LEARNING OUTCOME:

Audience Demographics

• To develop an understanding of the key concept of audience and geo-demographics

• To develop analytical skills by identifying audiences for TV Drama

Audiences are different and in media studies we Media are particularly interested in the target audience. This is the audience that media producers aim their product at.

Media Institutions often put their audiences into categories depending upon their social, ethnic or economic backgrounds. This is called Demographics. They use this to work out how to best target their shows and products.

Of course this is not an exact science but look at the following advert and think about how different demographic groups may respond to it.

Media producers have a profile of the group and individuals whom they see as their intended audience.

A music magazine with young people will have a target audience of teenagers. Glee will have teenagers as the target audience.

For any media text we ask who is the target audience for this text. Then we have to ask what sort of audience is the target audience? Is it a mass audience?

There are many different ways of categorising audiences.

The Registrar General’s Social Scale

AUpper Middle ClassHigher managerial, administrative or professional (Doctors, Lawyers) BMiddle ClassIntermediate managerial, administrative or professional (Farmers, teachers)C1Lower Middle ClassSupervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional (carpenters, nurses) C2Skilled Working ClassSkilled manual workers (electricians , plumbers) DWorking ClassSemi and unskilled manual workers (bus drivers, lorry drivers)EThose at the lowest levels of subsistence (porters, bar staff, general labourers) State pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers

Segmenting Audiences

Socio-economic

Is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person’s work experience.

Main Factors

•Income

•Occupation

•Education

Psychographic

Is attributed to the following factors:

•Personality

•Values

•Attitudes

• Lifestyles

• Interests

Demographics

This typically involves the following:

•Age Bands

•Social class bands

•Gender

Modernised - Improved Version

1. Higher managerial and professional occupations

1.1 Employers and managers in larger organisations (e.g. company directors, senior company managers, senior civil servants, senior officers in police and armed forces.)

1.2 Higher professionals (e.g. doctors, lawyers, clergy, teachers and social workers.)

2. Lower Managerial and professional occupations (e.g. nurses and midwives, journalists, actors, musicians, prison officers, lower ranks of police and armed forces.)

3. Intermediate occupations (e.g. clerks, secretaries, driving instructors, telephone fitters.)

4. Small Employers and own account workers (e.g. publicans, farmers, taxi drivers, window cleaners, painters and decorators.)

5. Lower supervisory, craft and related occupations (e.g. printers, plumbers, television engineers, train drivers, butchers.)

6. Semi-routine occupations (e.g. shop assistants, hairdressers, bus drivers, cooks.)

7. Routine occupations (e.g. couriers, labourers, waiters and refuse collectors.)

8. Plus an eighth category to cover those who have never had paid work and the long term unemployed.

Demographics

Demographics are the statistical characteristics of human populations, such as age and income, that are used by businesses and the media to identify markets for their goods and services. Demographics are used to identify who your customers are (now and in the future), where they live, and how likely they are to purchase the product you are selling. By studying your customers and potential customers through demographics, one can identify changing needs in the marketplace and media landscape and adjust to them.

DemographicsDemographics

GenderGender

AgeAge

RegionRegion

Marital Marital StatusStatus

Number of Number of childrenchildren

Education and Education and QualificationsQualifications

Future Future PlansPlans

Ethnic Ethnic OriginOrigin

Languages Languages (other than (other than

English)English)

IncomeIncome

15-17 18-

2425-3435-4445-54

55-6465

+

Men

Women

SingleMarried/Living with partnerWidowedDivorced/Separated

NorthNorth-WestYorkshire and HumbersideWest MidlandsEast MidlandsEast Anglia

South-WestSouth-EastGreater LondonWalesScotland

PakistaniBangladeshiChineseAsian – otherOther ethnic group

Which of 19 languages spoken other than English?

FinancialFinancial

Tenure on Tenure on HomeHome

Owned outrightMortgage/loanRented from CouncilRented from someone elseRent free/tied house

WhiteBlack – CaribbeanBlack – AfricanBlack – OtherIndian

Net annual income after deductions - Informant's own incomeIncome of Chief Income Earner in household.

Next 6 months:Getting marriedHaving a babyRetiringMoving jobMoving homeBuying a new carSpending £500 or more on home improvements

Ownership of:Credit cardsBanking accountsInvestment productsStocks and sharesPersonal pensionsPrivate healthcare

Items Items ownedowned

Employment Employment StatusStatus

Religion/ Religion/ CultureCulture

Demographics

What is your own personal demographic?- Gender- Age- Occupation- Region- Ethnicity- Any other key aspects?

Psychographics

Psychographics is looking at the way people see themselves and the kind of lifestyle they would like to have. It involves looking at where you think you are now and where you want to be in the future.• Belongers: Traditional, conservative, conformists; family orientated• Emulators: Young people searching for an identity, desiring to fit into adult world, but can be discouraged from prospects• Emulator Achievers: Successful, enjoy acquiring things and buy brand names• Societally conscious achievers: Inner peace and environment more important than financial success; want personal fulfilment, lovers of outdoors and fitness, like to experiment • Needs Directed: Survivors on incomes that only allow needs and not wants to be fulfilled; pensioners and those on unemployment benefits, for example

Which one are YOU?

Demographics and psychographic profiles

Profile a typical TV crime drama fan, and explain why you think a typical fan would be like this.• Demographics: gender; age/stage; occupation; region; ethnicity; any other key aspects?• Psychographics: Belongers, emulators, emulator achievers, societally conscious achievers, needs directed

Niche Marketing

Not all TV Crime dramas are aimed at exactly the same audience groups. Some are aimed more at younger people, some at older people, some are more gritty and disturbing, while others are more reassuring. Audience groups can overlap too.

Breaking Bad

Sherlock Holmes CSI Miami

Matching the target audience to the programme

Look at this IMDB list summarising the new TV Drama shows in 2013-14.Try to work out what kind of people (demographics and psychographics) might like each programmeIMDB TV Drama List

Repetition and Variation

All TV drama series have to have a certain thing to be a TV drama - they repeat key elements of the genre. For example a crime drama will include a crime solver, a criminal and a victim. But they also each need something new or different - a spin to make audiences want to watch them - some variation.Steve Neale in his work on genre theory, discussed how this tension between repetition of genre elements and variation (changing genre elements, adding new elements) is what keeps programmes fresh.

Genres and Sub Genres

Within the main genre of crime dramas, there can be lots of different types of sub-genres.

Crime Dramas

Forensicse.g. CSI,

The Body Farm

Private detectives

e.g. Sherlock Holmes,Poirot,

Miss Marple

Police procedural

e.g. Prime Suspect,Law and Order

Genres and hybrids

Within TV drama genres there can also be hybrids, where the programme is mixture of different genres.

•For example Almost Human takes elements of Action Crime Drama and elements of Science Fiction and mixes these together. This makes Almost Human a hybrid genre programme.

Genres, sub-genres and hybrids

•Watch this clip of Almost Human

What typical crime drama elements does it have?What typical sci-fi elements does it have?

Key Words

Socio-economic categorisation

Pyschographic research

Demographics

Franchise

Genre Marketing

Scheduling Cloning/ Hammocking/ Clustering

Intertextuality

Research

Research and identify the three main ways of targeting and classifying target audiences. Describe in as much detail as possible the target audience of How I Met Your Mother.

HOMEWORK