How media producers define their target Audience

I will be describing the different ways in which researchers measure the audience that are listening/watching to what they are interesting and finding the different groups of people who are interested in the product which then gives them the opportunity to decide which demographic to advertise to i.e magazines, tv adverts & billboards etc. These different techniques are used to define the audience they want to put it forward to. Quantitative Research This research technique users figures only asking the respondant very blunt questions usually just requiring a yes or no response forwarded to people by surveys across a broad group of people, also done by knocking on peoples doors. This sometimes does not come across well to the respondents as they find the surveys and dull way of doing it un interesting so will pay little attention to there response simply completing it quickly. The findings show a summary of what these people agree to but the questions can be adjusted to fit the purpose in turn can work if the questions are written well the information you need can be obtained through yes or no questions. An upside of doing this research technique is that you can get a broad response because of the amount of people it can be put forward to and is quick to respond. Qualitative Research On the other hand Qualitative research allows the respondent to give much broader options as the questions are more open allowing space for an answer in detail which allows the company to take in comments, advice & ideas which other people might have giving room for improvement constantly. The people that are picked to do these sort of questionnaires have an incentive to respond to the questions often asked in a controlled environment and do not feel intimidated to answer the questions as some might do in the Quantitative questionnaires. The only problem is controlling the data once it has been obtained, trying to put the research together can seem messy as all the answers can be subjective and are unspecific Socio-economic status The way in which this research technique is justified is through hierarchal ranking, depending on the sort of job you have, age, and education. This can be used by designer brand companys because they will not be aiming at the section E as they will not be able to afford the items they are trying to sell so justifies the group in which they should be aiming at but it depends on the product with some it might not be relevant because someone cannot be judged by there occupation which can be confusing for the researcher.

Psychographics This is a more personal way of understanding the way in how a person thinks, this trys to look at persons motivation to do something, different people have different thought processes to do something, which impacts there interests, self expression section would be an artist or someone who gets involved in sports so they are more upbeat and have to express themselves which is the middle section along with achievement and ideals.

These are the middle points of the way it is measured which can be made relevant to business. The extreme ends of the scale is at the top Innovators who are those whoa re constantly looking for something new and better, striving to achieve the new and best for example apple whoa re constantly bringing out newer and better products. Compared to the bottom of the scale, which is survivors who are those who just do what they need to do to get by and dont have much motivation to achieve. The way of a advertisement appealing to a wide variety of these is by having something which is abstract and out there so it appeals to them all, by having something new and fresh but still using something which is recognised previously just made better. As a company you would be trying to appeal to each of these catergories which is what I will be trying to do, it would be thought that the surviviors wouldnt be a audience that you aim for but in this media genre you are trying to appeal to as many groups of people as possible. Geo-Demographics This is research genre is done by the area in which the audience live the company will decide whether the area is somewhere in which they would like to promote there product, justified by how much the people in that area earn on a average. For example a company would want to promote there product in London because of it being renound for having money compared to somewhere small like Tilehurst as they would not

waste there money putting there advertising into something which isnt going to get them the money back in return from people buying the product this can cause problems as a large section of the audience who want to get the item are missed because there area doesnt meet the standard of the company. For what I am going to be doing this isnt a techniqu e I would use as the item I am making is going in a magazine so that will make its way across a lot of different locations through the magazines distributor so unless I was to decide to put posters around the place would this be relevant. Demographics The demographic is the simplest yet broadest because covering a whole sex or a different age group covers a whole other research categories by doing so can be used to cover a large scale of people but then this does cause problems when you can waste your time trying to impress one group of people who may not be interested at all. As the product is a T-shirt it can be advertised to both females and males depending on whether you want to open your target audience to females but it seems to be a fashion tat girls wear boys clothes so they may still buy the product if it is put forward to the right group of people. Young people care a lot about the way they are dressed so they are a audience that you want to appeal to yet at the same time you dont want it to be the only audience so you have to make the product sophisticated and mature finding the line is the difficult thing. The way that it would be measured is ages 14-17, 18-24, 25-40 & Pensioner but all ages really need to be aimed at as the young are the new generation and if a craze blows up with the youths then sales will increase as everyone will want the item. Demographic is something that I will be looking at when it comes to deciding on how to advertise my product. Size The company will be wanting to create something alternative which is different and the aim is to make it mainstream which means it will increase in sales because it is something idolised by the public but the problem with becoming mainstream is that it often has its moment of fame then dies out which is not what is wanted you want to keep consistent which appeals to a wide selection of groups, looking at what is mainstream at that point along with other brands and there way of advertising and seeing how that is impacting there sales is the way in which I would look at what is in the market. This will be a way which I will be looking to when promoting my product as in fashion it is very relevant to know what other companys are doing and use the ideas which work and learn from the ones which dont.