Audience theory - Demographics - 28th September

Demographics

Demographics is a method of audience research which divides the adult population into 6 different categories based mainly on the work they do. Each group has its own individual letter code that describes the income and job status of the members of each group.

A – Higher management – bankers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals

B – Middle management – Teachers, creative and media people

C1 – White Collar - Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses

C2 – Skilled Manual workers – plumbers, electricians, builders

D – Semi skilled and unskilled manual workers

E – Unemployed, casual workers, pensioners, Students


Using these 6 groups, marketers can distribute their product and advertise it in accordance with the group or groups their product is aimed at. For example a crime thriller is not likely to appeal to groups D or E (except students) and is more likely to appeal to groups A and B, and therefore the product should be created, advertised and distributed with them in mind.

Demographics does not however give a complete picture. It stereotypes all the members of each group into one collective mind frame. This is ineffective as it does not represent for example a builder whom enjoys documentaries and politics or a teacher who doesn’t.

Applying Demographics to my work

After studying this audience theory I thought how I could apply it to my documentary. The most likely groups for my documentary are A and B with possible elements of C such as supervisors and E such as students. This identifies the higher educated members of society, but however does not give a clear picture as it is based loosely around their job titles and not their personalities, hobbies and interests. However demographics does give me an indication to the type of people I should be marketing my documentary towards and this will be very helpful with promotion for my film. For example as groups A and B are higher educated and will be the main target audience for my piece, I would attract the most attention by advertising in a publication associated with that group, i.e. the Times newspaper as opposed to hello magazine.