the other two – a
niche involves a small specific community. It can be useful for small
companies, because they have no chance competing with already established
business, that have lots of competitors already. Although marketing to a
smaller audience can mean less money, they have a bigger chance of succeeding,
especially if they are already in that niche, it can help a lot. For example, someone
making merchandise for a show they like – although the market for people who
want to buy merchandise who also watch the show, can be quite small, it can be
better than trying to appeal to general subjects like flowers, and trying to
sell generically pretty flowers, as the market is already saturated.
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