Target Audience-Miss Miller (Updated)

Target Audience Results
26/09/2014
Vasil Nikolov


Firstly, a target audience is a specific group of people within the target market at which a product is aimed at. In this case, our music video. However, in order to find what our specific audience is, we decided to use a questionnaire in order to find out.

The reason for choosing a questionnaire is so that the music video that you create is exactly what the audience are interested in. Also by conducting a questionnaire, we can collect important data that would assist the production/development of our music video. Within our questionnaire we compiled open and close questions so that we would gain both quantitative and qualitative data. 

We produced a questionnaire to help us gain vital information that would assist us in the production of our music video. The information we collected helped us to decide upon conventions and elements to include in our music video that we would now know will appeal to the target audience. A copy of our questionnaire is added below.

A total of 40 people were surveyed (20/20 split in the gender segment) and were distributed by e-mail as it was quicker and more environmentally friendly. By surveying 40 people it provided us with accurate information that we could generalise to various people within the age range of people that we asked. By including open and closed questions in our questionnaire we was able to receive vital information Surrounding the Music Video we wanted to create. We did agree that our music video will be developed upon the highest percentage of choices and try and 

Once the results were collected, I sat with Lily to analyse the results and present the results in easily readable pie charts. Below are the results of our hard labour.

The questionnaires were sent to an even number of male and females so that the results were not gender bias. We decided that by questioning an equal amount from both genders (20 females/20 males) we could see, which effects or conventions they would wish to see in our music video. The choice with the highest percentage would give us the end result for what we should include.

The age range of individuals we handed our questionnaires out to were aged 5-35+. From the results we analysed, we concluded that the perfect target audience would be in the age bracket of 17-22 year olds. Using this range of aged individuals means that the target audience would be primarily people that like to party on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday evenings. This means that in order for our video to be interesting for them, it would need to be very lively and contain action sequences, or be a romantic story (As my group members wish to) which contains segments of gambling or violence from both parties.

By using this question, we managed to determine the exact percentage of our Target Audience`s gender. This way, we could determine, the type of mix we should suggest or how we should improve the story and the amount of violence we can introduce as we do not wish to scare off our target audience. We found that out of the 50% "Yes" vote, 40% were females while 10% were males. Then from the 10% "No" vote, 5% were males, while the other 5% were females. Finally, from the "Maybe" vote, 35% were male members while 5% were female members of our survey group. This shows to us that our main target audience would be mostly female, which means that we will not use effects that can be too disturbing for them. However, if we do add the "Maybe" vote, we can conclude that the gender would be once again equally restored to a 50/50 ratio. Nevertheless, we have decided to target our "yes" vote, as it would be easier to please them than try and please both percentages and loose some of the votes from both sides. 

The reason for choosing this question was to understand how our main audience wanted to see the music video. The question was open, so it was hard to choose between the different  answers. However, we managed to determine a pattern of 3 main categories which eased our choice of type of video if . The main response we received was that they wanted it to be a mixture between a Narrative and a Concept video as it makes the audience connect to the artist (42% did). This means that our video will contain a story and as our Artist will be Lana Del Rey, the story will probably have a romantic side of it. However, this will be determined by our next question as the answers might suggest a different picture.

The results, showed us that the audience demands our music video to contain a love story in it, which would allow them to connect to the artist. Furthermore, another 30% of our targeted audience would also like to see it on the condition that the story links to the artist`s past. This is quite convenient for us as we did wish to introduce a love story, which will enhance the artist`s previous relationship. Honestly, I am slightly disappointed, as I personally wished to make a diverse music video which does not contain a story but more of a concept. Nevertheless, as the audience are the ones that will go and watch the music video and our majority has agreed on the vote for a love story, we will make the music video the way our audience from both categories would wish to watch. This should give us a majority of 65% which would be stronger than having a weak 35% and a smaller target audience.

Once again as the question was an open question, we had to narrow down to the choices with the biggest percentage. This led to us, choose between Indie, Pop, Rock and House. As we wished for a big target audience rather than niche it out, we decided to mix the two big categories. As a result, we will film a music video for a song that contains conventions from both the House and Indie music genres. This way, the video will be more diverse and will make me enjoy the indie genre more as I am a fan of mixed indie genres (Primarily indie-rock). Therefore we will mix House and Indie and satisfy the 73%  demand of our target audience. 

The results showed us that As it was conventional for both genres to have the artist, we decided to have our artist in the music video. Even if it did not, we still would have added him in the video as our Target audience demanded a story with him in the music video. This accounts for 35% of what out target audience wishes to view from the music video. Nevertheless, we wish to have more of our target audience to enjoy the music video. This is why, we will add the other 40% that was demanded from the audience and have the artist and a male character as her love interest. This should result in a higher target audience rate.

As we had planned to mix the two genres together we thought that the question was slightly useless. However, we did wish to see the general public view in case they give us extra  ideas that we can incorporate. From the results, we concluded that we will still mix the two chosen genres as they would award us with the highest percentage of viewers. There were other good ideas, however the percentage was too small for them. This is why, we will stick to our plan.

The last two questions were very important for us as we wanted the mix to contain  an equal amount of best of both worlds. So it can be concluded that 45% of our audience wanted to see a narrative of the artist`s life, while 42% did not want to see a confusing story that is difficult to follow. As Lana Del Rey`s songs are usually about her and a relationship, it should be said that the 45% will be happy to know that there will be a story about her love life and  the 42 will have to deal with it as some of the lyrics are confusing. Nevertheless we will not stop to simplify what the story is on about.

The vox pops that we conducted allowed us to understand in more depth what viewers expect from a music video. The information we collected from the research was qualitative and therefore mainly based on participants opinions. As a group we discussed the results that we received from the vox pops and decided which elements that the participants had mentioned were worthy of us incorporating into our music video, to further enhance the ideas we already have. 



Following the result that we had received, we decided to choose the correct theory to which our video would link from the different subculture theories that we have researched. A subculture is a group of people who are listening to a common music genre. Many subcultures are linked with the perception of following genres that against the social norms. McCracken believes that in a post-modernist society, there is a wide variety of diversity, creativity and dynamism which results in many of the subcultures arriving from several different rather than one big. This appealed to us as we did analyse different genres and merged them. This would therefore aid us in identifying all subcultures within the indie and house genres. In order to merge these genres we need to discover the conventions of both genres in order to have a high target audience from the two and how the conventions can be can be incorporated in our music video. Artist that have tried and have been successful at merging the two are Ed Sheeran (an indie artist is extremely popular and is positioned high in the charts. He is known for linking the house music to the indie genre). Overall, I will use McCracken`s theory as it has more truth in it than the CCCTV theory (All subculture arrive from one main).

Overall, the research that we carried out was extremely helpful as we were able to view what our audience would want incorporated. The questionnaire was the most helpful segment as it gathered the ruff data that we needed in order to have a basic idea of what we will need to incorporate in our music video.The interviews provided us with greater detail of what some members of the public would wish to view in our music video. The pie charts were thoroughly for our team as it made the results more easy to read and quicker to process. Providing that I have to re-do the research, I would want to add one or two more questions and improve the questions that I had asked in the vox-pops as some of them were far too easy and time wasteful.