Profiling In The Media

Defining Media Audience

Audience profiling is an important concept which all media conglomerate corporations should be performing. By doing this they will be able to portray the correct products to an audience in the best way possible. The way they do this is by gathering information such as: Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Sexuality, Ocupation, Education, Interests, Annual and disposable income. In this essay I will explain important components of profiling in the media.

Demographics

This is the way an organization will approach marketing their products or services, by using certain approaches to areas of the community. Using demographics is an essential scheme involved with marketing, it is primarily used to distinguish the community in different

Psychographics scale:

Resigned Strict and authoritarian, tend to be very traditional. Buying choices lean towards a safer option. Usually older consumers.

Struggler Disorganized and predominantly have labor or mechanical skills. Avid consumers of alcohol and junk food, Consumer choices tend to be towards sensation. These people seek escapism.

Mainstreamer Very domestic and often conformists. Seek security and value for money from big family brands. Big followers of the latest happenings.

Aspirer Materialistic and orientated towards self image. Often charismatic, value self preservation. Mostly younger buyers.

Succeder Often aims high and have a strong work ethic. Consumer choices are based around prestige and the best brands. Usually professional jobs.

Explorer Energetic and always looking for new experiences. Consumer purchases often are influenced by adventure and seeking discovery. Usually students.

Reformer Socially aware and Independent. Dislike bad taste, they are often curious. Supportive of new products. favor naturalistic and simple things.

A short example would be before you hand out a survey on a large scale, you could collect qualitative research first by gaining insight on what your consumers think is important.

BARB

This was devised in 1981 in order to give the media industry a better insight on television viewing figures. This particular company is owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BSkyB and IPA. BARB pays research industries to give them important services which they need access to, this includes audience viewing figures. The audience measurements contracts are owned by RSMB, Ipsos MORI and Kantar Media.

They way they work is by following patterns from selected households, and monitoring changes in viewing characteristics in the UK. From this data they can see what types of households they need to track to be sure that it is an accurate representation of the whole UK. They will find homes which fit into those demographics and geographic area. BARB has 5100 homes at current. The ages monitored from this include anyone over the age of 4.

Companies can access BARB data by purchasing the following:

Data set 1: A daily viewing file which shows anonymous data of members viewing