Audience: Demographics & Psychographics

The first aspect of the Audience key concept we need to study is how media companies target and classify audiences.

In order to do this, we need to learn about audience demographics and psychographics. These are two crucial aspects of how audiences are classified and identified by media companies. 

Notes from today's lesson on Audience

Demographic classification:

• Age
• Gender
• Education
• Social class
• Race/ethnicity
• Job/profession/earnings
• Home (city/village/countryside)

Social class classification

Advertisers have traditionally classified people into the following groups:

• AB – Managerial and professional 
• C1 – Supervisory and clerical 
• C2 – Skilled manual 
• DE – Unskilled manual and unemployed

Audience profiles

Advertisers these days are interested in more than just a social class classification. Now they try to sell a brand or lifestyle.

So you also need to think about the kind of brands your audience will be interested in.

Armani and Porsche? Banana Republic and Apple? John Lewis and The Times? Nike and PlayStation? Peppa Pig and Haribo?

Psychographics

Media companies use audience profiling to create a more detailed picture of their audience. One method is called psychographics and involves looking at the audience's personality, interests and the brands and lifestyle they enjoy.

Demographics and psychographics blog tasks

1) Your own demographics and psychographics.

Write out the demographic and psychographic groups that YOU fit into:

Demographics

Age:

Gender:

Education:

Race/ethnicity: 

Where you live:

Psychographics

Which psychographic groups do you feel you fit into? Explain your answer - say why.

2) Demographics and psychographics for a media product

Choose a TV programme or videogame and write what demographic and psychographic groups might be interested in that product.

Extension task 

Read this BBC Bitesize page on Target Audience. Write down three things you have learned from reading this BBC revision guide.