How a media industry identifies audiences for its products

Psychographic  Psychographic factors are more fluid and subjective in nature, and relate to the psychology or behaviour of the group.  Psychographic measures include values, opinions, political views, lifestyles, behaviours, leisure activities, desires, entertainment preferences, cultural interests and social activities.

 Psychographics is a generic term for consumers’ personality traits (serious, funny, conservative), beliefs and attitudes about social issues (opinions about abortion, environment, globalization), personal interests (music, sports, movie going), and shopping orientations (recreational shoppers, price-sensitive shoppers, convenience shoppers).  Mazda, for example, doesn’t define its target audience by age, income or gender, but by psychographic principles. Mazda targets people who have a need for self-expression, are young at heart, and love to drive

Demographic  demographics of consumers, including gender, age, education, household income, marital status, employment status, type of residence, and number of children in the household.  Using demographic variables, for example, the target audience of a media plan could be “individuals who are 26-to-45 years old with yearly household income of $50,000 or more” or “all households with children age 3 years or younger.”

AGE  The age group that people associate themselves with could be defined on questionnaires as an age range, such as 15-20, or as described in grouping.  Age is an important aspect to target a media product as certain age groups like certain things.

Gender  Male and female audiences usually have different tastes in media products.  This is not always the case though.  They have these different tastes due to society and different characteristics of their gender.

Sexual Orientation  Whether heterosexual or homosexual it can be related to consumer preference.  As society has changed and we live a world where equality matters. The media cashes in on this and sells.

Focus Groups  A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging.  Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members.

Questionnaires  A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents.  Questionnaires have advantages over some other types of surveys in that they are cheap, do not require as much effort from the questioner as verbal or telephone surveys, and often have standardized answers that make it simple to compile data

Face to face interviews  Interview provide an information that is in detail and can be more easily understood.  Interviews are completed by the interviewer based on what the interviewee says.  Interview is very time consuming.  the interviewer has the opportunity to probe or ask follow up questions.