Audience Research

To ensure that all of the promotional materials appeal to the correct target audience, we have, as a group, decided to introduce a focus group to witness the development of our products and provide us with feedback at each different creative stage. Currently, some of the members of our focus group have provided their opinions on what they consider to be strengths and weaknesses of the real media artefacts we have been investigating. When moving forward, the focus group will provide us with feedback on our promotional works at periodic intervals. This will allow us to make our products to the best of our ability and to explain decisions about the development of the product through detailed evaluations. 

When we were assembling our focus group, the goal was to come up with a representative sample of our target audience. In order to decide on a target audience we began by creating a profile of a typical member using theories such as 'Register General's Social Scale' and 'Selby's Psychographic Cluster'.

Audience Profile:

Age: 15-24

Gender: Mixed, but primarily female

Register General's Social Scale: C1/B/E 

Selby's Psychographic Cluster: 'Innovators: who wish to make their mark'

The Register General's Social scale is the way the British Government defines the populace through their occupation:

Group	Occupations
A	Professional Workers (lawyers, doctors etc.), Scientists, Managers of large-scale organisations.
B	Shopkeepers, Farmers, Teachers, White-collar workers.
C1	Skilled Manual (i.e. hand) workers – e.g. high grade, e.g. master builders, carpenters, shop assistants, nurses.
C2	Skilled Manual – low grade, e.g. electricians, plumbers.
D	Semi-skilled Manual, e.g. bus drivers, lorry drivers, fitters.
E	Unskilled Manual, e.g. general labourers, barmen, porters.

Values, attitudes and lifestyles (VALS) is possibly a better way of defining audiences by categorising them into groups by the values and attitudes they hold, along with the lifestyle they have. These are psychographic variables (psychographics is the study of personality, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyles).

Description:
A typical member of our target audience would be a female, however the various promotions will be targeted for both males and females. When researching The Chainsmokers original productions and who typically goes to see them live, we personally felt that they catered slightly more for women than men. They would also be in their late teens or early twenties - perhaps a sixth-form/university student. They would be someone who wishes to strive in the world they are present in and make their mark and could possibly see themselves as rebellious - someone who wishes to remake their world in their own image. We also think that the members of our target audience would most defiantly enjoy going to gigs and festivals, much like those of Nass and Boomtown, where dance/EDM music is sort after.

In terms of Elihu Katz's 'Uses and Gratifications', they would be someone who gains a sense of their own identity from the music they listen to and someone who uses music as a form of escapism from the stresses of everyday life drama. The 'Uses and Gratifications' model suggests that audiences use the media rather than being used by the media.

Focus Group:
Using this audience profile (above) as a base, we compiled a group of five people who are within the same friendship group so to an extent share similarities and are similar ages/genders with our target audience. We will continue to use the exact same members of the focus group throughout the development of our coursework and evaluations.

Phoebe: Studies drama, English literature and philosophy and ethics at A-Level. Her hobbies consist of playing guitar (very musical person and enjoys going to gigs and festivals), blogging and reading.

James: Studies maths, economics and geography. His hobbies are football, going to the gym and socialising.

Alex: Studies history, geography and business studies. Hobbies consist of horse riding and socialising with friends from school and work.

Scarlett: Studies geography, business studies and drama. Her hobbies include dancing, athletics and socialising with friends.

Ben: Studies psychology, biology and chemistry. Ben's hobbies include playing cricket and attending gigs.