Defining the Audience

Defining the Audience:

-Rather than seeing audiences as masses or in simple numerical terms, it is common practice to find ways of segmenting the audience
-This segmentation can be achieved both by demographics and psychographics
-Mass produced - made for the mass of the people - there is a downside to this, of course, in that it can also be interpreted as 'commercial' and 'trashy'
-Niche - a small target audience that is highly specific
-Alternative - outside of the mainstream - going against dominant ideology includes minority groups, perhaps with subversive values

Demographic Segmentation:

-This is where an audience is segmented according to various significant social criteria e.g. gender, class, race and sexuality
-We looked at the demographics of our target audience, however this has proved difficult as our main demographic is at school
-We solved this by turning to social media to reach a wider range of demographics and hear their views as well

Psychographic Segmentation:

-Also known as lifestyle profiling
-Combines a psychological profile of the consumer, with ideas about how they conducted their life in the market-place
-The various attitudes, values, beliefs and 'lifestyle' choices are sorted into a number of distinctive categories which are used to predict consumption - VALS, the Value Attitudes and Lifestyles classification system is probably the best known of the psychographic profiling systems

Teenage VALS:

-Trendies - they crave the attention and admiration of their peers
-Puritans - who wish to feel virtuous
-Innovators - who wish to make their mark
-Rebels - who wish to remake the world in their own image
-Groupies - who just want to be accepted
-Drifters - who are not sure what they want
-Drop-Outs - who shun commitment of any kind
-Traditionalists - who want things to stay as they are
-Utopians - who want the world to be a better place
-Cynics - who have to have something to complain about
-Cowboys - who want easy money