A key part of the fantasy brief is understanding the target audience. So, we had a lesson on this topic and I’ll be covering the notes I took in this blog, as well as any extra research I did outside of the lesson.

First, it is important to know what demographics are, since they fit into the apprehension of the target audience. The definition of demographics is the statistical data of a population, especially those showing average age, income, education etc. I found it pretty simple to understand what demographics are, as in my head, they are different ways of grouping people and showing averages in relation to a certain thing (e.g a Netflix series!). But actually utilising this knowledge, later on, was a little bit difficult for me. Here are some examples of demographics:

Gender / Age / Sexual Orientation / Relationship Status / Qualifications​ / Employment Status /  Employment Routine /  Household Income​ / ‘Additional’ Requirements (Disabilities, Medicine, Mental Health etc)

Let’s consider the fantasy genre, and what a fantasy fan is typically associated with. Well, the typical fantasy fan is a male in their 20’s, in university or full time- employment. Based on this fact alone, I already began to understand more about what type of people are drawn towards fantasy media.

Another method of generalising an audience would be to use scaling systems, which use categories to identify different parts of the population in a specific order or rank. The social class scale is one that is still used today by media publishers even though it can confusing and outdated.

Now that we have established what demographics are, let’s go even deeper with psychographics. I hazarded a guess at what this word means before learning about the definition, and based off of the first part ‘psych’, I assumed that it would be something to do with the mind or the behavioural traits that people have. This was more or less correct:

“Psychographic information might be your buyer’s habits, hobbies, spending habits and values. Demographics explain ‘who’ your buyer is, while psychographics explains ‘why’ they buy.”

So, once a baseline group is established, the habits and traits of that chosen demographic are looked into to give you a sense of how to effectively target them. Things like values, desires, goals, interests, and lifestyle choices –

​Time with friends /  Concerned with health/appearance /  Online presence​ / Favours quality over economy / Fulfillment in career/family​ / Enjoys holidays /  Massive Football & Rugby Fan Owns / cares for pets

I still didn’t feel all that clear on psychographics yet. It was understandable in its definition, but I wanted to have a better grasp on the categories and how they were used by marketers. Whilst researching, I fell upon something called psychographic segmentation, which divides consumers based on their interests, personalities, activities and other similar factors. It is a type of market segmentation which is done to cater to consumers with similar likes and needs and offer them something they value. Using it, companies can target different messages to different customer segments for a single product and highlight specific parts or different angles of product’s worth which are mutually beneficial to customers of one segment. I also realised that the different variables or factors of this type of market segmentation are divided into several different types and went onto to look at some of the more commonly used ones. For this post, however, I will go into the three which I feel are most beneficial to my understanding and work.

Lifestyle Based Segmentation

 

This is by far the most common and popular type of psychographic market segmentation companies use, especially for retail sectors like clothing. Based on personal lifestyle, every person dresses differently. Based on this segmentation clothing brands target consumers based on which stage of lifestyle they are in. Are they school going kids, are they college going teens, are they professionals or office goers, are they housewives, are they retired, etc. Another lifestyle aspect that is highly considered is whether the consumer is a rural or urban dweller.

 

Personality Based Segmentation

 

Personality is a variable of psychographic segmentation that is dependant on two factors: the lifestyle and social class of the consumer. A personality that has a rich taste and preference will definitely have the buying power to maintain an equal lifestyle. A person who loves to dress lavishly will need the buying power to maintain that personality trait, and owing to the high buying power, will lead a life that is supportive of his or her personality.  Brands often use this kind of market strategy, as different brands target different personalities.

 

Attitude Based Segmentation

 

Every individual carries a uniquely shaped value due to their surroundings, culture, upbringing, etc, which further define their attitude towards different things. For example, an individual that belongs to a conservative background will carry certain aspects in their attitudes, that will restrain them from buying any product that challenges those beliefs, irrespective of whatever social class or lifestyle they belong to.

 

The type of segmentation that I went with is personality segmentation, as I feel that it will be most indicative of the types of people that will be watching my show, rather than going for something along the lines of lifestyle, which I feel won’t be as accurate in generalising an audience for a fictional piece of media. Here is a table that outlines different personality types:

 

MAINSTREAMERS​	Seeks security. Tend to be domestic, conformist, conventional, sentimental – favourable for money family brands. The largest group, about 40% of the general population​.
ASPIRERS​	Seeks status. Materialistic, acquisitive, orientated to image and appearance, persona and fashion. Typically younger people​.
SUCCEEDERS​	Seeks control. Strong goals, confidence, work ethic and organisation. Typically higher management and professionals​.
RESIGNED​	Seeks survival. Rigid and authoritarian values. Interested in past and tradition. Typically older generations​.
EXPLORERS​	Seeks discovery, Energy, individualism, and experience. Values difference and adventure. Typically younger demographic (students)​.
STRUGGLERS​	Seeks escape. Alienated and disorganised. Few resources beyond physical skills. Buys alcohol, junk food, lottery tickets. Typically‘lower’ demographics / income​.
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​.

 

Now to consider the fantasy brief. A quick outline of my concept would be a good starting point in thinking about a target audience –

My show is based in a fantasy world where a tyrannical ruler has brought about a dark age. His original name is Kreo Ardewulf although most know him as Lord Umber, the fearsome overlord who stops at nothing to enslave all to his dark army and rule all of the lands in the world. He has conquered almost all of them, except for the fae kingdom which has stood strong and is one of the few safe places left. The story follows several characters, but the main ones are Kreo, a fairy warrior (name yet to be determined) and a mage/sorcerer (name yet to be determined). The main themes are epic and dark fantasy. 

The world I have created for my show is one that I have designed to be extremely problematic, in that it deals with a lot of similar injustices as ours does. This is vital to the characters and story, as a lot of the issues cause massive impacts to both. I needed to consider this for my audience, who will relate to or misunderstand certain parts. My aim is to bring about awareness to the problems we need to give more attention to, but this has to be done in a calculated and precise manner, as leaving too heavily on the complications may repel certain audiences.

My target demographic is straight males between the ages of 18 and 28 who are in a relationship and are either in university or in full-time employment. The reason for this is because this demographic fits in with the typical fantasy fan, as well as being ideal for the messages I want to instil with my show. There will be LGBTQ in this world and relationships that stray from the current ‘norm’ (straight) are considered normal and I feel that this is important to be normalised, so, even though a lot of straight males might find this a little strange at first, I am confident that they will grow accustomed, if they aren’t already as a lot of fantasy fans are generally more accepting of LGBT relationships. 18 and 28 is the best age range as much of the younger audience will probably be in university and seeking a break or escape from their routines, will turn towards fantasy (higher fantasy will fit even better since they aren’t children and won’t be as interested in the show wasn’t heavy in terms of themes and content). Whilst the older percentage of the audience will probably be a part of the working class or skilled working class (C2/D) again, seeking that escape from jobs that can be considered a bit monotonous, as well as relating to characters like Kreo, who have had to struggle a lot of their lives and started from the bottom, climbing their way to the top. I feel that this demographic will be drawn towards Kreo especially, sympathise and maybe even idolize him for fighting against the problems that push him down, fixating on this so much that he strays from the right path, which will be a good lesson to appreciate all that you already have.

As for the psychographic segment that best applies, I say strugglers. Explorers and mainstreamers are definite second and thirds, but once I read the definition for strugglers, I knew that this was psychographic that I should focus on and that best fits the chosen demographic. Firstly, a lot of students struggle with mental issues or feeling directionless, lost or alienated. In fact, I think a lot of uni students fit this psychographic, especially with the financial struggles and stress, so it would make sense to aim this show towards them, as they make up most of the demographic and seek ‘escape’ which is something that fantasy could definitely provide. Secondly, it says that strugglers tend to buy alcohol and junk food, which implies that they are the ‘self-destructive’ type and look for comfort in harmful habits. I think that my show would be an excellent way to combat this because as I said before, the world deals with a lot of heavy topics that reflect our reality, and strugglers could empathise with a lot of the character’s problems because of this, feeling that their journey in some way reflects their own. And in some ways, finding a friend in the fictional series. Of course, this tendency in being absorbed into something can also be bad, as they may lose their grip on reality even more, so I intend to try and redeem as many characters as possible, and show that it is indeed plausible and realistic, for someone who has been beaten down by the world, to get back up and steer themselves towards the right path.

Now knowing the types of people that I aim to make this show for, I have also realised that some changes need to be made. I know that I need to focus on making the characters as real as possible so that they are relatable, but also people who can teach the audience important lessons and help them stand back up and take control. Helping people come out of destructive spirals is not the only purpose of the show, however, and I cannot forget that I want it to be for entertainment and joy as well. A big change that I will make is showing the beauty, honour and legacy of my fantasy world, instead of just the problems and issues that it throws at the characters. One way I am going to do this, includes more of the Fae world, one of the few sanctuaries left, and showcase as much of the happiness and life as I can, to try and balance out the darkness of the world. I feel that it is important to show the audience that even in times of darkness, there is always hope and excitement to be found, something good to fight for, so in the animation, I will also show some more of the kingdom.

After deciding all this, however, I still felt unsure of something. The social scaling system confused me, in terms of how we were meant to use it. We were to choose the best suited demographic for our show and make any changes necessary, but despite doing this, I was still confused as to how it worked and how it was relevant to today. So, I decided to try and see if using a different scaling system would be better, and I was introduced to BBC’s updated one recently.

The BBC teamed up with sociologists from leading universities to analyse the modern British class system. They surveyed more than 161,000 people and came up with a new model made up of seven groups. This sounded much more logical to me and I decided to see what it was all about. Here are the seven groups which are the new categories for the population.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may notice that the last one says ‘you’ and the reason for this is because I tried out the calculator myself, and this is the result I got. I wasn’t being myself however, I was trying to answer the questions as my target demographic and a lot of the answers ended up overlapping with the kind of things I’d put as myself.

 

The Old vs The New

 

This is a little section I decided to add in about my opinions on the old scaling system versus the new one by BBC. I think that the new one is much better and more easily understood and it reflects the current economic state of our country in a more accurate light. Instead of grouping people by their income and skillset and creating a hierarchy which emulates the same ideology from Victorian times, the BBC system rates people by the same factors and sorts them into their own category, reflective of the similarities of other such people. The older classification doesn’t things like that, immediately assuming that the most wealthy are the most cultured and educated which isn’t a good indicator of the type of film/TV they like to watch as this would be based more on interests. Things like social life and hobbies and interests are also considered by the BBC which is why it feels and looks much more modern and relatable, as people’s lives as a whole are presented (more or less). I believe that everyone should be using this new system over the old one as it can help create a better understanding of an audience, and lead to precise statistical data to use for demographics.

 

My Result

 

My result for the BBC calculator was ‘Affluent Worker’, which is the new demographic for my show (based on this new scale). It describes this data group as:

Sociable has lots of cultural interests and is in the middle of all the class groups in terms of wealth.

According to the Great British Class Survey results, lots of the people in this group:

• Are young – This works with my age demographic (18-28) and also fits in with my aim to inspire people with important messages since younger people tend to be more open-minded and flexible.
• Comes from a working background – Again, this fits well as the ‘elite’ or ‘upper-class’ usually have ‘finer’ tastes and don’t watch a lot of fantasy. The working background also tends to seek escapism more, which works with my psychographic choice (strugglers).
• Own their own home – This means that they are generally quite an independent group and it is relevant to my age range.

Here is some more general information about this group –

 

 

I’d say all of these aspects fit well with my concept and goals. New affluent workers are shown to be engaged with emerging culture and are quite sociable as well, which are important traits in order to like fantasy with deep subtext. I think that this group is modern and forward-thinking and would enjoy my show and the ideas it presents, as well as fitting the age range which is best known for fantasy lovers, although the average age range here is shown to be 44, my calculator result shows that most of them are young. Overall, using the BBC social scale has presented me with a much clearer demographic, and allowed me to see what interests and activities correlate with the financial and figurative aspect in a person’s life so that I have a better understanding of my target audience.