Defining Audiences

For many obvious and different reasons, media producers and institutions like to consider audiences in groups. This is particularly true in advertisers. who have led the way in targeting groups of consumers.

Media producers, institutions and innovators quickly identified that there was not just one audience or one market. The audience can be segmented and marketed into different ways depending on the way they have been defined.

The more obvious ways to classify audiences are by age, gender, race and location.

Income status:

One of the ways to classify an audience is by their class, which is normally judged on the kind of job that the main wage-earner of the householder earns. Audiences are put into 6 separate and varied categories shown below:

1. Upper middle class - Top management; bankers, lawyers, doctors, and other professionals
2. Middle class - Middle management; teachers, many 'creatives' e.g. Graphic designers etc.
3. Lower middle class - Office supervisors; Junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff etc.
4. Skilled working class - Skilled workers; Tradespersons (white collar)
5. Working class - Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers (blue collar)
6. People at lowest level of income - Unemployed; students, pensioners, casual workers.

Young and Rubicam's 'Four Consumers'

As the concept of class became less fashionable, advertisers started thinking about audiences in different ways. One of the best-known was devised by the advertising agency 'Young and Rubicam'

• Mainstreamers - Make up 40% of the population. They like security and belonging to a group.
• Aspirers - Want status and the esteem of others. Like status symbols and designer labels etc. Live off credit and cash.
• Succeeders - People who have already got status and control.
• Reformers - Define themselves by their self-esteem and self-fulfilment.

Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles:

This approach is quite similar to the 'Young and Rubicam's but offers a more sophisticated range of descriptors for audiences. The theory states that the consumer behaviour is motivated by three self-orientations: Principles, Status and Location;

Principle-orientated: Guided in their choices by idealised criteria, rather than by feelings, events or desire for approval and opinions of others.
Status-orientated: Look for products and services that demonstrate success to their peers.
Action-orientated: Guided by a desire for social or physical activity, variety and risk taking.

Life Matrix:

One of the latest approaches to audience targeting has grown out of the field of Market Research. The Life Matrix tool, launched by MRI and RoperASW, defines ten audience categories, centered around both values, attitudes and beliefs, and more fundamental, demographic audience categories.

Tribe Wired - Digital, free-spirited, creative young singles 

Fun/Atics - Aspirational, Fun-seeking, active young people

Dynamic Duos - Hard-driving, high-involvement couples

Priority Parents - Family values, activities, media strongly dominate

Home Soldiers - Home-centric, Family-orientated, Materially ambitious 

Renaissance Women - Active, caring, affluent, influential mums

Rugged Traditionalists - Traditional male values, love of outdoors

Struggling Singles - High aspirations, low economic status 

Settled Elders - Devout, older, Sedentary lifestyles

Free Birds - Vital, active, altruistic