audiences

The film industry studies real audiences to gather information , they do this through methods such as surveys, focus groups and interviews. This is done because the industry needs as many viewers as possible to make a profit. This investigation is done through research and marketing. There are a range of ways to researching the measure of response
Box office takings , views , website hits, followers and shares on social media , ratings and subscriptions

What can audience be defined by.... GEARS

• gender 
• ethnicity 
• age 
• region, 
• social-economic group

The traditional segmentation model

 

 

Maslows hierarchy of needs 

This is a motivational theory in psychology which shows a five tier model of human needs. This involves media as these Needs can help for a base of a target audience and what the people need , such as what is in the pyramid . 

Psychometric 

Demographics like GEARS doesnt always work as not everyone fits in the traditional categories. Another way is a Pschometric audience profile as this reflects on how they think, attitudes and morals. 

A pyschometric method was defined by Young and Rubicam

• The 4 c's - Cross character consumer characterization
• makes 7 separate groups 
• The explorer
• The Aspirer 
•  The succeeder 
• The reformer 
• The mainstream 
• The struggler 
• The resigned

Audience appeal

once a target audience is selected they use methods to appeal to the group such as....

Technical and audio codes 

example - Fast editing and fast pace music would be used for an action film , plus the trailer may be shown in a cinema before a film of a simialr genre so the a simialr target audience is there to view it.example - seeing trailers for super hero movies while seeing a super hero movie

Language 

There may be terms all similar to a topic or genre ( semantic filed in written media as there would be subject specific lexis ), In a trailer an action film may have language around violence and weapons maybe even taboo to appeal to the age of the audience and make it realistic

Mode of address 

construction 

Trailers can use a range of things such as key selling points like star actors, enigma codes , multi- stranded narrative to attract and appeal the the audience 

Context 

As said before playing a trailer for a film before the film of a similar genre would work well as they have a similar target audience.

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Stereotypes 

This can have a large impact on the target audience and the appeal however you need to consider that this is just an assumption. It is good not to revert to stereotypes.

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Stuart Hall

Stuart hall is a cultral Theorists who looked into media texts and claimed that audiences where active or passive.

Passive- is less likely to challenge the message and will more likely be effected by the message.

Active- they engage and interpret things, this means they challenge the ideas encoded into it.

He also suggest there are three main responses to a media text from an audience.

• Preferred reading - when they respond how a creator/ producers wants them to
• negotiated reading - accepting and rejecting elements
• oppositional reading- understands the prefered reading but opposes it

Gratification theory

These theory's suggest there are certain reasons why audiences respond to different media texts 

• entertainment and diversion- to escape from there everyday lives, these kinds of texts let them distance them self from the world
• information and education - want to learn and now more and they help the audience learn and find out whats happening around the world 
• social interaction - get in the mix when action is happening 
• personal identity- can compare there own life

classifying an audience

Tribe wired
Fun/atics
Dynamic Duos
priority parents
Home soldiers
renaissance woman
struggling singles
settled elders
free birds


Your target audience will be at all different stages in life however you can use the family life cycle as a way to target an audience if you distinguish what stage of the life cycle your audience is in then it can help you decide how your going to reach them.

Here is the life cyle
Dependent - child living at home
bachelor- not living at home , few financial burdens
pre-family - young couples settling
full- nesters couple with children
empty nester- children have left home
grey market- over 50's
solitary survivor - medical and product needs as other retired groups.