Blog post 5: My target audience

Our target audience is described as fun loving 16 - 25 year olds and we are supposed to attract a mass market.

UK Tribes is a project commissioned by Channel 4 and created by Crown DNA, whose aim is to understand the 16 - 25 year old demographic.

Their aim:

The 5 different tribes( demographic) which 16- 25 year olds were categorised into:

Out of the 5 different tribes the main ones who are listen to the charts and mainstream music are the Mainstreams. This is the tribe that I will need to appeal to the most.

Mainstreams

The Mainstream forms the backbone of tribal society – where most young people start out. The key is in sticking with what you know – chart music, prime time TV, local nights out and booze.

Looking to commercial entertainment channels for influence, Mainstream Tribes prefer to stick with what’s safe. There’s little desire to hunt down underground fashion and music – they are more than happy with readily available ‘high street’ influences.

There’s a strong emphasis on conformity across all Tribes and ages. Siege mentality makes Mainstream Tribes wary of those standing out, anything that’s too ‘out there’ is sure to elicit disparaging remarks – nobody likes a show off! Yet, Mainstream Tribes are among the most loyal of all – both to their friends (often keeping the same group from school) and family.

This is my target audience and demographic. I will use familiarity and mainstream pop convention to appeal to this group because this is what they look for in media, anything that strays from the conventions too much might be seen as too ' out there'. My pop artist will have to be someone that follows trends and commercial. My social media and website will have to reflect this as well as try and be fun and exciting. My mainstream target audience will be very loyal, and so want to support my artist and so buy merch and music rather than pirate. 

I found out that 57% of 16-24-year-olds listen to pop and the majority of them belong to the in the 'mainstream' category which are fans of popular culture.

Aspirant

Aspirant Tribes know the look, music and lifestyle they want – and will spend big in order to get it. Attuned to what’s happening in Leading Edge circles, it’s about keeping up with what’s cool but without all the hard work of creating it themselves. These Tribes will be found in Student Unions across the UK.

Social butterflies, they are spending summer holidays hitting the festival circuit. Whether it’s the latest pop-up, food truck, concept store, art gallery or nightclub, they want to be the one to have seen it first – and post it on social media. Experience seeking drives the Aspirant segment, and introducing the newest fashion and music to their friendship group motivates Tribe members.

From the ubiquitous gap year alpaca jumper, to the MacBook Pro, Ugg boots and Hershel backpack, Aspirant Tribes are big consumers with strong brand affiliations. Brands trying to crack the Aspirants need to work hard to prove their cool credentials. They need to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right people – although appealing to them may be challenging, those who do are rewarded with surprising brand loyalty.

Even though my main target audience is the mainstream category it is important to try and attract as large an audience as possible-mass market.  Through presenting an aspirational lifestyle within my video and on my website and social media, which is conventional for a pop star. They will want to interact with my brand to stay relevant and updated on popular trends.

To research this more in depth, we conducted a survey within the 16-25 year old demographic as so to understand consumption and what they want from their music

Biggest peaks seen in pop and hip hop in both 16- 19 year olds and 20 -24 year olds.

We recieved a range of feedback from thorughout the deomgraphic with almost 50-50 split on female and male perspective. So we got a good range that covers our demographic meaning it gives an accurate insight.

Shows to me that music is very important to our demographic as none listened to 0 hours of music a day and the majority listened for more than one hour. Because it is such an important thing they are more likely to want to connect with the music and artist and so I will need to take this into consideration when planning.

Individuals listen to music that gives them the pleasures they want. So from this data it seems our demographic is mainly looking for music that cheers you up, distracts you, allows you to escape and creates an atmosphere. I plan on choosing a piece of music that cheers you up and creates a fun, positive atmosphere in which people feel they are escaping the worries of every day life.

This showed that Pop was extremely popular in our demographic already and so I need to stick to the conventions of pop to make sure it is recognisably assured in the pop genre. Not the number one favourite, but still popular and easy to appeal to a mass market as specified by the brief.

This shows the importance of linking my website to streaming platforms and making sure to emphasis that my song is available on these platforms. It also shows people in our demographic still buy physical copies and so I will create physical copies you can buy as well. It also shows that music videos matter to our target audience as YouTube is the second choice.

There is a wide range of answers and so I need to include lots of different forms of merch. Also shows I need to target fans that will be loyal (mainstream tribe) as they are more likely to buy merch in order to support their favourite artists. I also need to push my merch and other sources of revenue across all my platforms as lots of people said they don't spend money on the music industry or artists. Would be beneficial if they felt rewarded when buying something and so I might link a cause to my merch and identity so that fans feel good when buying my merch and so are more likely to than say merch without a cause.

Shows the importance of social media presence. Instagram and Twitter seem especially relevant so need to make both for my artist. This shows how my target audience finds out about music and so I need to be able to attack as many as the large bases as possible in order to get a mass market audience. I will post my music video to youtube, as well additional content such as interviews with established, well known brands like Vogue. This will inform more people about my artist/ 

I did this research to understand my target audience and their consumption habits. It has allowed me to identify components that I will need to implement on my website, in my video and additional platforms in order to promote my music successfully, get fans to buy merch and ensure engagement with my branding and get traffic on my platforms.

It has helped me identify the main groups that I need to target in order to meet the specification as well as get the type of fanbase I am looking for- loyal and engaged audience. The research has shown me how to appeal to these tribes in order to attract them, such as being an aspirational and familiar figure.

The researched has helped me identify key ways to appeal to my demographic and so give me an edge while meeting the specification, adhering to conventions and create the content that my target audience is looking for.