Defining Audiences

When creating a product or service, it is important for any producer to research the different types of audiences there is. the research is something which is very important to the rest of the project so you will have to do it some time before you start the project. depending on the results of the research, you may change your mind about the product or service. to get audience research people may use Questionnaires, Focus Groups and comparing to existing media products and services.

Audiences are normally profilled in to different catagories, which are:

Demographics-

Socio-economic
As the title says, it is where the audience is divided up in to class. The Socio-economic staus is dependant on the social and financial staus of individuals. The different classes are as follows:

A - upper middle class (eg Bankers, Lawyers and Doctors) People within this category normally read The Financial Times.
B - Middle class (Teachers, Graphic Designers and Journalists) People within this category normally read The Financial Times.
C1 - Lower middle class (Nurses, Office Supervisors and Junior Manages)
C2 - Skilled working class (Plumbers and Electricians)
D - Working class (Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers) people within this category normally read The Sun
E - Non working (Un-employed, Pensioners and Students) people within this category normally read local free Newspapers

Age
Audiences are divided in to age groups. the most popular groups of age are as follows:

0-5 - Cbeebies - kids shows
6-11 - Disney - cheesy kids shows
12-17 - BBC Three - comedy
18-24 - Internet - movies
25-34 - Virgin/sky - any channel that has something good on
35-44 - Dave - top gear
45-54 - BBC - soaps
55-64 - BBC - soaps
65+ - BBC +ITV - soaps

Age plays a major role to research, as it needs to be aimed at a specific age group because if it's not then the show will be a major FLOP!!!!
Audiences are divided up into age groups to make it easier for researchers and broadcasters to find out what the generations of the world are watching and what they are in to (films and television wise).
this is also used so that they can put on suitable content and divide them into the correct ratings.
the ratings are as follows:

This is used so that they can use Watershed. Watershed is where you can't put on explicit content before a certain time, normally between 9-10 pm.




Gender
Gender is the range of physical, mental, and behavioral characteristics.
Audiences are also divided in to what gender they are. The gender divide is really simple it's either:
Male
Female

Sexual Orientation
Sexual Orientation is based on the different attractions of individuals.
Sexual Orientation is an enduring personal quality that inclines people to feel romantic or sexual attraction to people of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. 

Geodemographics
Geodemographics is a description of where you live. it may include things such as postcode and address.
Geodemographics includes the application of geodemographic classifications for business, social research and public policy but has a parallel history in academic research seeking to understand the processes by which settlements evolve and neighborhoods are formed.

Psychographics
Psychographics is where people are divided into Mainstream, Alternative and niche.

Mainstream
The mainstream includes all popular culture and media culture. mainstream media,  is generally applied to print publications, such as newspapers and magazines that contain the highest readership among the public, along with radio formats and television stations that contain the highest viewing and listener audience, respectively. This is in contrast to various independent media, such as alternative weekly newspapers, specialised magazines in various organizations and corporations, and various electronic sources such as podcasts and blogs.

Alternative
Alternative Media is media (newspapers, radio, television, magazines, movies, Internet etc.) which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government owned.

Niche
A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing. The niche market defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact. It is also a small market segment.

Producers carry out two different kinds of research into their audiences, which are Quantative Audience Research, which include:

• ABC - ABC stands for Audit Bureau of Circulation UK. ABC provide data for a stamp of trust for media buyers, eg, Media owners, publishers and digital traders. They use numerous methods which include common standards deliver meaningful comparisons, measures reach, engagement and loyalty, verifying digital advertising trading processes and accrediting service providers. they are owned by companies that have come together to own it and provide information. these companies include Howell Penny, CDS, Tealium, Web trends, Mail Chimp, NewGrave and Survey Monkey.
• BARB - BARB stands for Broadcasters Audience Research Board. BARB provide data for all major TV channels. they also provide data for broadcasters and other interested parties. they breakdown viewing levels by Regional and National. They recruit a private panel to work in homes. on average, 5,000 different homes are used for primary research and to find data out. Kantar Media recruit the private panel. BARB are jointly owned by BBC companies within ITV,  channel 5 and 4 and BSkyB.

• NRS - NRS stands for National Readership Survey. NRS provide data for Newspapers and Magazines. They use primary Research to collect their data to monitor their audiences. They uses face to face interviews as well as a surveys to collect all their data about audiences. the people who own BARB are they institute of practioners in advertisements, Newspaper publishers in advertisements and periodical publishers association.
• RAJAR - RAJAR provide data for researchers who want to find out the different patterns in the radio industry and market. it allows access information such as listening figures, quarterly listing figures, survey updates, market trends, volumes, release dates and mapping. mapping is used to show listening figures over an area. sample points for output areas are listed in order of postcode, district and population. the company is joint owned by BBC and the radio centre. it was set up in 1992 to align and operate a single audience measurement system for the UK radio industry. it serves both the BBC and licensed by commercial stations.

They also use Qualitative audience research, eg, focus groups, questionnaires and face to face interviews. These are the different techniques in which companies collect their audience research.