Task 7 - Audience Research - AS1

Audience Research

Throughout the media industry the audience and their desires, preferences and opinions plays an important role. The entire media texts are made with an audience in mind. The producers can even make some money out of the audience, not always; sometimes. Therefore, it is important to understand what happens when an audience is introduced to a media text. Also, advertisers want to sell their products, so when they study their audience they will have a better understanding in trying to connect their product with the audience. That is why advertising industries gather information before they start producing a new advertising campaign. There are four types of audience research; descriptive, analytical, predictive and tracking
In the advertising industry audiences are carefully studied so that advertisers can understand exactly how to sell to them.

Audiences are divided and labelled into the following categories:

Standard Occupational Classification (sometimes called social grade by advertising companies)

This is a method of dividing and labelling consists of using letter codes to show their income bracket. I.E - A - Bankers, lawyers, doctors and other highly paid professions. B - teachers, graphic designers. C - nurses, office supervisors. D - skilled workers, tradesperson. E - semi/unskilled manual workers and finally F - students, unemployed, pensioners and casual workers. It is important to divide the audience into these letter codes so researchers give the correct information that is relevant to each profession.

Psychographics (a common attitude)

This method is when you divide audiences depending on the common attitudes within the audience. This includes: personality, values, interests, attitudes and lifestyles. Within this category, the publishers focus on the audiences interests activities and opinions. This is important again so the publishers know their audiences and understand them in a deeper way.

Geodemographics (where they live)

This is another method on how to get a clear target audience. This is when the publisher focuses on where the audience lives and is based on two rules. 1) People that live within the same area are more likely to share the same characteristics rather than two people from two different towns and 2) two neighbourhoods can be placed within 1 category because although they live in different areas, they may still have similar personalities. This is important to publishers because they could publish different adverts in different towns depending on the attitudes of them.

Age

Age is important when it comes to audiences because interests and occupations depend on the persons age. For example, 16 year olds aren't going to care about gardening, however, people that are 50+ are more likely to have a greater interest within the matter.

Gender

This category is important, although some people may like to categorise some aspects as sexist; it is the truth. Girls and boys have different interests, for example, girls would be more interested in makeup rather than football and vice versa. That is why it is important for publishers so they understand the generation and interests of the generation at hand.

How Information About Audiences Is Gathered By Advertising Companies

Information about audiences is gathered through 4 basic types of research. These 4 types are: descriptive research; describes the audiences characteristics. Analytical research; understands 'how' 'why' and 'what' motivates the audience. Predictive research; considers 'what if' situations and questions the audience. Tracking research; long-term research.

Usually a audience research agency, such as BARB (Broadcasters Audience Research Board) sample a population and monitor them over a period of 7 days. The data that was received is then spread across the whole population, based on percentage sample. All individuals ages 4+ are measured by BARB to get an overall idea of what to publish. The advertising agency pays the television station a certain amount of money based on its viewers.

BARB research:

Ofcom research:

Ofcom carries out research on the markets that they regulate. This includes things like their communications market report, annual report into the consumer experience, etc. Their research helps keep others informed on the new technology developments and the impact on the things that their markets regulate such as: TV, radio and on demand, telecoms, internet and many more.

Audience measurement panel is how many people are within the audience. Whether that be how many people are watching TV, listening to the radio or reading the newspaper. This helps producers understand their audience because if they're losing viewers they will change what they're advertising in order to regain interest in people. However, The Panel is just a representation, it's not exactly accurate because each person represents a number of people in the universe (particular country/area) and if 1 person represents the universe that means that every person represents 10,000 people which isn't correct. In contrast, it is impossible to interview every single person on the earth to get an exact preference so therefore, it is the most accurate way to go about it. if you want a representation of the world.