Audience Research

Complete Audience Research and how it relates to my Product Brief

By Luke Thomas

Audience Research

Big Media Companies, when advertising for their new film, will always have to research who they will aim there film at. Without thinking about targeting an audience mistakes could happen, such as a trailer for Sinister appearing before a showing of Topcat; this scenario, whilst preposterous, is what could happen if the producers do not consider which demographic they want to aim there film at.

Ways in which the audience can be found is from looking at previous data on similar films (For example, most for the audience that would be targeted for the horror film Sinister will have more likely than not watched the Paranormal Activity films). They will often name the films in the advertising campaign to hope that they will be able to share audiences. Film specific targeting's will often rely on the fact their audience will most likely have watched similar films and understand the conventions of the genre and as such the film will often be very stereotypical, as something new and original will usually be denounced as its not what the audience will expect and will not have targeted it appropriately.

How Audiences are Targeted

To Produce effective Audience Research, I must first learn how to effectively categorize the audience into various groups. This will help so I can make my product specialized towards a certain type of audience and include elements that my audience will enjoy. There are multiple theories on how to officially categorize the audience, that I will detail over the next few slides.

Categorizing Audiences

A rating system is one of the simpler ways to categorize the audience for your product. This system has been in use for a long time and is possibly the easiest way to tell how popular a product is with its target audience, and how popular a certain medium is on the market. However, this system does have many flaws. For example, it does not take into account different audience markets and does not show whether the product was liked, it just shows that it was viewed or bought. This method doesn’t have any audience input. Below is an example of one that has been made for Horror Films.

Ratings

This is a way of categorizing audiences based on their status and class. This is often based on the gross income of the highest earner in a specific household. The audience is categorized under Unemployed, Lower working class (minimum wage), Upper working class (semi skilled jobs, Lower middle class (skilled job), Upper middle class (managerial) and Upper Class (high managerial). It also takes into account pensioners and casual workers. The good thing about this system is it gives us an idea as to what type of people buy the product, and so the product can reflect that social classes values and further engage them with the product. The downside to this theory is that it can be very stereotypical and generalized as it is not unknown for a lower working class individual to buy or view a product aimed at a middle class person.

Income/ Bracket Status

The concept of the class system is slightly old fashioned, considering how most of the population are media literate, and we are told that the class system is dead in society, with equal rights and with the education system someone from a lower class can get a higher job, so the walls which did divide us are no longer applicable. Because of this system becoming near obsolete, the company ‘Young and Rubicam’ invented the ‘Four Consumers’ theory, which is made up of three different social groups; The Mainstreamers in society that make up 40% of the population that enjoy the security of belonging to a group and aspire to achieve a higher status in society, The Succeeders that want to maintain their status and their control, and The Reformers who want self esteem and self fulfillment rather than status. The product must be aimed at one of these three groups, but it is not unknown for a person to be a mixture of a mainstreamer, succeeder or reformer.

Young and Rubicams Four Consumers

The values, attitudes and lifestyles theory is similar to the Young and Rubicams theory, but it offers a much larger variety of how to classify the specialist audience. The potential audience can be categorized under 8audience categories; The Actualisers, The Achievers, The Experiencers, The Believers, The Fulfilleds, The Strivers, The Strugglers and The Makers. There is a lot of choice in this theory, but this is also part of its downfall as the choices are far too broad and to find the exact audience is near impossible. Whilst there must be choice, it can’t be too complex or the product will only have a limited and perhaps niche audience, and thus wouldn’t make a profit and if it is a film wouldn’t be made as the big companies that fund the film would see it only had a limited audience and would perhaps not fund it. Only in very small circumstances do films like this get made and often they are made independently (e.g. Bunny and the Bull)

Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles

One of the newest theories to categorize the audience is the ‘LifeMatrix’, that explores ten audience categories that categorize the person themselves and their values and lifestyle rather than just their class and status. It is the only consumer segmentation system based on values, lifestyles and life stage. The ten categories are Tribe Wired (free spirited, creative young singles), Fun Antics (aspirational, fun loving, active young people), Dynamic Duos (hard-driving, highly involved couple), Priority Parents (those who respect family values, activities and are media dominate) Home Soldiers (Home centered, family orientated and materially ambitious), Renaissance Women (Caring, affluent and influential mothers), Rugged Traditionalists (Individuals that maintain traditional male values and a love of the outdoors) Struggling Singles (High inspirations and a low economic status) Settled Elders (People who live devout, older, sedentary lifestyles) and Free Birds (Vital, active, altruistic seniors). Whilst this theory gives a great, in depth look into an audiences personality, it doesn’t cover everything accurately and statistically (e.g. income) so it can be inaccurate as to who will buy the product rather than just who will buy it theoretically.

LifeMatrix

A very simple and one of the most commonly used ways of categorizing an audience is by counting the amount sold of a certain media product in circulation, and whether the product is getting a good response from the audience, and thus making an effective profit. Whilst this is the simplest way to tell if a product is successful, it gives us no clues to who is buying it so doesn’t categorize the audience as people.

For example, I have found out that at the Box Office Scream made $173,046,663

Counting the Audience

These are theories that media can influence the audience to act a certain way in society, often through desensitization

Influencing the Audience

This is one of the most well known ways, though largely outdated, on how an audience is influenced by the Hypodermic Needle theory. This theory suggests that media products are injected into the mind like a syringe and the audience is influenced to certain major ideologies of the large synergies that make them, for example a film could influence the audience to act or dress like the characters in the film and base their lifestyles on it, such as watching a Batman film, and deciding to read the comics, buy the costume and in extreme circumstances decide to become a vigilante. Certain backing companies use films to endorse products, such as Marty McFly drinking Pepsi in Back to the Future. This theory is often in the news quite negatively, claiming that most cases of violence happen because of violent films and games. This theory was particularly criticized during the James Bulger 1993 murder case, where his young murderers apparently were influenced by the horror film Childs Play, however there is no direct evidence to suggest any mediums can influence the audience in such a serious way. In my Horror short film, there will be no need to try not to influence my audience in any way due to it being independent and me not having a big company backing it, but I will attempt to convey my own personal ideologies to the audience as it will be my original product so a lot of my own personality will come across in it.

Hypodermic Needle

Because of the difficulty in proving the Hypodermic Needle theory really works, a different, more refined theory was developed, known as Cultivation and Culmination. This theory suggests that desensitization has happened towards specific things that were once considered taboo. For example, swearing in social situations is now considered normal, but a few years ago it was considered social taboo. In constantly hearing swearing, society has got used to it. Again, it is still very difficult to prove this theories validity, but this does not necessarily mean that it doesn’t happen.

Cultivation/ Culmination

The Audience As People

This theory says that people don’t just want media for mindless entertainment, and instead we expect some gratification from it. The theory suggests that the audience select different media on what our ideologies are, and what we expect from each. For example, a film buff may buy a film magazine to look up recent films and to read articles, so for information and escapism. We generally want to achieve four things from day to day media; Information (curiosity, learning, security through knowledge), Integration and Personal Identity, Social Interaction and Entertainment (escapism, relaxing, cultural or aesthetic enjoyment, filling time, emotional release, sexual arousal). This theory is often criticized, as we cannot always choose what we see, such as posters, as so we do not get what we want out of media a lot of the time.

Uses and Gratifications

For a Horror film, the audience will most likely view them at the cinema or through home media such as Blu-Ray or DVD. Often they may catch showings of the film on TV be it through sattelite or digital channels, and some times the audience may view the film on the internet or through a devise with an internet connection (e.g. X-Box 360 or PlayStation). It is often more popular at the cinema due to the atmosphere that is generated from the text; the immersive atmosphere helps you feel like part of the film and makes the horror unfolding on screen seem more real. This also can be viewed as a social occasion, friends may bond over the common fear of what is happening on screen. Whilst it is possible to view these films on a mobile devise, it is near impossible to replicate the thrills that one would have in watching the film in an immersive setting like a cinema screen. The audience will view these type of films spontaneously when one is released. If it is a sequel to a previous popular horror film (e.g. Paranormal Activity) then the audience will view often expecting similar thrills. Oddly, despite the low budget and lack of any real big names in most Horrors, they do garner relatively large audiences particularly in the teenage demographic, and rarely make any losses. An ancillary way of viewing this text may be watching a teaser trailer at the cinema, on Televisual adverts and on the internet (in advert backgrounds, YouTube trailers etc.). Also the spreading of certain films over social networking sites may help gain its popularity and notoriety.

Consuming Habits