PLANNING AUDIENCE RESEARCH

12/11/14 | PLANNING | HOW BRANDS TARGET AUDIENCES

Today I began to research how brands target certain audiences. This is all to prepare for creating my own audience profile for my GCSE Production. In addition to my audience profile I need to make a structured plan which further researches my audience.


Distributing my film includes many factors so I will need to develop an effective way to market my movie. This includes using forms of social media, for example creating a Facebook page and Twitter account. This enables me to promote and connect to the target audience. I will need multiple marketing strategies in order to make it more effective. For further investigation after my audience profile, I will also research why my target audience enjoys and does certain leisure activities. I need to discover what they like and how to make my film more attractive to them.

My Target Audience: Erica

1.     Who is my primary target audience? 

British, men and women, 15-30+, who love horror and thriller films, TV dramas and psychological thrillers.

2.     What makes my film stand out from the competition? 

My film is about a mentally corrupt young child, suffering from multiple personality disorder (MPS) and consequently murders two older girls.

3.     Why should my audience watch my film?

Empire magazine says: “Absolutely astonishing! A definite must-see movie! The most intriguing and engaging film since Se7en.”

Developing a thorough understanding of my audience is essential. GEARS is an acronym which allows us to define an audience:

Ø  Gender

Ø  Ethnicity

Ø  Age

Ø  Region / nationality

Ø  Socio-economic group

I consulted the Bauer Media website to confirm that all products, including mass media products, have individual clear, defined audiences. 

 Here are some examples from the Bauer Media website:

These examples are all magazines and my audience is likely to consume other forms of media too, such as radio or television. When I am marketing my film I want to make is as accessible as possible to my audience. 

My target audience utilises the internet to gain more information on film releases. For example, my friends and I (who fit into my target audience bracket) find out more about new films by accessing: imDB; twitter; instagram; facebook; iTunes movie trailers and cinema websites, such as Odeon. 

As most media marketing is very visual, I decided to research radio. Kiss FM is a suitable media platform as “KISS 100 continues to successfully hit the mark with its young London target audience, reaching more 15-34s than any radio station in London.” This fits perfectly with my target audience.

I also decided to look at iTunes movie trailers as this displayed the films which are available and popular:

According to Maslowe's Hierarchy of Needs, audience behaviour is split into different levels. Each level displays a difference in the needs of the audience.

 Maslowe’s Hierarchy of Needs:

Audience behaviour is divided into models. There are several models, passive and active are two which construct audiences in contrasting ways. The Media Effects model (or hypodermic syringe model) is the passive model. This is where audiences are very easily influenced by the media they consume; therefore, constructing the audience as passive. Whereas an active audience has more say in the media they are consuming and make active choices. 

The Uses and Gratifications model display these four needs:

Ø  Entertainment/ escapism/ distraction 

Ø  Seeking information/ surveillance 

Ø  personal identity/ support of our world view

Ø  social relationships (on screen and off screen)

  
Socio-economic bands:
Socio-economic bands also define the audience. I discovered this: