Defining an Audience

Alan Smith

Quantitative Audience Research:

What is it? Quantitative Research uses numbers to collect data of basic information from a large amount of people to identify how big the audience is for a certain product. Examples of quantitative research include closed questions such as Yes/No answers and ticking boxes.

Who does it? There are two major companies when looking at the Print Media industry. NRS and ABC. The NRS or The National Readership Survey provides an estimation on the amount of readership figures print media industry receives and more so magazines and newspapers. ABC or the Audit Bureau of Circulations was designed to look at the standard of a particular business.

Why is it useful? It is useful as it can identify how big the audience is for a product and with a dynamic and changing world it is good to know how many people will want to read your product, If any. This can be helpful to the people in charge of a magazine such as PB Media as it can identify who looks at the media and therefore they will know who to target.

PB Media industries can use quantitative research by using the NRS to find out roughly how many copies they would sell if they were to do it. Also asking closed questions to the people of York college is advised as it can get a lot of reliable feedback on what could be included to the magazine.

Advantages of using this method are that it is a lot quicker method of gathering information, thus meaning more data can be collected.

Disadvantages are that the data collected may not be accurate and that I might not give you a good understanding on what people thought about the subject.

Qualitative Audience Research

What is it? Qualitative is a lot more precise than Quantitative research as this is designed to look at who that person you are targeting is and what they look like. This also looks at where their location is and how they spent their money. To gather the information open questions are used. Open questions are that of which ask for an answer with room for any answer. Such as ‘How can the magazine improve?’

What methods are there? There can be many methods behind getting the information such as the profile of the target audience, these include Focus groups, questionnaires and face to face interviews.

How do those methods work? These methods work as they have a much more detailed approach to getting answers. This is because it allows people to put their view across rather than ticking boxes. For example, Focus groups is a gathering of people of that target audience to see what they really feel about the product and how it can be improved. It can be seen as an accurate way of getting information from people as it ultimately is people bouncing ideas off each other.

PB Media industries can use focus groups when looking at qualitative research as this is the best way to use the target audience to help them. They could use other types such as questionnaires to small proportions of the college as it would take time however would be worth participating in to gather a much more valid source of feedback.

Advantages of Qualitative methods are that the responses are very detailed and relating to the actual question. The answers are also encouraging openness and wanting people to expand their thoughts.

Disadvantages are that usually few people are asked as it takes time. The results also depends on the skill set of the person asking to questions such as interviews and questionnaires.

Socio-economic status:

What does this mean? This means the social position of a person or particular family of that target audience. The NRS social grades were developed by The National Readership survey to identify the class of certain families targeted. To help identify which category the families would fit into, 3 main parts of Income, Education and occupation are assessed.

What can it tell you about an audience? This can tell you a lot about the audience as not only does this allow you to see who they actually are, this allows you to see their habits and what they are likely to spend their disposable income on.

The NRS Social grades are based on occupation and the person earning the highest income in the household is what represents them on the social class. These are in place to distinguish the difference between middle and higher class.

Advantages of the social grades are that you can categorize people into certain class and from this you can target a particular category when having a product.

Disadvantages are that it may not be an accurate way of measuring people. For example if you have a teacher on £18,000 a year you could put them in two parts of the social grading. They should be grade B however the money they receive is equal to that of an skilled manual worker.

Psychographics:

What does this mean? This looks at the way people see themselves the study of personality, values, attitudes and interests of the targeted audience. It is thought to be said that there are 7 main categories that can describe a person. Those are a Belonger, Achiever, Emulator, Socially conscious A, Socially conscious B, Balanced/ Totally integrated and needs driven.

What can it tell you about an audience? From this you can see that the categories can help you when finding out who you are targeting and find an appropriate target audience.

Advantages of knowing the 7 categories are that you can clearly identify a target audience from one of the types and from this it can be easier and quicker when advertising to product.

Disadvantages of this is that it is clearly stereotypical and not everyone will follow these patterns, Basing a product around these may result in failure as it is not guaranteed to appeal to everyone.

Belonger- These are working men and women who obey the laws and often have the biggest segment of society.

Achiever- These are competitive, goal oriented people who always seek more.

Emulator- (Or wannabe)These are the people who pretend they are rich and successful however they really are not.

Socially conscious type A & B- These are people who take pride in helping the environment and anti- materialistic view towards the planet.

Balanced/ Totally integrated- These are often a balance between the Achiever and Socially conscious. As they seek money and power, however wish to do something good with the money such as helping third world countries.

Needs Driven- These are people such as impulse buyers who shop for late deals and buy off shopping channels. These rush into everything if they can see a ‘bargain’

Don’t get confused between the two!

Geodemographics:

What does this mean? This is the idea of classifying Neighbourhoods and a study on where they live.

What can it tell you about an audience? This can tell you that the audience is part of a certain area where they all have similar if not the same income and therefore finding out about one person or family and their interests this can be used for the rest of that area.

Why is it useful to know? It is useful to know because it can save a lot of time and money on resources to ask every person of that target audience so asking a small percentage can represent the majority.

Who does this kind of research? This research is taken off the national census done by the government.

PB Media could use this type of classification when looking at their magazine as they could narrow the target audience even more by looking at which of the students have rich parents with disposable income to spend magazines such PB Media.

Advantages are that you can save time on asking everyone in your target audience as 1 person or street may represent the majority of them the product is aimed at.

Disadvantages are that again this can be seen as Stereotypical and not always the case when looking at the targeted demographic.

Age:

What does this mean? This means that targeting people from the same age group would give you a high chance of them sharing likes and dislikes.

What can it tell you about an audience? This can tell you that the audience you target has to be right as they ultimately are buying the product and advertising to the wrong generation could result in lack of sales.

Why is it useful to know? This is useful to know as if you can identify target audiences age then you can have a strong chance of selling the product and in relation to PB Media Selling the magazine.

Advantages of targeting to one age group is that they have the same interests meaning the product has a better chance of success, also having a certain type of age group can make the magazine for example a unique one.

Disadvantages of using age to distinguish the targeted demographic can be that should you choose to advertise wrong that category the product will fail as other age groups will not be interested.

Gender:

What does this mean? This means that it is an easy way to classify your product to a certain person as there are only two categories.

What can it tell you about an audience? It can tell you that women and men often have different interests and because of that the magazines tend to push the other gender out completely when advertising

Why is it useful to know? It is useful to know because when targeting to the audience chosen you do not want to get confused when looking at who the magazine is suitable for. For PB Media it should not strive for one or the other and just keep the content for both categories.

Advantages of targeting a particular gender is that it can make a lot of sales from that audience as well as in some cases from the gender it was intended to not aim for. It can be seen as a very clever way of marketing. For example the Yorkie Chocolate bar, not for girls. This makes the other gender want to buy it.

Disadvantages of targeting a certain gender is that again if poorly advertised and research not done well it could mean that the demographic will not want the product as it will not appeal to them, meaning that the segment in the market targeted will not consume the product.

Mainstream:

What does this mean? Products aimed at a popular large market that many people will notice. In relation to Print media, mainstream is seen as popular magazines and newspapers that people read such as Men’s health and Daily Mail.

What can it tell you about an audience? This can tell you that the audience is clearly following the majority and should PB Media use recent topics in the media then they may have a chance of selling copies.

Why is it useful to know? This is useful to know as when targeting an age group such as the one at York college then PB Media can use images and news that can relate to the target audience.

Advantages are that a lot of the market is available to aim the product at and can target more people. Also using aspects popular to the target audience will make them want to buy the product. For example using a recent song in the charts on a advert for your product or magazine.

Disadvantages are that with so many competitors in the market it is hard to make your product stand out from the rest meaning you may be targeting a big market however with so many other products the share of the market may be very little.

Niche:

What does this mean? A niche market is that of a small segment in the market which is targeted to a specific product.

What can it tell you about an audience? It can tell you that the audience is relatively small however has to potential to become large.

Why is it useful to know? It is useful to know because if the magazine in hand is to be a unique and independent one then it should be seen as one that has not be done before.

If PB Media consider making their magazine a Niche then it would be vital that they choose an area that has not be done and cannot be seen as copying other magazines around.

Advantages are that if you can find a USP or unique selling point you can target that small segment but have the chance to expand and become into a bigger business.

Disadvantages are that people may not see the product if not advertised well the small targeted people may not see the product.

References: Some information taken off

http://dippykitty.hubpages.com/hub/Psychographics-marketing http://ezinearticles.com/?Marketing-Psychographics---Which-One-Are-You?&id=2348586