12. Target Audience

WHAT IS TARGET AUDIENCE?

Target audience is the group of people, a film(or anything) is targeted at. The target audience can be classified by age groups, gender, background or social class. Specific films are aimed at specific people because different groups like different things. For example, men would prefer to watch action/thriller movies because of the violence and danger which requires masculinity whereas women would prefer romantic movies as it is much more feminine and gentle. 

Target audience can be split into three types:

1: Primary: This is the main audience that shows direct interest in the media product.

2. Secondary: This is the type of audience that don't have direct interest in the media product but may still watch it. For example, a mother watching an animation film with her children. 

3. Tertiary: This is the type of audience that may be interested in the film due to a certain thing they know within it, otherwise they wouldn't watch it. 

Things to consider:

When deciding the target audience, the producer must take the group's common interest into consideration. They must think about the common values they share, their attitudes, relationships, every detail. Knowing every detail about the target audience is useful because it will avoid excess costs and help with advertising.

Ideas to find out about your target audience:

- Surveys

- Talking to customers

- Request feedback

- Examine website's usage

My Thoughts...

In my opinion, I would say that action and thriller movies appeal to teenage boys as well as young men because action movies are most successful with those age groups. I think romantic and drama movies appeal to women due to personal experiences. It is likely that most women go through drama in their lives and may relate to the films. The animation and cartoon movies could appeal to the children because it's bright, playful and fun to watch which children enjoy. High school movies could appeal to teenagers in general or teenager girls particularly because they can relate to it due to the same age group. War, comedy and documentaries could appeal to older audiences because they may prefer to watch non fiction or just want to have a great laugh. 

SURVEY

Results:-

I've designed a survey and asked 10 people of mixed genres and ages to complete it. In the outcome, I can conclude that most people chose comedy as one of their favourite genres. This means that comedy films can appeal to all types of people.

I've also found out that nearly all of the 10 people I surveyed prefer American films. Perhaps, this is because they are more advanced and itself is a very popular country.

I can tell that more males than females prefer horror and thriller movies. So, horror and thriller could definitely appeal to young males.

However, females seem to prefer animation movies because it's 'relaxing' and 'quite funny'. As females are sensitive living things, I am not surprised they like animated films. Although, some did choose action and horror movies as their favourites. Different females have different preference. So, their interests should be taken into consideration rather than gender or age. 

This is a bar chart of the results of the 15 people I interviewed:

I asked some people their genre preferences off camera because they didn't want to be on camera and a few people said their favourite genre is comedy and then horror while some of the others said they preferred thriller movies.

1. Joannah, 21yrs, Female
    1st Favourite Genre: Comedy
    2nd Favourite Genre: Thriller
    3rd Favourite Genre: Horror

2. Rhianna, 16yrs, Female
   1st Favourite Genre: Comedy
   2nd Favourite Genre: Drama
   3rd Favourite Genre: Action

3. Name: Noah, 18yrs, Male
   1st Favourite Genre: Action
   2nd Favourite Genre: Horror
   3rd Favourite Genre: Comedy