Sunday, 25 October 2015

Advert demographics, psychographics and techniques

How and why do advertisers target audiences?
Why is it important for advertisers to classify and target audiences?
When creating a product, producers always have a rough idea as to who their main target audience will be. The product could be some new school shoes that light up so therefore the target audience will be school children and then perhaps narrowed down to primary school children. It is deeply important for a target audience to be set so that they know how to approach the making of the advert, what content to have, what the pace of the editing should be like and how to keep it interesting to the specific age range of the target audience.

What methods are there for classifying audiences?
There are many demographic and psychographic ways of classifying audiences here are some examples:
Demographic:

-          Social grades:
Social grades are exactly what the name says. People are graded on their level of class, A being the highest class and E being the lowest. The most common social grade is C1 and C2 this is because these two grades are for working class people.
-          Household income:
Household income is based on who within the household takes in the most income. Advertisers look at how much income one household is taking in from the person who has the most income. This can be an unfair strategy because nobody in the household could be taking in any working income so therefore they won’t be advertised to.
Another disadvantage to this is the main household worker may not be taking in a lot of income.
-          Age:
Age is a typical demographic classification. The advertisers review who their product would appeal to the most and then they create the advert to appeal to that certain age range.
-          Gender:
Gender is another typical demographic classification. It is reasonably self-explanatory. The advertisers will look at what gender their product will appeal to the most and then create that advert based on the gender of their target audience.

Psychographic:

-          Interests:
The advertisers will look at what interest people and that will help form their target audience. They can find out interests through market research. They can send out a survey and the results will help determine the target audience.
-          Music:
The advertisers will look at the musical interests of people. This is usually based around the product. If the product is a set of earphones, they may look at what music works best for the ear phones (metal, dub-step etc.) and then they will look at what music people listen to and aim the advert based on that specific genre.
-          Beliefs:
This is very rarely looked at and is looked at the same way as interests and music. They will look at the beliefs through market research and then base their advert around that.

Now I will put on some adverts and link them to the demographic and psychographics of which I think they’re based and what techniques they use. I will add my reasons why I think they’re based around each thing.

Compare the meerkat – advert 52: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ADHb1p4lv8
Demographic/Psychographic/Techniques
Reasons
Age (demographic)
The advert offers 2 for 1 on cinema tickets at the end. Younger people who have perhaps just learned to drive will be drawn to this because the cinema is mainly visited by younger generations.
Celebrity endorsement (technique)
The advert has Arnold Schwarzenegger who is an older celebrity and well known. This may appeal to middle aged people because they have a better chance of knowing who he is and this may draw them to the advert. 

Age UK advert – love later life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EXdLhEyUHw
Demographic/Psychographic/Techniques
Reasons
Age (demographic)
This is aimed at older people. The company itself is aimed at older people. This is an obvious demographic and it will encourage and determine older people to do something and get motivated to do something with their free time e.g. make a website or app (as suggested in the advert).
Maternal (technique)
At the beginning of the advert there is a baby. This may instantly trigger the maternal instincts of someone. Older people seem to be more maternal anyway in my opinion so they will continue watching the advert and will be more intrigues on listening and watching it.
Music (psychographic)
The music is slow but joyful at the same time which is what older people normally go for. Older people prefer peaceful and slow music as opposed to a fast pop track. This will help them connect with the advert and gain a better understanding as to what the advert is about and it will give them a relaxed feel from the advert.


McVities digestive biscuit advert - kittens  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxXZ_uEVr9c

Demographic/Psychographic/Techniques
Reasons
Paternal (technique)
The advert is based around kittens. This will naturally make any paternal person go “aww” at the advert which will make them want to continue watching it because to a paternal person, kittens will be cute and they will be drawn into watching the advert and finding out what the product is.
Social grades (demographic)
This advert is based in some sort of hospital. It is some nurses on their break and they open a packet of digestives. This is aimed at working class people (Grades c1-c2) so it will attract and draw in working people. They will then feel like buying a pack of digestives for their break at work.
Age (demographic)
The advert is based on working class people. Working class people don’t usually attend school or college and only go to work so therefore people who have full time jobs will be more intrigued by this advert, however this can be argued because it may appeal to children because of the kittens and children are automatically more drawn in to small, cute things.

No comments:

Post a Comment