As I have done for all of my previous projects, I have taken the target audience into consideration for my FMP. Since I have done a lot of previous research on what it is, I haven’t gone into as much depth as in previous posts.
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Recap
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••●•• What is it? ••●••
It is impossible for a product or service to reach everyone at once since there are many different types of consumers and clients. To save time, resources and money, companies narrow down their focus to a core group of people in order to maximise the popularity and use of their selling point. This group is referred to as the target audience and they have shared characteristics that are most suited for the product or service, making them most likely to be interested in it, therefore the best portion of the audience to focus on. By using market research, companies can slim down their customer base and identify the ‘targets’ which generally have similar demographics and psychographics.
••●•• How is it used? ••●••
Essentially, this is a marketing strategy that helps convert consumers into customers. By appealing directly to the type of people who are most like to do so, there is a greater chance that the product will be sold in larger quantities and that word will spread fast, increasing both the popularity of the product and the business credibility. In addition to this, by knowing your audience well, you can tailor the product and refine its usability, as well as create a tone of voice that speaks more personally to the customer. Focus groups, comparisons and questionnaires are all viable methods that can be used to develop a greater understanding of the target audience but analysis can also be done using secondary research and existing data based on recent records. It is important not to rely on older information too much, however, since the audience is always evolving, as is the market and there needs to be consistency and adaptability in the message to maintain a strong relationship with customers.
••●•• What are demographics and psychographics? ••●••
The information gathered from the audience needs to be organised in a clear way in order to be useful. This is where demographics and psychographics come in; the former is the statistical data of a population and the latter is about the deeper values of a person that go beyond basic classification. For example, things like age, gender, income and marital status are all factual and measurable pieces of information so they fall into the demographic category. Things like beliefs, attitudes and lifestyles, however, are cognitive factors that drive people’s behaviour and so are considered psychographic profiles. They seek to understand the consumer on a more emotional level so that you can effectively target them, whereas demographic categorisation serves the first practical purpose, which is to actually identify the market before honing in on the details.
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My Target Audience Identification
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There are a couple of methods that I use every time when identifying my target audience and they help massively with gaining a deeper insight into what sort of people would most likely enjoy my work. Not only does it help me improve my products but it also shows me which audiences I am best suited for in the industry, the ones that I am naturally inclined to produce content for and ones that I am most disconnected from and perhaps neglect.
｡･ﾟﾟ･ Project Goals ･ﾟﾟ･｡
Of course, the first thing that I think about is what I aim to do with my final product. Who do I want to impact and in what way? What kind of result am I expecting and what kind of person would be most likely to reach it? Questions such as these are usually outlined towards the start of the project when the main idea is born and goals are solidified when deciding on final products. I confirmed my ideas through the pitch by bullet pointing some of the key aspects that I am targeting in my audience.
- Idealists – people who cherish high or noble principles and are guided more by ideals than by practical considerations. While some consider these people naive or impractical, I find that it is a wonderful quality to envision an ideal world, of course, if the real one isn’t escaped for too long. Idealists would be enticed by the ideas presented in my animation because of the fantastical aspect – the doorway to another world that is more magical than this one.
- Artists – quite obviously, artistic people would greatly appreciate my animation, not only the style but also the creative visual structures. Their understanding of art movements such as surrealism would also help them cut through the layers of fantasy and understand the message faster than most.
- 16 – 25-year-olds – the age group of an average of 21 are best suited to watch my final product because they are mature enough to understand the deeper, more serious environmental themes but also young enough to feel inspired and want to make changes to their lifestyle, possibly. The chance of this happening decreases the older the viewer gets since their experience tends to make them more peaceful and docile, stereotypically, whereas I need a little fear and passion from my audience.
- Anti-environmentalists – whilst people who enjoy my animation would be fantastic, the most impactful change would occur if someone who originally had an opposing opinion to that presented in my project, watched the final animation and had a change of heart – even a little one. The more people understand what we are doing to our planet, the faster we will reach a unified front and tackle the problems at hand.
I’ve also recently done some extra recently to determine what gender I should be targeting. I looked into whether men or women were more inclined to like/engage with animation, art and environmentalism. Male audiences tend to prefer animation more, whereas female audiences tend to appreciate art more and are generally more eco-friendly. Because of this, I want to target the female audience, since I feel that they would be more likely to both enjoy and also act upon my animation and its message.
｡･ﾟﾟ･ The Client ･ﾟﾟ･｡
The next most important method that I jump to is researching the target audience of the client. For this project, no matter what my intentions are, I have to make sure that my product fits into Passion’s slot in the industry and that the media isn’t out of place with what they ‘sell’. When doing my client research, I discovered that their audience is incredibly broad and that they have an incredible reputation precisely because of their variety in media.
“ Their aim is not to perfect one classification and stay strictly within that lane but rather to make beautiful, thought-provoking films and enjoyable entertainment for everyone “
Focusing on their animation category, however, I could see that the advertisements were a blend of interesting visuals, product selling and important messages (such as environmentalism!). For this reason, I believe I am spot on with my target age group, since teenagers above 16 would be interesting thanks to the animation and adults over 20 would also hone in on the message. Idealists can also fit into Passion’s audience since animated worlds are often exaggerated and made to be more appealing than ours. I can now move forward knowing that my project fits into the demographics that I managed to discern for Passion’s animation category.
｡･ﾟﾟ･ The BBC Social Scale ･ﾟﾟ･｡
Social class (income and status) is a commonly researched demographic, albeit one that I personally don’t agree with. Knowing the audience’s ‘position in society can be helpful in determining how to advertise and price the product/service. Certain motifs can draw in different kinds of people by playing on familiar icons, colours, symbols, textures and more. Anything can be easily made to look higher or lower class, cheaper or more expensive or even designed only for people who have copious amounts of free time and money. Previously, we were introduced to a social scale which has 6 categories created by the national readership survey. I no longer use this scale since I believe that it is not only offensive but also outdated and inefficient for the type of work that I do, and this especially applies to this project because of the client, Passion, who are incredibly inclusive with their audience. A more recent and, in my opinion, better scaling system would be the BBC’s seven groups, constructed from surveying over 160,000 people. The groups better reflect modern occupations and lifestyles and are more objective and reasonable than those of the NRS.
I took the quiz whilst pretending to be a member of my target audience. In other words, with each question, I thought about how a person who might like my animation would be in that specific situation – who they would most likely know and what kind of activities they would normally partake in. At times I felt that the questions were a little vague and that it was hard to think about things like ‘income’ when my general age group is quite wide. I had a faint idea of my target audience and had to work off of that (expanded more in my pitch), but here is my result.
Precariats make up about 15% of the population and are on average 50 years old. I don’t think that I answered the questions correctly because I was aiming for a much younger group, around the 20s or 30s since they are just beginning to gain traction in their power as citizens and can make changes happen. Although 50-year-olds would most likely understand the message of my animation if somewhat explained, I think that the visuals and surrealistic themes would be confusing and bizarre to them and this would push them away from the project. Here are the rest of the economic, social and cultural factors:
- They tend to mix socially with people like them
- Jobs in this group include cleaner, van driver and care worker
- They tend not to have a broad range of cultural interests
- People in this group often live in old industrial areas away from urban centres
- More than 80% rent their home
By mixing socially with people most like them, precariats seem to be the closed-off types in terms of their mindset. They align more with people whose beliefs match theirs and would probably steer away from things that challenge their opinions, which is what my animation hopefully does for anti-environmentalists. Furthermore, the lack of cultural interests is the opposite of what I intend for my audience; I would like artistic people, who have an appreciation for a variety of creative subjects, to view my animation since they would take away more of the themes based on their understanding of the visual aspects. For these reasons, I disagree with the BBC’s result and don’t feel that this is my target audience. For this reason, it has helped me get closer to finding out what is!
｡･ﾟﾟ･ Factors of Psychographic Segmentation ･ﾟﾟ･｡
The next method that I usually use is psychographic segmentation, which divides consumers based on several different factors such as interests, personalities, activities, lifestyles and opinions. With this type of market segmentation, you can target different messages to different customer segments for a single product as well as highlight specific angles or parts of the product’s worth which are mutually beneficial to customers of a particular segment. By catering to consumers with similar likes and needs, companies can offer something of more value. I have done research on each category before and personality-based segmentation has been proven particularly effective. It is a variable that is dependent on two factors: the lifestyle and social class of the consumer. Personalities with rich tastes often lead a lifestyle that supports that and vice-versa, hence why a person’s financial status can be more influential than they think, subconsciously shaping their behaviours based on what is most likely to be in their surroundings and social circle.
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MAINSTREAMERS |
Seeks security. Tend to be domestic, conformist, conventional, sentimental – favourable for money family brands. The largest group, about 40% of the general population. |
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ASPIRERS |
Seeks status. Materialistic, acquisitive, orientated to image and appearance, persona and fashion. Typically younger people. |
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SUCCEEDERS |
Seeks control. Strong goals, confidence, work ethic and organisation. Typically higher management and professionals. |
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RESIGNED |
Seeks survival. Rigid and authoritarian values. Interested in past and tradition. Typically older generations. |
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EXPLORERS |
Seeks discovery, Energy, individualism, and experience. Values difference and adventure. Typically younger demographic (students). |
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STRUGGLERS |
Seeks escape. Alienated and disorganised. Few resources beyond physical skills. Buys alcohol, junk food, and lottery tickets. Typically‘lower’ demographics / income. |
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REFORMERS |
Seeks enlightenment. Freedom of restrictions and personal growth. Social awareness and independent judgment. Anti-materialistic but aware of good taste, socially aware & not influenced by brand/status, self-improvement. |
This table summarises the different personality segments that the audience can be grouped into. After reading through all of these and evaluating how each fits in Passion’s animation market and my project themes, I have decided on ‘Reformers’. Since the goal of my animation is to inspire understanding and eventually impactful change, people who seek knowledge, growth and improvement would be most swayed and provoked to think when watching ADDOED. I believe that they would enjoy the underlying message of the surrealistic elements and take away parts of the animation with them. Even inspiring someone to think about the environment more than they would usually spark a change later on, and this group would be most likely to act on that spark based on these traits.
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Target Audience Profile
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Based on the information that I gathered from all of the above methods, an avatar maker, PNGs and PowerPoint, I have created a target audience profile for my project.
As you can see, the demographics all fit my earliest ideas, such as the age group and gender. I decided on gen Z because our generation is most active right now in influencing change, such as the black lives matter movement, and I feel that when everyone realises how serious our ecological situation is, that will be the next big problem to tackle. Her spunky nature would add to the desire to attend protests, sign petitions and spread awareness. I don’t like deciding on an ethnic or national category but I went with the stereotypical average British student, not married as she is focusing on her education and living in a rented flat near her university. She is studying art and design, hoping to gain enough experience to start up her own business to sell her paintings and illustrations, so financially not well off at the moment. She is a creative, artistic person who has environmental values at her core and is somewhat of a modern ‘free spirit’, albeit menacing at times.
She fits well into my target audience because her view of the world is a brighter one and although she is aware of the issues and strives to help resolve them, she doesn’t lose her rose-tinted perspective and instead creates art about the world she hopes to revive, with a mix of vintage, boho and pop art styles (so she wouldn’t find surrealism alien or bizarre, but interesting and dynamic). She doesn’t watch TV so doesn’t see Passion’s adverts but occasionally watches cinematic trailers and so would be familiar with the media format. The only issue is I couldn’t make her an anti-environmentalist because it doesn’t fit into her profile or aesthetic. Ultimately, I had decided to focus less on the contrarians and more on people who would enjoy the animation and the thought-provoking poetry since I believe that they would be most likely to find it and are more active on sites such as Passion’s, where cool work is displayed in one place.