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We therefore looked at audience segmentation
You are constructing an audience and need
to convince us that there is an audience for your product by defining one in
detail. There may be a primary audience and a secondary one. For instance, a computer game may be marketed
primarily at teenage boys but there is a considerable 30-40 year old male
audience with expendable income who are keen on playing interactive online
games. Identifying a collective identity is key to understanding how successful
the product will be.
Society has created terms to understand
these developing collective identities and is constantly grouping and
segmenting people.
For example,
The term Metrosexual has been around for a
while and David Beckham has been held up as a prime example. A man that is urbane and in touch with his
feminine side. He exfoliates and moisturises and is ahead of the cultural curve
on fashion. Often taking daring choices about hairstyle or clothes this man is
an early adopter of latest trends in fashion and music and everything cutting
edge. What might once have been termed
cool before that became ‘uncool.’ Also
termed a hipster and to be found in the creative industries in urban areas of cities
such as Hoxton or Shoreditch in East London, although I may be behind the times
on this.
Popular culture has wrestled with this type
of modern urban male. One example is the sitcom by Chris Morris ‘Nathan Barley’
which portrays the rise of the idiots and Hoxton fins exemplified by the
annoying Nathan in the times of dotcom startups and the boom of new media.
Another is American Psycho written by Bret
Easton Ellis. Here is a clip from the film starring Christian Bale as the
ultimate New York metrosexual who is so self obsessed that he develops a
psychosis. He has lost all humanity, ‘There is no real me, I am simply not
there’.
We also looked at the term Trustafarian
which we said was someone with wealthy parents who lived in expensive areas of
the city close to ethnically diverse and
bohemian areas. Growing dreadlocks and living on a trust fund this group
is stereotyped as a bit deluded and lost in their attempt to fit in and find an
identity which attempts to disown their privileged upbringing. An example popped up in the recent
Inbetweeners 2 film playing on this cultural stereotype. In this clip the ‘comedian’
Kevin Bishop avoids comedy by representing the type in a way that makes us side
with trustafarians by going for the obvious literal interpretation. This clip shows
the delicate line that comedy walks between humour and the literal stating something so
obvious that the comedian embarrasses themselves or comes across as mean spirited.
Identifying different audiences is big
business now and you may find yourself working in marketing, advertising or an
industry that requires accurate data that shows trends and facts about the UK
audience or indeed a wider global audience.
Experian is a company with offices in Nottingham that holds credit data
on most UK citizens collated from records of what and how we
spend our income. You apply to this
company for a credit check. Another
service they provide is Mosaic which sells this collated data to companies who
can use this information to target consumers and audience. They have created a model of geodemographic
profiling which segments the UK market into over 50 different groups dependent
on lifestyle and income.
Census data from the Office for National
Statistics can also be used to profile a demographic. They have made this user friendly by using
stereotypes to humanize the data.
For example, 7.19% of the population can be put into the
classification ‘Urban Intelligence’
Mosaic have chosen the names Ben and Chloe
to represent this group.
They are young, educated, middle class
starting out in life after being at university
The stereotype is then continued to suggest
they read the Guardian and can be extended to where they shop and how they use
their leisure hours.
This may seem sinister and this information
is being used by politicians to target voters and may affect your credit. When
looking to provide credit it is your postcode and house that may determine your
rating. This article explains how this
information is used by private companies, in some cases unscrupulously to
target groups such as those ‘keen to take advantage of easy credit.’
For your purposes this kind of profiling
will allow you to define your audience with more accuracy and to use the Mosaic
definitions to help you describe the target audience. Weaker answers rely on
outdated models of socio-economic groupings and definitions of class which are
very limited and as the Mosaic example shows this industry is so much more sophisticated
now.
We looked at a range of groupings which
were self explanatory and then others which required definition;
Bank of Mum and Dad
Golden empty nesters
Corporate chieftains
Scattered Homestead – Rural calm/ stand
alone house/ agricultural landscape
Central Pulse – entertainment seeking/
renting city centre flats in vibrant locations near to jobs and nightlife
Village retirement – pleasant village /
amenities that serve social and practical needs
We then
profiled these groups further by considering folllowing factors;
What media they consume
Where they live
Fashion
Music
Days out
Entertainment
Supermarket they use
Like ‘Mosaic’ we gave this couple a name
such as Huw and Glenda for ‘Upland Hill Farmers’ and built up a profile. Through these cultural motifs we can identify
a geodemographic grouping.
You now need to identify a target audience
for your own product.
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