Download Demographics and audiences

Demographics & Audiences
Marketing researchers have two objectives: first to
determine what segments or subgroups exist in
the overall population; and secondly to create a
clear and complete picture of the characteristics
of a typical member of each of these segments.
Once these profiles are constructed, they can be
used to develop a marketing strategies.
The four types of demographics in marketing are:
age, gender, race, and income level.
Demographic profiles in marketing
Marketers typically combine several variables to define a
demographic profile.
This provides information about the typical member of
this group to create a mental picture of this
hypothetical consumer.
For example, a marketer might speak of the single,
female, middle-class, age 18 to 24, college educated
demographic.
Wrong audience!
Demographics Classifications
Social Grade Social Status
Occupation
A
Upper middle class
higher managerial,
administrative or professional
B
Middle class
intermediate managerial,
administrative or professional
C1
Lower middle class
supervisory or clerical, junior
managerial, administrative or
professional
C2
Skilled working class
skilled manual workers
D
Working class
semi and unskilled manual
workers
E
Those at lowest level of
subsistence
state pensioners or widows
(no other earner), casual or
lowest grade workers
Criticisms
• Critics of demographic profiling argue that
such broad-brush generalisations can only
offer such limited insight that their practical
usefulness is debatable.
• Not all marketing plans work. So
generalisations can only suggest trends,
rather than be specific.
• So how influenced by
marketing are we?
1. The effects model
The earliest theories imagined that mass media
had very strong effects on their audiences. This
model saw the media message as a kind of
"magic bullet." Sent out by the organization, the
magic bullets "hit" the members of the audience
in their "minds" and changed their thoughts.
• The bullet theory assumed that an
audience was passive, waiting for the
media to shoot a propaganda message
into it, and would roll over in a state of
docile surrender when hit, as long as the
bullet was sufficiently powerful.
Must watch new Nicolas Cage
film.
2. The Uses and Gratifications Model
• In the uses and gratifications approach the
audience is active. Audience members are seen
as consumers of a media product, and as with
consumers of other goods and services, they
shop around, consider alternatives, and make
choices.
Instead of asking, "how does the media
change our minds?" the uses and
gratifications researchers ask "what is the
role of media in our lives?"
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Here are some examples of the uses to which the media are put:
Getting the "news"
Getting information about available products and services
Establishing common topics to talk about with friends
Creating a substitute for having friends
Providing a way to feel connected to other members of the audience
Providing a way to escape from the day's problems and worries
• In this view media becomes just one of many
cultural influences in our environment, and far
from the most important.
In this view media becomes just one of
many cultural influences in our
environment, and far from the most
important.
Nicolas Cage? No,
I’d rather read
philosophy.
3. Two-step Flow (or Interpersonal
Diffusion)
• This theory states that certain members of the
audience, called "opinion leaders," would be
more influential than other members. In theory
the opinion leaders would make up their minds
as to what the media messages meant and then
tell their friends and neighbours.
• However, different people seem to be the opinion
leaders on different subjects. Because of this, it was
(and continues to be) very difficult to find a simple
explanation for the spread, or diffusion, of the content of
media messages through a society.
That looks
great!
That looks
terrible!
I want to
see that!
Which theory is right?
• Effects model (or bullet model, or
hypodermic model)
• Uses and gratifications model
• Two-step flow (or interpersonal diffusion
model)