How Media Producers Define Audiences

How Media Producers Define Audiences 

When working producing a media product, the producers needs to carry out a comprehensive amount of audience research in order for the product to meet its audiences wants, needs and likes.

Audience research is where the producer finds out what their products audience is interested in. For example how old they are, what attracts them to the product and what they would like out of the product. Once the research has been carried out a product or brand can be produced that will be successful with the audience and also suitable to what they are interested in. 

When carrying out research there are two types of 'graphics' that have to been taken into consideration when researching your audience. These are demographics and Psycho-graphics; I will begin by talking about demographics.

Demographics is when the audience is defined by their age income, education and their regional identity. I will begin by talking about regional identity, each product has a regional identity suited to its target audience's location so it could refer to the 'north' or south of the United Kingdom, or 'Scottish' and 'English' or specific town such as 'London' or 'Manchester.For example Capital FM has various stations for the different regions across the United Kingdom as well as for different city's to meet their audiences location demographics, for example Capital North East based in Newcastle focuses on news and events going on in the north east region. This includes concerts and events going on around the region, with reporters and presenters being present at these events, Presenters JoJo Hatfield and Matt Bailey present the northeast breakfast show when these events and concerts are part of the content. 

Capital broadcasts local news updates, which are known as Capital Reports, each day - weekday bulletins air half hourly between 5am and 9am, then hourly from 9am to 6pm. At the weekend, local news is broadcast hourly between 6am and 12pm. The stations North East news team also produces bulletins for Heart North East and Smooth Radio North East.

Capital FM gather their research and statistics from research agency RAJAR, this a form of secondary research as other people carry out the research in order to get the statistics in which Capital FM work alongside. The current statistics are Capital North East remains commercial number one across the area, growing in reach quarter on quarter and year on year to 500,000 listeners per week. They have a 16.4% market Share of 15-34's

The chart below shows the whole of the Capital FM's North East network listening figures it shows that in the month of September they had 2,234,000 listeners from the age of 15+ and the average listening hours for each listener was 5.1 hours, this information was collected from RAJAR. Please see the table below:

  As-well as their location the audiences age plays a vital part on your content of your product, for example when producing a film or TV show you have to make sure your putting your show on at appropriate time and also that the content of the show does not step over the boundaries of what you showcase to the audience.

Shows such as Celebrity Juice and Big Brother include content showing drinking, the use of offensive language, smoking and adult topics are always shown after 9 PM, as these shows are targeted at young adults and adults. This content has to be protected from children, which is why it is shown at a later time.

The audience can also be defined by their socio-economic status, each person is given a social grade which is defined by their social status and occupation. For example the target audience of a high quality publication such as The Times, they are at a A social grade with a upper middle class social status with higher managerial,administrative or professional occupation. On the other hand the target audience of a lower quality publication such as the as The Sun, they are at a E social grade with the lowest social status with an occupation of a state pensioners or windows also the casual or lowest grade workers.

 The chart below shows how audiences are defined by their socio-economic status:

Audiences can also be defined by their sexual orientation for example publications such as Attitude is made for the target audience of male homosexuals, the publication includes topics such as entertainment, travel, style, active and guys. It is also the same for female homosexuals, with magazines such as DIVA, Curve and g3.

On the other hand psycho-graphics is based on your audiences opinions, interests, attitudes as well as their lifestyle. The brands and the products that are created and produced, which are bought by each individual reflects that person characteristics and patterns of living. Different psychographics are put together to define different types of people they include main-streamer's ,aspirer's, succeeder's, resigned, explorers and reformers.

The psychographics of mainstream's are that they tend to seek security and be domestic, sentimental and favour value for money brands including family brands. This group consists of a large population of human beings. So for example an advertisement from coca cola draws in mainstreamers as mainstream families drink coca cola, especially children, so a majority of people drinking it makes it mainstream.

The psychographics of succeeder's are that they seek control, with strong goals and lots of confidences, with a strong work ethic they strive to succeed in everything that they do. Succeeds tend to be in higher management and professionals.  They tend to buy products of higher quality, as succeeder’s are wealthy, so advertisements from Apple would interest them more than an advertisement of Toshiba, as they want the best quality products. 

The psychographics of aspirer’s are that they seek status, they want materialistic items that improve their status and are orientated about their image and appearance, and aspirer’s tend to be younger people. For example female aspirer's who are very image orientated and care about their appearance would buy fashion publications such as vogue, and male aspirer would buy publications such as gadget guide, as both of these publications feature the latest up to date materialistic items which mainstreamers would be interested in buying.

The psychographics of resigned people are that they seek survival, and have a strong interest in the past and its traditions, in-which retired people tend to be older. For example media products to do with the war and history tend to be very popular with resigned people, whether this be a publication or TV show, such as the pacific and the world at war.

The psychographics of explorers are that they seek discovery and love finding out new things, they tend of to have a lot of energy, individuality and are experienced, they value difference and adventure than they standard trend. TV shows to do with travel, the world and science would attract explorers, the discovery channel especially or either shows to do with science fiction in which they can pick up scientific facts.  

The psychographics of struggler's are that they seek escape, which they are alienated and disorganised, they are on beyond physical skills. They buy and consume alcohol and junk food, as well as lottery tickets they are usually a lower demographics. Advertisements showing the newest alcohol product, or the latest offers at fast food chains; such as McDonalds and KFC will attract struggler's.

When planning to undertake any research it is important that you understand the suitability of a range of different research methods and techniques. These are:

·         Primary Research: When you carry out yourself, or in a group. You can carry out research in ways such as; Questionnaires, Tests, Focus Groups and Interviews.

·         Secondary Research: When you gather research from someone else’s past research or information. You can gather this information from sources such as; Books, Internet, Journals and Publications.

·         Quantitative Data: Is data that is in number form, it can be analysed by using statistic methods, and results you have collected can be displayed using charts, histograms, tables and graphs.

·         Qualitative Data: Is data based on opinions and people’s views, which is gathered from sources such as interviews and focus groups.

You can also use research agencies sites, this a form of primary research in which all your research is already done for you, there is three different research agencies that are used to show statistics for three different media sectors including TV,  Radio and Advertisements. I will talk about these in more detail below:

BARB

The BBC, the TP companies, Channel 4, Channel 5, BskyB, and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising jointly own BARB. 

BARB's viewing data informs people a minute-by-minute breakdown of viewing figures at regional and national levels. Their information is important in assessing on programmes and their channels viewing figures and how they have been reacted to by the audience, this is information is important for the producers as when looking at BARB they can find out how well their programmes have done and if so to carry out more research to find out what their audience liked and why they watched the show, what could be done differently and could be changed about the show in order to increase their ratings. For example producers of a comedy show would look into a channels ratings and their programmes, such as BBC3 as this is one of the most popular channels for British comedy. From these viewing figures they can do research into the programmes on the channel to find out why the shows are so successful and then take elements of the shows and apply them to their own ideas.

In order to collect their information across TV households, BARB recruits a carefully selected panel of private homes ; each home on this panel represents 5,000 TV homes. In every panel household, all television viewing is monitored automatically by special metering equipment. Included in this process is viewing of recorded programmes that are watched within seven days of the original broadcast ; this is referred to as time shift viewing. More than 30,000 viewing devices are monitored across the panel of over 5,100 homes, including PVRs, DVDRs and VCRs, as well as standard set-top boxes.

People who live in the home register that they are in the room containing the television that is switched  they then unregister when leaving the room. In this way, the meter records all the viewing data by everyone person in the home ages 4+, this also adds individual demographic information to the viewing data. This information is uploaded automatically to BARB every morning between 2am and 6am, where this information is processed to apply numerical adjustments. Everyday at 9.30 the data is released to the TV industry as overnight viewing figures. BARB is a form of Quantative Data, as it is numerical data, and the results are shown in charts. See the example below:  

      RAJAR

   The company was founded in 1992 to align, design and operate a single audience measurement system for the UK radio industry serving both the BBC and licensed commercial stations. The BBC and the Radio Centre jointly own the company.

Whilst the Board’s focus is on strategy, governance and decisions of policy, more detailed technical research matters, and where relevant, decision-making, takes place at the meetings of a Technical Management Group. This group is made up of representatives of the BBC, commercial radio and the advertising community. An annual fee payable in part by the BBC and the balance from the commercial operators funds the company; subscription fees payable by the stations that subscribe to the service do this.

Information is collected by means of a seven-day self-completion diary. Diaries are personally placed with one selected adult (15+) and up to two children aged 10-14 years in each selected household.

The paper diary is customised at placement. Each respondent is asked to sort through a set of cards with the names of all the radio stations in the area and invited to select all the stations which they might listen to or hear in various situations. This process provides a station repertoire for the selected individual, which is then entered in the diary by the interviewer, using station name labels. Interviewers collect all paper diaries personally at the end of the seven days.

The respondent carries out the online diary station selection, each person is asked to look through a set of station names onscreen that are available in the area and invited to select all the stations which they might listen to or hear in various situations.

Measurement of audiences for all radio services is continuous throughout 50 weeks of the year, but excluding the Christmas and New Year holiday period. Results are published on a quarterly basis, but based on the appropriate minimum survey period, according to each station's survey area adult population and the minimum reporting sample required.

ABC

The ABC’s board includes representatives from advertisers, media agencies, media owners and trade bodies. They represent the different interests of the media industry and meet regularly to agree new standards for industry data and processes and to agree the strategy for ABC as an organisation. As advertising platforms develop, their reporting standards and audit services change over time to make sure they reflect the changing industry’s needs.

They bring the industry together to agree measurement and process Reporting Standards that      define what counts and determine best practice. Reporting Standards are constantly evolving to keep pace with industry developments.

They offer independent audit and compliance services, delivering certification, which verifies that data and processes meet industry-reporting Standards.

Their team of experts verify data across a wide range of media channels including print, online and events and look to include new platforms as they emerge. measuring reach is all about taking a census-based approach which means counting every interaction rather than using a survey sample. they use this to provide granular detail across channels to showcase performance and support the media buying process which is all the more important in our increasingly fragmented world.

They work closely with JICWEBS to deliver certification for a wide variety of digital process