LO2, Task 3

Hi, I'm back again and this time I'm going to be talking about how producers identify their target audience.

Identifying a target audience is important to producers because it enables them to think about what content to put in their film in order to appeal to the most suitable audience. means it is unlikely, for example, that the next reboot of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise is likely to feature a cameo appearance from My Little Pony's Rainbowdash.

One theory on how producers identify their target audience was by Ien Ang in 1991. She proposed that media conglomerates create an image in their head of an ideal audience, going in to specific details such as what they wear, eat, drink etc. John Hartley also suggest this in 1987 when he said that "invisible fictions of the audience which allow the institutions to get a sense of who they must enter relations with." Meaning that the producers need to know their audience in order to target them effectively.

 I made this audience profile collage to represent the target audience for Avatar. This shows the median age of my audience is 22, it also shows they enjoy various magazines, games, high budget science fiction films, fast-food and conventions. This audience profile also shows that my audience would be either 'Settled Surburbans' or 'Urban Ventures' which are summaries created by the National Reader Survey, or NRS. 

ABC1  is a demographic profiling system also created by the NRS which determines an audience's spending power, my audience profile shows that my audience would fit into the BC1C2 category meaning my audience are typically middle class to skilled working class.

This is my imaginary entity which shows my understanding of a specific member of the target audience:

Sam is a 22 year old male from Manchester who has just finished his degree in Media. Sam is completely obsessed with film, when he’s not marathoning the Star Wars or middle earth franchise with beer, buckets of fried chicken and his geekiest friends, he’s creating his latest costume for next year’s ComicCon or travelling the stars in the latest Halo instalment.

He’s often picked on by others, including members of his own family, because he does not have a girlfriend and  LARP (Live Action Role Playing) is allegedly not a grown up thing to do at the local park on a Sunday morning. But Sam is a dedicated brother of the ‘Ice Cream Watch’ and if you don’t believe there is any importance in his mission to the ‘Slide of Doom’ then you know nothing John Snow.

 Gender

I think that the target audience's gender for my film is male, one reason for this is the protagonist who is played by Sam Worthington. As he is a male I feel this would make it easier for a male audience to relate to the character and therefore raise a male audience's appeal towards the film.The protagonist is a paraplegic (and an alcoholic in the special edition) but he does not let any of is problems get in his way and is very courageous, so in this sense he represents the 'ideal self' (Carl Rogers- 1980).

The protagonist, Jake Sulley, is part of the military and as the military is often stereotypically associated with men and the majority of the military are made up of men (this is supported by this document on the official parliament website which shows only 12.8% of the British military are female,) this also reinforces gender stereotypes due to the violence stereotypically associated with male dominance.

The character of Dr. Grace Augustine is juxtaposed to this as she represents a highly empowered character in this story which as she is female is a character who is more likely to appeal to a female audience. However, this character is played by Sigourney Weaver who plays similar characters in various films which also have large male audiences, most notably the Alien franchise. In fact, Richard Dyer (1972) said that "A star is an image not a real person that is constructed," this is known as a 'Star persona' which leads to many characters being typecast, Sigourney Weaver has constructed her star persona so well that she is often nicknamed 'The Sci-Fi Queen'.

Age

NSFW or nah?

The BBFC gave Avatar a certificate of 12, however I think that this film is aimed at a slightly older audience. I think this film is mainly aimed at people in their twenties and early thirties because of the film's content. Though the film is appropriate for a younger audience, I feel like some of the themes and plot-lines would be too complicated for a younger audience to understand particularly the science behind the diegesis, even my brain is still struggling to understand the Na'vi hair-tentacles (right).

Another reason I think the film is aimed at an older audience is because there are no children in the film, therefore I think it would be much easier for an older audience to be able to relate to the characters particularly as many of the actors were in this age range at the time of filming.

The film's director, James Cameron, had always planned on doing sequels to Avatar. And I think this is why the film aimed to have a 12 rating, as the film is also aimed at 'Settled Surburbans' who are likely to take their young children with them when going to see the film. This means that younger audience members grow with the films and become more eager to watch sequels in the future as the film essentially becomes a part of their childhood.

I also think that technology is a very important part of Avatar, an important thing about Avatar and a lot of other sci-fi and fantasy films is the fictional universe they create. And in more recent years, these universes are expanded because of the way fans are allowed to connect all over the world via the internet. Most people in the world have instant access to the internet in present day, but as this graph shows they are typically young adults so this is another way to reach out to that target audience. Members of this target audience are known as 'Digital Natives', this is again important because it shows how much this audience will value the use of CGI within Avatar, this can also influence their hobbies so that they revolve around technology meaning things like Avatar's official game are also very marketable to this audience.

Lifestyle

The NRS, National Reader Survey, are an organisation who specialise in demographic information.

Their audience classification system allows a producer to target their audience based on their type of lifestyle. I think that my audience fit in to the 'Settled Surburbans' and 'Urban Ventures' lifestyles (as stated in my audience profile). These lifestyles not only reflect the target age group, but also tell the producer how much disposable income a person has. This is important because it tells the producer who is most likely to consume the products based on their lifestyle.

Most of the leading characters in Avatar, including the protagonist, were in their early 30's so the 'Settled Surburbans' audience can more easily relate to the characters as they would be of a similar age.

Because the film is a science-fiction/ fantasy film, it will appeal to 'urban ventures' as they are more likely to go to events like 'Comiccon'. Denis McQuail (1972) theorised that people consume products for four reasons (Surveillance, Escapism, Building personal identity and Building personal relationships). This reflects the 'Urban Ventures' lifestyle because by going to film conventions and dressing up as the character they are still using escapism even after watching the film, this also helps them to build a personal identity because the film has shaped their interests around the film as well a building relationships because cosplaying allows others to make assumptions based on their aesthetics.

'Settled Suburbans' are likely to have relatively young children, I feel that this is another important factor to my target audience because (as previously mentioned) they are likely to take their children with them to see Avatar which is possibly why a lot of the showings were given the 12A certificate. Again as previously mentioned, this means that the children can enjoy the films from a young age and would be excited to see future sequels.

Spending Power

The NRS, or the National Reader Survey just in case you've forgotten already, use the ABC1 demographic profiling system. This is the most common targeting profiler and it is used to determine people's spending power and how much disposable income they have.

This, like lifestyle, helps to determine how much money the audience can spend on the companies product which is essential in turning a larger profit.

I feel that my audience would fit into the B, C1 and C2 social grades in this profiling system, also as stated in my audience profile. This means that my audience are typically either middle class, lower middle class or skilled working class. This is mostly due to the fact that AvaThis means that producers are more likely to aim the product at a people with more disposable income.

The disposable income of this particular target audience is important because of their 'Digital Native' lifestyle. This means they are more likely to be influenced by any technological merchandise, this also means they are more likely to be able to afford the various editions of the Avatar DVD (these include Blu-Ray, 3D, Special Edition and Extended Edition). They may even want to spend their money on the extras available on the Avatar website and if like 'Sam' they would like to attend ComicCon that means they also need plenty of money to spend on the Avatar merchandise.

The reason that I decided this film was not aimed at upper class people is in relation to lifestyle. Upper class people are not likely to be very family orientated due to high frequency workloads. As mentioned previously, bringing children to see the film is essential to building an audience for the entire franchise and not just the singular film.

Alternatively, (and slightly ironically) if an adult is consuming a media companies products, and paying for their children to also consume these products then they would also need more disposable income than most which is another reason why people in the D and E social grades would not be a suitable target audience.

And that is all I have to say for now, if you're still eager to know more then remember to keep up to date with this blog. And so until my next blog post, au revoir!