Critical Approaches

How Media Producers Define Audience


Audience research is extremely important to media producers. There are a variety of reasons for this. A media producer will collect research on audiences so that they can adapt their marketing and the actual end product to their intended audience. Conducting audience research can better help a media producer to understand how they need to adapt their marketing to their audience, marketing will need to be adjusted depending on different audiences because different methods work for different groups. A film targeted at an older audience will have a more mature marketing campaign designed to be more informative to them and will try to convince them in a different way than if the film had a younger audience in which case the marketing would be possibly be less informative and more eye-catching because the audience may have a smaller attention span and they will need to be constantly engaged by new things. without a media producer adapting their marketing to their targeted audience much less people of that audience would go and see the film which would result in less profit than expected since a film is tailored to that specific audience.


Audience Profiling

Audience profiling is extremely important to media producers. Before marketing their product a media producers will use audience profiling to narrow down their target audience. By identifying their target audience they can better adapt their marketing techniques to that audience to get a better result and profit. potential audiences can  be profiled in several different ways including; socio-economic status, psychographics, geodemographics, age, gender, sexual orientation, regional identity, mainstream, alternative and niche.

  - Socio-Economic Status

Socio-Economic Status is the categorisation of the different economic classes of audiences for media producers to identify. The different audiences profiled by socio-economic status generally fall into one of three categories; working class, middle class and upper class. Working class consisting of people with lower paying jobs, middle class makes up the middle ground between upper class and working class and upper class which consists of the wealthier 1% of the population all of whom are wealthy whether by birth or business profit. Audience profiling based on socio-economic status is most useful for advertising as a company selling an expensive product such as a sports car will target the advertisement at the upper class whom are generally more wealthy and would be able to afford the car. Audience profiling based on socio-economic status is however not useful when the product is a film or documentary. This is because economic status does not affect the audiences response to the advertisement. all a media producer needs is for the audience to see the advert and persuade them to go see their product. According to the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) around 97% of households in the UK own televisions so accessing a particular audience is not a significant concern when making a film or documentary.


 - Psychographics

Psychographics is a way of profiling different audiences by their personality and behavior. People with different attitudes and ways of thinking are sorted into different categories based on their characteristics. A person who is more carefree and extroverted would be sorted into a different category than someone who preferred security and was more introverted. Psychographics are for detailing what people do and explaining why they do them. By using psychographics to identify their target audience a media producer has access to larger and more detailed groups to choose from. For example if a media producer wanted to target young teens possibly just leaving home they would target either the Reformers group or the Strugglers group. This is because both groups seek their own freedom and this can be translated mostly as teens leaving home wanting to experience life on their own. 'social awareness and independent judgement' is also something common in this particular audience as well as the purchase of alcohol and junk food.


 - Geodemographics

Geodemographics are useful to media producers as they provide detailed examples of what is popular and where it is popular. For instance a producer could want to know what kind of show is popular in one country so that they can make a show that is similar in style which in theory should be more popular there than in a country where that particular style is less watched. Geodemographics are based on a region and the general wealth of the people living in that region, for instance, in a richer city in the south of England such as London may watch a show such as 'The Apprentice' more than a population based in a poorer, less densely populated region without many financial districts. By looking at data like this a media producer can determine if their product will be successful in that region. Geodemographics can help to determine if a particular genre of film is popular and successful in a certain area, such as action films being popular in one region of the U.K or a certain country and romance films being popular in another. This can help media producers to determine where they should market their product the most to get the best profit. This method of audience profiling can also be helpful when determining if a film or product will not be received well. For example, if a film has a lot of sensitive content it may be released uncut in one country but in another extensive cuts may be made for it to even be released. An example of a film received well in one country but not in another is Men In Black 3 which had no cuts necessary for its release in most countries, however for release in China 13 minutes of footage had to cut because the scenes had been deemed offensive.


 - Age

Age is a significant factor in audience profiling as people of different ages will watch vastly different things. For where a child might would watch an immature comedy show directed at children, a person in their late teens might watch a more mature film with serious content or meaning and an elderly person might watch something slower paced or even a film from their younger days. This can be based on the different interests of different aged people or even their general level of intelligence. The run time of a product will also be based on the age of the target audience, a film with a younger target audience will have a smaller run time as younger children generally have shorter attention spans whereas a film targeted at an older audience will have a longer run time as older people will generally have more patience and a longer attention span. Films and other products targeted at younger audiences will more often than not have more action and more things going and more colours with more vibrancy to keep their attention.


 - Gender

The gender of a target audience is also important when profiling different audiences. The majority of women and men will generally watch different shows and films. Shows like Sex And The City will have a majority audience of women aged 18-30. This is because the show is designed to appeal to them, they are its target audience. It appeals to them by showing what women stereotypically go through. This makes the show relatable and more appealing to its audience. Gender also applies to actual genres, where the majority of women will stereotypically watch romantic comedies or dramas men will watch action films. Identifying a target gender for a product help to determine what you need to make to appeal to that gender. Since there are both men and women across the world having either as your target audience does not mean you lose out on potential consumers. Especially since there are still some exceptions as some men will watch films or programmes that are stereotypically for women and vice versa.


 - Sexual Orientation

In the past few years there has been a large diversification in representation of non heterosexual people in media. This is because as societies attitudes have changed it becomes important for media producers to try not to offend anyone and so by including LGBTQ+ characters in the media they can show more representation of those people and appeal to a new audience. The story of a product could even change after research into an audiences sexual orientation if it is discovered that the majority and not heterosexual. An example of recent show targeted at LGBTQ+ people is Cucumber which had many gay, bisexual and transgender characters who all had their own character arcs. This shows target audience was part of the LGBTQ+ community. Many lead roles in the media are in fact Heterosexual, however in recent years this has gradually changed to show equal representation of heterosexual and homosexual people as main characters in the media. An example of a popular actor who is not heterosexual is Sir Ian Mckellen. He has landed many roles over the years even before LGBTQ+ right were a concern in society, however in more recent years he has been able to play openly gay characters, this shows how the media has changed over time to be more inclusive to non heterosexual people.

 - Regional Identity

Regional identity is important as it can help to promote a product in a certain region. For instance some regions will be more patriotic than others and by making a film or programme promoting that region or talking about it in a positive light a media producer can gain a bigger or more specific audience and make more profit. Many films have messages about 'the american dream' and will talk about the greatness of America, this can help to promote a film to America. An example of a film using regional identity to open up to a specific audience is Captain America. Captain America symbolises the ideals of the American people and implies that Americans can do anything. By having a hero from their own country and even wearing their own flag people from that region will feel proud and be more inclined to go see the film. This can however work in the opposite way as some products such as films and documentaries will show how the rest of the world views a certain region and instead of glorifying that region either show the truth or a representation of what others believe the truth of that region to be. An example of the this form of regional identity can be Team America: World Police. Team America is a representation of how some of the world sees America. This is shown in the title World Police. By using the term World Police it implies that America thinks it can just police the entire world and that it is the righteous authority on all matters. This shows hwo some of the world sees America, as a rich global superpower trying to control the world. This is further proven by the action they take in the film. Often going around the world to stop terrorists but destroying cities in the process. This also serves as a political commentary on some of the actions taken by America in the past and what the world thinks of them.

 - Mainstream/Alternative/Niche

There are trends in media such as film which if followed by a media producer can make a film likely to be more successful. This is because if people enjoy a film they will go to see films similar to it. An example of this trend is the recent rise in Marvel films. The production of Marvel films has greatly increased in recent times. This is because more people recently have been going to watch these films so media producers can see that this is a trend that people are enjoying these kinds of films currently so they can safely assume that making more of these films will result in a successful turnout. By looking at these trends in what is popular in mainstream media a media producer can find the next trend in the media and make products in that genre with the safe assumption that it will be popular and make a profit. If a media producer accurately predicts what the next trend in mainstream media will be after making their product they can use a portion of that profit to make their new product of that genre with some certainty that it will be successful and continue to make profits and  fund more of the same products.

Some media producers choose to target a different audience than the mainstream audience. They will identify a new audience by testing out their product with focus groups to see if it will garner enough of an audience to be successful. These trial periods are vital to the success of these kinds of targeted media because if trials are not done with an audience the likelihood of success will be left to chance as opposed to identifying their key audience. Testing must be done because there are no large scale trends for a media producer to follow when it comes to alternative audiences. This means that a media producer must research and discover what will work for themselves. A pilot episode of a new TV show could be shown to several small focus groups and based on their response changes may have to be made to make it more popular. Changes could include actors or even the show itself.

In some cases a media producer will aim their product at a smaller more specific audience, because of this a media producer must have an understanding of what that audience likes and dislikes and research what appeals to them. To appeal to a niche audience much research must be undertaken before producing the actual product and trial periods should happen similarly to when targeting an alternative audience. An example of this kind of audience targeting can be when a specific TV show is advertised on a specific channel where a media producer is sure that their audience will be watching. Such as showing advertisements for a science documentary on the Discovery Science channel.


How Producers Carry Out Audience Research


 - Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is a data led approach to research, focusing on what people think from a numerical and statistical aspect. An example is if you wanted to know how successful a certain kind of documentary was or wanted to know what people thought of it you would gather data on how many of these kinds of documentaries were actually successful or survey a number of people to gather statistics on what people thought of it. Quantitative research is useful for TV Drama as it gives you a realistic representation of what it is that people want to see, it is useful for TV specifically because if a show does not get high enough ratings then it will be cancelled. Quantitative research can sometimes provide less accurate results than qualitative research, this is because you are dealing with greater numbers of people which means that the results are more general than with qualitative. Forms of quantitative research can include programme ratings and box office reviews. 

 - Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is a more opinion led approach to research, in qualitative research the goal is to discover peoples opinions and the reasons for those opinions. Qualitative research is useful to media producers as it allows them to understand what their audience actually wants from their product. This is a non statistical form of research which means that the data gathered is from a small number of people as opposed to quantitative research which is based on statistics gathered from a large group of people and relies on the most popular opinion.