Media Studies - Audience and theory

Demographics and psychographics

Demographic audience categorisation (Demographics): This is where an audience is grouped and classified based on qualities such as age, gender, race, occupation and income. In basic terms, demographics describes who someone is and what kind of life they lead. For example, an advert advertising a car may be targeted at people who are middle aged, male and have a high income. Demographics may also be referred to as lifestyle or lifestage factors.

Psychographic audience categorisation (Psychographics): Psychographics are used in order to describe the attitudes and values of a target audience. The Young and Rubicam's 4-C model groups everyone into seven categories based on these attitudes and values. These are:

The Explorer: These people are driven by the need for challenges and new experiences. They respond to brands that offer new sensations and instant effects. They value new ideas, new experiences and their core need in life is discovery.

The Aspirer: These kinds of people are materialistic that are driven by others perceptions of them rather than their own values. They value image, appearance and fashion. Their core need in life is status.

The mainstreamer: These are people who live in the world of the domestic and the everyday. They are the mainstream of society and they respond to family brands and value for money. Also, they are interested in things that they can trust and value. Their core need in life is security.

The Succeeder: Succeeders have a strong goal and they know where they want to be. They possess self-confidence and seek the best things because they feel like that is what they deserve. Their core need in life is control.

The Reformer: Reformers are socially aware and pride themselves on tolerance. They are often perceived as being intellectual and being the leading edge of society. They believe that they're well informed. Their core need in life is enlightenment.

The Struggler: Strugglers live for today and make few plans for tomorrow. Some people may perceive strugglers as victims, wasters and losers with little aims and few resources. They may be heavy consumers of alcohol and junk food and may also be unemployed. Their core need in life is escape.

The Resigned: These are predominantly older people with constant and unchanging values that have built up over time. They like nostalgia, tradition and brands that they can rely on. Their core need in life is simply to survive.