Audience Profiling

Within any media industry, targeting the correct audience is critical to the success of the products sale values; a good media producer must know, represent and target the right group of people for a product to succeed.

There are two key ways of finding out key facts about your potential audience, one is primary research (such as surveys and focus groups) while the other is secondary research using existing theories. Key theories that are referred to include Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, NRS social value groups and NRS super profiles. . This research is very relevant to my main products because I am creating adverts. I believe that the target audience of These two charts below are used to explain what the different social groups are and also what the different super profiles are:

There are also several types of generalised target audiences. One of these is a 'mass' audience, which is a large mainstream type of audience. These audiences are usually very vast and can usually apply to specific social grades, such as the working class. For example, a company may aim a film they make more specifically at women. The second general type of audience is the 'niche' audience. This type of audience is usually much smaller than that of a mass audience, but can still be very influential. For example, white middle-class British males could be seen as a niche audience, as it is a lot more specific towards a certain type of person. Finding the best type of audience to aim for when making a product can be very stressful, as choosing the wrong target audience could dramatically affect the sales of that product.

Also in terms of theory, professionals refer to representation theory because the primary target audience need to see themselves and their needs reflecting in the product. One example of this is how the Uses and Gratifications theory (Katz & Blumer) can relate to target audience. In this theory, they stated reasons as to why audience members consume the media products, such as diversion/escapism, personal interactions, personal identity and surveillance.

Laura Mulvey is another media theorist who relates to audience profiling because of the way in which characters are represented. For example, a film may be much more male orientated if many of the female characters were very attractive and feminine. This relates to her 'Male Gaze' theory where the female audience would have to view the product from a male perspective. Stanley Hall is another theorist that relates to audience profiling, because he stated that young people had 'a lot of time on their hands'. This could mean that younger people would have more time to purchase and use my product. In addition, professional producers of media products use audience theory to guide them when tailoring their productions to specific groups.

In terms of primary research I conducted a Survey Monkey to find out if my initial thoughts based on my secondary research were correct and find out more specific details regarding what they would like to see in my adverts. To view the questions I put on my initial survey, here is a link to the blog post:

Survey Monkey Questionnaire

Based on my secondary and primary research I have developed the following audience profile for my target audience:

Age group: 15 - 21 years.

I made this choices because, through my research, I have found that video games in the side-scrolling beat 'em up style of genre are mostly played by teenagers. Therefore, I decided to follow this convention,  as I thought that the people who would be more likely to play a specific genre would be more likely to purchase the game.

Gender: Mostly male.

I also found through research that the gaming community seems to consist mostly of the male gender. I also found that the style of genre that my own game categorises into is mostly played by a male audience. This shows how I came to the decision of aiming my game mostly at a male audience.

Class: Lower class/working class.

I chose this class of people to aim my product at because these types of people are likely to have more time to play video games than much higher classes. This means that aiming the product at this class could mean a potentially better amount of sales, as this class of people would be able to spend time to enjoy the game.

Social Value Group: Most probably Traditionalists, as the game strays from the common conventions of modern games and more towards a much older style.

Through my research, people of a Traditionalist nature are more likely to follow common conventions of video games with a similar genre. This is a very good social value group to aim my product at, as I think that my product does follow a large majority of fantasy genre conventions.

Race: White/British (by default) as they would be the most common people to play my game.

As my product will be produced and released in the UK, it makes sense to aim the product at a British target audience, even if it is released abroad as well. I also decided to aim this product at white people because the majority of people living in Britain are white. This would be aiming my product at the mass audience, which can mean more potential customers.

Sexuality: Heterosexual.

Again, because the majority of people living in Britain are heterosexual, it makes sense to aim the product at the mass audience, as there can be a lot more potential customers from this.