Joanne Perry

Explain what the main target audience grouping are and explain what
design features and conventions are used to engage each group
The success of all media products is depended on them understanding their
target audience. If a media product does not have a clear target audience, it
cannot survive. There are a variety of target audiences which have been
separated in order for media products to be divided into the specific groupings. It
is so hard to group target audiences due to peoples different personalities and
interests as no specific group of people are the same. An example is youth. Youth
often have their own spending power and are looking to find their identity in a
product in order to clarify who they are, as well as make them seem more
mature. Youth magazines are created with these conventions in order to appeal
this age group and increase the popularity of their product if it fits the criteria of
maturity and identification. Media products can do this in various ways; an
example of this would be, having older people as the face for the magazine. I
could do this within creating my website by creating images of young women in
order to represent anorexia and how they have beat it. This will ensure that the
target audience for my website will feel more secure and older as it is a common
illness which they will feel more comfortable with, knowing that others have
been through the same and even someone older than them too.
Moreover, people try and group members of society because of their age,
gender, social class, nationality and more. All of these things are flawed. This is
due to no two individuals are the same. Even if two individuals are the same
gender, age etc. The key concept is individual as this defines a person to be of
their own kind. They may have a passion for things which other people hate.
Some new theories have recently emerged in order to try and make target
audience groups more clear and helpful as it is still hard to specifically define the
target audience to always be correct.
Burton is a media theorist and has argued that personality and out look are more
important within the target audience. Other media professionals have also
looked at attitude and outlook and tried to define their target audience as
strivers, survivors, makers etc. Attitude and outlook can still vary however
dependent on how a person has been brought up and is therefore still seen as
difficult. Another professional, The Times have had various attempts to group
age through attitude rather than numbers e.g. mid youth, young youth etc. I
have used this in order to define my own target audiences with verisimilitude
concepts of media professionals opinions. On the other hand, letter and number
codes have also been applied as money is seen as more important than social
class.
I have listed the main target audience groupings which are used by media
specialists to create their products and appeal to these specific audiences:
Children are a target audience who have no spending power of their own and
therefore in some elements, you have to appeal to both the children and the

parents. Pester power can be used as a recognised technique and is most

successful when the product has been made to be a must have for the child.
Youth ranges from pre-teen to older teens about 11 16. The interests of youth
tend to lie in various groups such as fashion, leisure pursuits and products which
create an idea of personal identity. This helps the youth to discover who they are
and who they want to be. At the specific age, they are unsure of how their life is
going to go, therefore need a boost of self esteem in order to encourage them to
discover their own identity and find their path.
Young youth is the pre-teen and teen market. This is the age when the young
youth are still dependant on their parents but have slight more personal
spending power. They like to confirm how old and mature they are, therefore the
product is best suited by offering them a product that shows their maturity. An
example of this would be a fashion magazine. Fashion enables them to fit in with
their peers and give them self expression in identifying who they are through
their fashion. They will also receive social position through being up to date
with the latest fashion trends.
Mid youth is the more traditionally based youth age group varying from teens to
twenties. This is the age where they have more financial independence and
limited financial responsibility. This is the age they identify themselves and what
they want to be. Moreover, their main important issues include fun, fashion, sex,
style, technology and more. The inbetweeners is the perfect example of a media
product that suits this age group. It has all of the above features and is
immature, to identify the age group as still being quite young and still easily can
make mistakes; but explicit to appeal to this target audience in the sense that
they are able to have an open mind to new explicit content which they have not
been able to access before. They can identify themselves in the show due to age
appeal.
Older youth is twenties and onwards who can be appealed to by an idea of
extended youth culture. They are wealthier and have more financial
responsibilities, however, they may still wish to spend their money on the more
fun side of life. An older youth audience do not need to be reminded of their
age whereas a young youth like a product which shows maturity. Often, older
youth like to prove that they are still young at heart.
Adults are more of a frame of mind than an age group. Adults like their products
to be more functional and efficient than show maturity or be fun. They also focus
on elements of the product to show responsibility, economy etc.
Older adults is an overlooked group. Some have large incomes with more
marketing making them realise that they are a largely untapped group. The
broadness of the age range needs to be focused more on, rather than its
limitations. Teen products for example, are aimed at children, youth and adults.
Each age group gets a different gratification from the text.