Audience Research & Target Audience

Finding my Target Audience In order to find the perfect target audience for my magazine I will have to carry

out some primary and secondary research. For my primary research I am going to carry out a questionnaire which I will give to thirty completely different people giving me a much better understanding of who my target audience are. In my questionnaire I will ask questions which are shown individually below then put them into graphs making my data collected easier to understand. For my secondary research I will look up on the Katz and Blumler theory.

Age? Gender? Ethnicity? How often do they buy a music magazine? Favourite music genre? Where they buy there magazines from? How much do they spend on a magazine? What regular features would they like to see in a magazine?

Questionnaire AGE13-15 16-18 19-21 22-24 25+

GENDERMale Female

ETHNICITYCaucasian African Asian European

Other………………………………………………………………………………

HOW OFTEN DO YOU BUY A MUSIC MAGAZINE?Dailey Weekly Monthly Rarely

WHAT IS YOUR FAVIORATE MUSIC GENRE?HIP-HOP Classic R&B Bangrah Indie

Other…………………………………………………………………………………………

WHERE DO YOU BUY YOUR MAGZINES FROM?Newsagents Online Co-Op Magazine Shop Supermarket

HOW MUCH DO YOU SPEND ON A MUSIC MAGAZINE?£0-£1.99 £2-£3.99 £4-£5.99 £6+

WHAT REGULAR FEATURES DO YOU LIKE TO SEEIN A MUSIC MAGAZINE?Free Merchandise Celebrity Interviews Music

Other………………………………………………………………………………………………

Questionnaire Data 1

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1

Hip Hop

Classic

R&B

Bangrah

Indie

Other

I can clearly see that the majority of the thirty people I asked prefer to listen to R&B than any other music genre with Hip Hop not far behind. Also Indie was not very popular within the people who I handed the questionnaire to.

Questionnaire Data 2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

1

13-15

16-18

19-21

22-24

26+

The majority of people who I took part in my questionnaire were between the ages of 13-15. The fact that the most of the people were 13-15 and R&B was top of the music genre table gives me a large understanding of what age my magazine is targeted at.

Questionnaire Data 3

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Caucasion

African

Asian

European

Other

The ethnicity was very easily split although this way seems fairer it hasn’t give me a full understanding of which ethnicity I am aiming my magazine at.

Demographics

Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location. Demographics are about the population of a region and the culture of the people there.

Demographic Graph A. Upper middle Class. Higher managerial, administrative or

professional B. Middle Class. Intermediate managerial, administrative or

professional C1. Lower middle Class. Supervisory or clerical and junior

managerial, administrative or professional C2. Skilled Working Class. Skilled manual workers D. Working Class. Semi and unskilled manual workers E. Lowest levels of subsistence. Casual or lowest grade

workers, pensioners and others who depend on the welfare state for their income

Audience Research Audience Engagement: This describes how an audience interacts with a media

text. Different people react in different ways to the same text. Audience Expectations: These are the advance ideas an audience may have

about a text. This particularly applies to genre pieces. Don’t forget that producers often play with or deliberately shatter audience expectations.

Audience Foreknowledge: This is the definite which an audience brings to a media product.

Audience Identification: This is the way in which audiences feel connected to the particular media text, in that they feel it directly expresses their attitude or lifestyle.

Audience Placement: This is the range of strategies media producers use to directly target a particular audience and make them feel that the media text is specially ‘for them’.

Audience Research: Measuring an audience is very important to all media institutions. Research is one at all stages of production of a media text and once produced, audience will be continually monitored.

Katz & Blumler Theory The gratification theory is a popular approach to understanding

mass communication. It concentrates more on the question ‘What do people do with the media’ rather than ‘what media does to the people’ aiming it at the audience and thinking more about what they want. The approach suggests that people use specific media to fulfil there needs. For example not everyone who buy magazines buy them to read, they buy them as part as a fashion status or to fit in to a certain crowd or stereo type. A good example of this would be social status.

Audience Reaction After giving out thirty questionnaires i got an idea of the type of people

who would enjoy reading my magazine. I asked these particular people for an opinion on my magazine, these are some of the responses I got…

‘The colour scheme goes very well with the style of genre and I think it will stn out to people interested in buying your magazine’

‘A lot of the cover lines have been worded an laid out on your front cover very well’ ‘I like what you’ve done with the inside pages because the colour scheme goes very well

with the artist’ ‘I think that your magazine is a good price and your target audience will pay that price for it’ ‘The style and layout will appeal to your target audience’

Audience Summary Although there will be a wide range of people wanting to

buy my magazine I believe that after doing my primary and secondary data I will target my magazine at 13-15 year olds. The ethnicity of my target audience is very mixed which will be an advantage selling it. All my target audience who I asked gave me positive feedback about my magazine. Due to the age of my target audience I will have to depend on the social class E to buy my magazine which could leave my magazine in a disadvantage because some of my target audience may not have the money to buy monthly additions.