UK Radio and Target Audience

Media Studies - Target Audience

"EVERY SINGLE MEDIA PRODUCT IS AIMED AT A SPECIFIC TARGET AUDIENCE!"

• The primary target audience is the people that the product is aimed at.
• The secondary audience are another group of people that might like the product but not the primary target.
• The tertiary audience are a group of people who the product is not aimed at but could potentially be enjoyed by.

When a media text is being planned, perhaps the most important question the producers consider is "does it have an audience?". If the answer to this is 'no', then there is no point in going any further. If no one is going to enjoy the product, the producers aren't going to make any money or get their message across. They use questionnaires , focus groups and comparisons to existing texts, and spend a long time finding out if there is anyone out there who might be interested in their idea.

Demographics - This is a way of grouping people together based on certain factors such as race,age,gender,economic status,level of education, income level and employment among others.

Psychographics Table

NRS Social Grade Classification Scale

The NRS Social Grade Classification Scale is a measurement of social grade, social status and occupation.

Social Grade A = Upper Middle Class = Higher managerial, administrative or professional.

Social Grade B = Middle Class = Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional.

Social Grade C1 = Lower Middle Class = Supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional.

Social Grade C2 = Skilled Working Class = Skilled manual workers.

Social Grade D = Working Class = Semi and unskilled manual workers.

Social Grade E = Those at the lowest level subsistence = State pensioners or widows (no other earner) , casual or lowest grade workers.

What are the Pros and the Cons of Demographics and Psychographics?

	Demographics	Psychographics
Pros	- If you use several categories together and use the NRS scale it can create a generally similar answer. - It can be cheap and easy to get information.	- People can quite easily fit into this category. - People can put themselves into this category more easily. - It doesn't constrain people to their education or gender.
Cons	- It generalises too much for example somebody in category B may have different interests to another person in the category. - It could be difficult to fit people into the NRS scale. - People can change professions quite a lot. - People could fit into more than one category on the NRS scale. - It could be outdated.	- People may feel that they fit into more than one category. - The information cannot be found on the census and therefore would take more time, effort and money to get this information.

How to radio stations use this?

Radio stations can use both methods of obtaining information and create an 'ideal' radio listener. An ideal listener is a radio producer's imagines, intended audience. It could be a group of individuals that will be addressed, persuaded or affected by what they are hearing. Imagining such an audience allows a producer to TARGET a particular group - thus ensuring their radio news bulletin appeals to those who are tuning in. This is so that every thing put out on their radio stations (song, news, chat and interview) should be aimed at this ideal listener because the output needs to be appealing to those who are listening and therefore listeners can be lost which means money can be lost. The BBC's ideal listener was 'Dave and Sue' who were the ideal listeners. The BBC local radio concept of 'Dave and Sue' became controversial saying that 'Project Bullseye' had turned radio into a 'blandly uniform comedy' and that the BBC were following these rules too strictly and not focusing enough on the local listeners.