How do media institutions target different audiences
There are a variety of ways to initiate a target audience in this day and age. Some hold more advantages to their design then others, thus giving production teams opportunity to segment it themselves in a way that fits them.
Tribes and Subculture model - Channel 4:
Tribes is the first way of which I have looked at in determining a target audience. The clear advantages to this way is the community created through subcultures, it narrows down the options into a more precise form of the chosen target audience. Not only do subcultures add precision but they create links with the identification of the audience, for instance links between identification and music, this meaning people then conform to different subcultures depending on the music that associates with them, for instance the 'Punk' subculture would link to music like The sex pistols. Although it is more specified and segmented to identity it lacks complexities, in that it begins to stereotype groups of people on how they dress or what music they like.
Demographic Measurements:
The positive of using Demographics is that it is hard data and statistics, this then allowing varieties of institutions to look at the data and compose a disposable outcome and initiate how their product will specify to the audience themselves. An example of this being a music festival, being provided with these measurements they're able to broadcast a price for their festival by looking at the demographic of what artists different audiences listen to. However with this technique comes disadvantages, one being that it does not consider the entire lifestyle of the audience, younger generations may not have the stable income to completely correlate with the demographic, it almost expresses a style of assumption and again stereotype, the categories are too broad not addressing even the smallest differences between people within the same demographic.
Psycho-graphic Model:
Theorists Young and Rubicam use a model initiating several different categories that a audience member supposedly relates to: The aspirer, The explorer, The redesigned, The reformer, The succeeder, The struggler and finally the mainstream. There is quite an obvious disadvantage to using this model of categories to determine a target audience, this being that it is ultimately too vague, it is not specific and many would cast themselves as maybe being one or two of those models in combination. There is simply difficulty to finalising someone to only one of their categories.
Habits and Lifestyle:
YouGov.co.uk uses a system in a survey form to create a specific profile to an individual according to the music artist they listen to. The website provides extremely specific insight and detail into the person, expressing their political stance, their film interests and even class. It gives the audience member to look at media in a variety of perspectives and media which surrounds them. The clear benefit of this in comparison to the above methods is that this carefully combines lifestyle and their demographic; however there a few inaccuracies that amount to being a disadvantage. With data being collected from individuals for the profile it cannot be the exact same for every individual and their lives complexities.
Tribes and Subculture model - Channel 4:
Tribes is the first way of which I have looked at in determining a target audience. The clear advantages to this way is the community created through subcultures, it narrows down the options into a more precise form of the chosen target audience. Not only do subcultures add precision but they create links with the identification of the audience, for instance links between identification and music, this meaning people then conform to different subcultures depending on the music that associates with them, for instance the 'Punk' subculture would link to music like The sex pistols. Although it is more specified and segmented to identity it lacks complexities, in that it begins to stereotype groups of people on how they dress or what music they like.
Demographic Measurements:
The positive of using Demographics is that it is hard data and statistics, this then allowing varieties of institutions to look at the data and compose a disposable outcome and initiate how their product will specify to the audience themselves. An example of this being a music festival, being provided with these measurements they're able to broadcast a price for their festival by looking at the demographic of what artists different audiences listen to. However with this technique comes disadvantages, one being that it does not consider the entire lifestyle of the audience, younger generations may not have the stable income to completely correlate with the demographic, it almost expresses a style of assumption and again stereotype, the categories are too broad not addressing even the smallest differences between people within the same demographic.
Psycho-graphic Model:
Theorists Young and Rubicam use a model initiating several different categories that a audience member supposedly relates to: The aspirer, The explorer, The redesigned, The reformer, The succeeder, The struggler and finally the mainstream. There is quite an obvious disadvantage to using this model of categories to determine a target audience, this being that it is ultimately too vague, it is not specific and many would cast themselves as maybe being one or two of those models in combination. There is simply difficulty to finalising someone to only one of their categories.
Habits and Lifestyle:
YouGov.co.uk uses a system in a survey form to create a specific profile to an individual according to the music artist they listen to. The website provides extremely specific insight and detail into the person, expressing their political stance, their film interests and even class. It gives the audience member to look at media in a variety of perspectives and media which surrounds them. The clear benefit of this in comparison to the above methods is that this carefully combines lifestyle and their demographic; however there a few inaccuracies that amount to being a disadvantage. With data being collected from individuals for the profile it cannot be the exact same for every individual and their lives complexities.
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