1.2.1

Audiences

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Categorising Audiences

Understanding how producers select and target audiences, as well as how audiences may react to the product is important when constructing a product.

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The categories

  • Audiences can be defined by using two categories:
    • Demographics.
    • Psychographics.
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Demographics

  • Demographics refers to the physical characteristics of a person.
    • E.g. age, gender, ethnicity, geographical location and social class.
  • People grading is a method used to categorise audiences by social class. Based on the following grading scale, upper middle class people are grade A etc.
  • This can be helpful when thinking about the budget an audience might have for the product.
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People grading

  • A - Upper Middle Class
    • Higher managerial, administrative or professional job employment.
  • B - Middle Class
    • Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional job employment.
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People grading 2

  • C1 - Lower Middle Class
    • Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial administrative or professional job employment.
  • C2 - Skilled Working Class
    • Skilled manual workers.
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People grading 3

  • D - Working Class
    • Unskilled manual workers.
  • E - Casual/Lowest Grade Workers
    • Pensioners and others who depend on the welfare state for their income.
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Psychographics

  • Psychographics refers to people's interests or values, things which are harder to define.
  • Psychographic profiling can include separating people into categories such as:
    • Mainstreamers (people who follow trends).
    • Aspirers (those who aim to improve themselves).

Audience Segmentation

Audience segmentation is useful for producers as it can ensure the product is constructed to meet the target audience's needs.

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Audience appeal

  • Products can target large, mainstream audiences or more specialised, niche audiences.
  • If a product is dependent on audience numbers/sales to make profit, it will be essential for producers to understand how to appeal to the audience through production, marketing and distribution in order to make money.
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Scale of audiences

  • By understanding the scale of audiences, the budget and methods used in production and distribution can be more fit for purpose.
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Audience targeting

  • A range of research methods can be used to help producers understand their audience better.
    • For example, qualitative and quantitative data.
  • By researching the target audience, producers can tailor the construction of their products to meet the audiences needs.
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Qualitative and quantitative data

  • Qualitative data refers to data which is rich in detail and is unable to be put in to numbers.
    • This can include focus groups and interviews.
  • Quantitative data refers to data which can be put into numbers.
    • This might include questionnaires using scales rather than written responses.

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1Overview

2Component 1: Section A

3Component 1: Section B

4Component 2: Section A

5Component 2: Section B

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