Question 4.Who would be the audience for your media

product?

Demographics

Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location. Demographics are about the population of a region and the culture of the people there.

Marketers typically combine several variables to define a demographic profile. A demographic profile provides enough information about the typical member of this group to create a mental picture of this hypothetical aggregate

First they determine what segments or subgroups exist in the overall population & secondly to create a clear and complete picture of the characteristics of a typical member of each of segments. Once these profiles are constructed, they can be used to develop a marketing strategy and marketing plan.

Defining Audiences: The Mass Market

Media producers and institutions like to consider audiences in groups. They quickly identified that there was not just one audience or one market but that the audience can be segmented and marketed

into different ways depending on the way they have been defined.The common ways of classifying audiences are by

1. Age 2. Gender3. Race

4. Location

But there are other ways which include the following5. Income bracket/status

6. Young and Rubicam’s Four consumers7. Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles (VAL)

8. Life Matrix

A Upper middle class

Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals

B Middle class

Middle management, teachers, many ‘creatives’ e.g. graphic designers

C1 Lower middle class

Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff etc

C2 Skilled working class

Skilled workers, tradespersons( white collar)

D Working class

Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers (blue collar)

E People at lowest level of income

Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers

Young & Rubicam’s Four Consumers

Mainstreamers Make up 40% of the population. They like security and belonging to a group

Aspirers Want status and the esteem of others. Like status symbols, designer labels etc. Live of credit and cash

Succeeders People who have already got status and control.

Reformers Define themselves by their self-esteem and self-fulfilment

As the concept of class became less fashionable, advertisers started thinking about audiences in different ways. One of the best-known was devised by the advertising agency Young and Rubicam.

Values, Attitudes & Lifestyles

Ideals Self-ExpressionAchievement

VALS™ Framework High ResourcesHigh Innovation

Survivors

StriversBelievers Makers

ExperiencersAchievers

Innovators

Thinkers

Low ResourcesLow Innovation

LifeMatrix

Tribe wired Digital, free-spirited, creative young singlesFun/Atics Aspirational, fun-seeking, active young peopleDynamic Duos Hard-driving, High-involvement couplesPriority Parents Family values, activities, media strongly dominateHome Soldiers Home-centric, family-orientated, materially ambitiousRenaissance Women Active, caring, affluent, influential mumsRugged Traditionalists Traditional male values, love of outdoors

Struggling Singles High aspirations, low economic statusSettled elders Devout, older, Sedentary lifestylesFree Birds Vital, active, altruistic seniors

The latest approach to audiences targeting has grown out of the field of market research. The LifeMatrix tool, launched by MRI & RopeASW, defines ten audience categories centred around both values, attitudes & beliefs, and more fundamental, demographic audience categories.

Film Classification Definitions

Certificate Definition

Uc/U Suitable for audiences ages 4+. Should be set within a positive moral framework and offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror

PG General viewing but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. Should not disturb a child aged 8+. Parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children

12/12A No-one younger than 12 may see the film or rent/ buy the DVD. Responsibility lies with the supervising/accompanying adult.

15 No-one younger than 18 15 may see the film or rent/ buy the DVD18 No-one younger than 18 may see the film or rent/ buy the DVD.R18 To be shown only in specially licensed cinemas or supplied only in adult

licensed sex shops to adults 18+. A special and legally restricted classification primarily for explicit works of consenting sex between adults.

Who our audience will be

AGE, GENDER, RACE & LOCATION

• Each film genre has a age rating but particularly thrillers tend to be 15s and rarely 18s. After doing research into film classification definitions , our film will be aimed at 15-24 year olds because of the contents it will include such as strong language and violence although the opening to our thriller will not include the following except a mild use of violence.

In terms of gender our film will aim for both sexes but I wouldn’t say mostly male due to some of the action and the fact that two out of three of our main characters are male, the antagonist and the detective. Also looking at the questionnaires filled out during audience research the majority of the action votes came from the males to be precise. But on the otherhand it’ll appeal to females because our protagonist is a female therefore our female audience can have someone to identify with. This sort of resembles thrillers such as ‘The Departed’ which had attractive main male characters and ‘wanted’ which had an attractive main female.

• The film we are producing is British mainly because it has British location, British characters, director and culture to elaborate more on location I feel that our film will be marketed to and attract a British audience mainly the areas of London. But also it will be marketed to America too, due to Optimum Releasing the distributors we would use who have American audiences aswell as British.

• We’ve taken into account the race of the characters we would use and kept to a black British set of characters in our opening three minutes because we want to change up the original expected things you would see in a thriller film or any other film genres which usually consist of a white race predominantly with rare count of other races. Our film will include other races too but just not in the opening as we wanted to get the main characters across to the audience first.

Why they’ll be our audience

LifeMatrix, VAL & Young & Rubicam

• Judging they type of film we’ve produced and where it will be shown I think our audience will be teens to young adults who fall under the incomebracket/status of C1-E. This is mainly because of the age group we’re aiming to attract and also the main audience who will consume our thriller. The people who fall under this category will definitely have no problems when going to watch our film because it can be watched online(one place we would show it) at anytime due to the fact that most working class people work more hours than upper-class people therefore won’t have much leisure time to go watch it in the cinema. Mainstreamers make up 40% of the population and like security and belonging to a group and since Young & Rubicam's is similar to Nick Lacey’s VAL, we would class Experiencers and Makers under that 40%.

Reason for choosing Experiencers is because they are motivated by self-expression which is what our film shows and also they’re young, enthusiastic and impulsive consumers and quickly become enthusiastic about new possibilities. This comes as an advantage to us because our film is of course an independent production and Experiencers spend most of their income on a few things including entertainment and socialising which means during socialisation time they can watch our thriller film.

• Much like them are the Makers who you could say are the parents/guardians who have little interest in what lies outside the context and prefer value to luxury so buy basic products. With a little interpretation, this means they would want to watch a independent film like ours because its not to ‘out there’ and they’re looking for excitement not material things which doesn't differ much from the Survivors( formerly Strugglers) who are like the working class who have low income and low innovation and they will definitely without doubt be able to access our film a cheaper way than going to the movies which cost money.

• In the LifeMatrix categories, I think our film would target Struggling Singles, Fun/Atics and Tribe wired. The reasons I have suggested these categories in particular is because combined together there would be a set of fun-seeking, creative young singles and active singles. And due to struggling singles who have low economic status but high aspirations, our independent low budget film will be beneficial to their needs, making for a satisfied audience and in return satisfied producers/directors (myself & the rest of the group).