What is Target Audience?
Demographic Factors:
Age: This indicates the appropriate content, for example, people under 18 cannot see some types of content because they are not classified as adults yet.
Gender: Different genders are usually drawn to different content and themes. For example, romance films are usually focused on female audience whereas action films are focused on male audience.
Sexual Orientation: viewers attitude towards different sexual orientation differs between person to person.
Family life cycle: emotional and intellectual stages the person goes through as a family member affects the preference to films and film genres.
Race: Particular races are drawn to different genres. Judging by (http://web.calstatela.edu/faculty/sfischo/media3.html) Asians like Romance and Drama rather than Action.
Level of Income: The income affects the likelihood of spending money on entertainment purposes such as a film. High income = more spending on entertainment.
Education: People who like problem solving and mathematics could be drawn to problem solving film genres.
Religion: A person's religion may affect their beliefs and moral values.
Nationality: culture varies on the place the person was born.
Psychographic Factors: The personality including beliefs, interests and attitudes towards certain subjects.
Geographic Factors: The nationality of the audience (place of birth) such as a city, country etc.
Considering the audience for a product is quite important in order to predict how appealing it would be to the consumers. However, assuming their needs and wants isn't always effective, it is important to have a general knowledge of the consumers by making a questionnaire and doing research. Knowing the target audience reduces the risk of failure, this means that it is possible to build a fan base before releasing the product which provides a rough knowledge of potential profit. Therefore, films have trailers as a way to advertise and build a fan base which benefits the production company.
Psychological thrillers - Comparable profiles
I decided to research some new release psychological thriller movies, to get a more up to date collection of results. I have used http://business.pearlanddean.com/films_guide to collect some demographic facts of audiences from these particular movies.
Film 1: Split (2017)
The film will be released on the 20th of January in 2017. The film doesn't have an age rating yet but I assume it will be rated 15 or above due to violence and according to the results in the comparable profile from a previous film called 'Nightcrawler'. The table states that the majority of the audience will be males which could be due to genre and this particular story that has a slight 'horror' feel to it. It appears that the protagonist is a male due to the title of the film 'Split', it relates to his split personality disorder. The audience seem to be mostly in the middle and lower social classes.In the trailer, the characters seem to be in the middle class just like the predicted audience. Moreover, the film will have more 45+ audience than 35-44 by 2%, as the film also appeals to older audience as it is quite serious in some sense and features a well known actor. Overall, the reason why this film appeals to younger audience is because the audience are most likely thrill seeking.
There was no information on the 'Nightcrawler' comparable profile, therefore I've decided to use a comparable profile for a film called "Don't Breathe" released in 9th of September 2016. The comparable profile for "Don't Breathe" (Horror/Thriller) is using the results gained from a film called "House at the End of the Street". The film is expected to have more female audience rather than male audience (57% female). The class is distributed mainly around middle to higher class and the age range is mainly people aged 15 or more (51%) followed by audience aged 25 to 34 (24%). The main characters are teenagers, therefore the film should mostly appeal to young audience as it's more relatable. Additionally, the disturbing story line is more appealing to the younger generation than older generation due to the thrilling mood it gives to the audience. Jane Levy is on the film poster, and acts as a main character which could explain why females are more likely to watch the film - because the main character is a female, therefore is more relatable.
After finding out that "Don't Breathe" used "House at the End of the Street", I've decided to look at the comparable profile of that movie (which is also a horror and a thriller). "House at the End of the Street" used audience results from a horror films called "The Grudge 2". The results state that the audience were equally males as well as females (50% each). The classes were distributed almost equally, with C1 and C2 being the main classes. However, this comparable profile also has the majority of people aged 15 + as their main audience (58% were aged 15 to 24). The film's cast is Jennifer Lawrence, a well known actress. However, her being a female impacted the percentage of audience's gender (57% females watched the film) compared to the predicted 50% from "The Grudge 2" comparable profile.
Evidently, "The Grudge 2" predicted it's audience from their previously made film "The Grudge". However, there were more males watching the film rather than females (by 1%). Therefore, the gender was almost equal. "The Grudge 2" predicted their audience incredibly well because their film is based on a previous film which makes it easier for them to get a fan base and know about their audience. The class is also mainly C1, followed by DE suggesting that people in lower class were likely watch the film. On the other hand films with a big budget usually attract richer audience due to quality and the more expensive price.
The grudge conducted it's audience based on a film called "28 Days". Once again, the majority of the audience are male and the age varies mainly from 15 to 34 years old. Overall, comparable profiles are useful for predicting audience because it is mainly similar meaning that it's easier to get the idea of potential audience for the product. Knowing my audience, I could alter my product based on their needs or find out where it would be appropriate to place the advertisement.
How will this research affect my ideas?
Researching the comparable profiles for target audiences of various films helped me understand what my own target audience will most likely be based on the comparable profile results and the questionnaire I produced. Additionally, even though a lot of films are for both genres equally, the films I've researched mostly have males as their target audience, therefore I concluded that the percentage of males will be slightly bigger than the percentage of females in my trailer. I will assume that I will have 51% of males and 49% of females watching the film.
I predicted my 'typical' target audience by going on a website called:
https://yougov.co.uk/profileslite#/
I analysed the audience of 3 films of my genre (American Psycho, Jacob's Ladder and Black Swan) to predict my target audience and their personalities.
For "Black Swan", the audience are mainly female because the main character is a female. It's plot revolves around ballerina dancing which is considered a girly sport. The main target audience also appears to be mostly young adults because this type of film is a psychological thriller and therefore is not considered for children due to its 'hard to understand' nature. The target audience appear intelligent because of the activities they are most likely to do which is reading a non-fiction book.
Jacob's Ladder target audience mainly consists of males who are more mature in terms of age. The protagonist is also a male and the main character is an adult. Therefore, the viewers relate more to the film. Moreover, the audience are older because this film is also a Psychological Thriller meaning that you need to be an adult to understand the plot correctly.
American Psycho's target audience are young adults and are mainly males. However, the gender is male unlike female in 'Black Swan'. The protagonist is a male and the plot consists of a wealthy business man having psychotic thoughts. This film is considered manly due to their careers, the film involves business suits and mistresses. The film also features music tapes which could appeal this group of audience because they are generally interested in music.
Finally, I created a mood-board/collage in order to get a clear idea of my target audience. I concluded various things based on the comparable profiles and the yougov website. The majority of comparable profiles and yougov profiles were male, therefore I've decided that my trailer will be targeted slightly more towards males rather than females even though the protagonist will be a female. I also decided the age range based on the genre and comparable profiles (as the age range always starts from young adults). On the right side of the image, I've got an average male with objects my target audience might enjoy such as boxing and burritos. Two out of three yougov profiles stated that they like cats, which suggests that my audience will be more drawn towards cats rather than dogs. Additionally, two out of three yougov profiles were shown that they are from South East region of the UK in cities like Brighton, Canterbury and Southampton. Other films (other than Black Swan, Jacob's Ladder and American Psycho) my audience would like are: Memoirs of Geisha, Fight Club, Rosemary's Baby and American Beauty.
