target audience research

For a local Newspaper, the target audience isn’t so specified as other products such as a music magazine, or an action adventure film. Because this product is designed for all members of the local vicinity, it is important that it appeals to both genders, and range of ages. To make my product look as realistic as possible, and to ensure I achieve a high grade, I will do thorough research into the target audience of the existing products.


Firstly, I conducted a questionnaire to find out exactly who reads news papers, which will enable me to know who to aim my articles and features at in my Local Newspaper.

 

1.      When conducting my research, I felt it was key to get the basic information from my interviewees, which will help me find what kind of audiences read local newspapers. I recordered the gender and age of the audience concerned, and portrayed It in a graph, making it easy to analyse

2.     Now that I collected the basic information about the audience, I asked them if they read the local newspaper. This would give me a cross range answer, and an insight idea of what ages actually read the Local Newspaper the Most. The chart above has reordered information for Males. The most popular age amongst the males to read the local newspaper is 41-60 year olds. Local Newspapers are proven unpopular towards teenage boys, leaving the 16-20 column empty. This research tells me that Local newspapers, amongst the male gender is most popular to middle aged men. I will continue to pursue my research into this, by conducting more questionnaires designed specifically to that age. Because the ages 61+ and 21-40 year olds came a close second, I will also consider them in my research.

3.Likewise to how I ordered my research from the male Gender, I did the same for females. My research shows that Local Newspapers are quite more popular to females than males. The most popular age amongst the people I asked are 41-60, and the 61+ year olds. Again this suggests the middle aged is more inclined and enjoy reading a local newspaper compared to other ages. The fact that the 16-20 year old female that I asked has selected yes, shows me that Local Newspapers may be more appealing towards female teenagers than males. I will conduct further research on this, to find out exactly what my target audiences want out of my Local Newspaper, and make my Newspaper look as realistic as possible.

From collecting some basic audience research, I am going to study the audiences further, to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of the types of things the readers like in a Local Magazine. Because for both Genders, the most popular age range that read Local Newspapers was 41-60, I will start with that age group, and try to appeal to them most. Taking this into consideration, I showed the front 2 pages of the Sunderland Echo two both male and female in the age of 41-60, and asked them a few questions.

1.      What factors highlight that the newspaper is local?

Women: The masthead name and colour scheme together

Man: The word choice ‘Houghton woman & Local Area’. Also there is local advertising.

2.      What appeals most to you on the front page?

Women: The main image is bright and cheerful, shows a happy family, gives a happy vibe!

Man: The adverts, and the price.

SECOND PAGE

3.      What do you notice is different to the layout of the second page to the first?

Women: No heading, more info on emergency numbers and general useful contacts.

Man: Is an index

4.      What appeals to you most on this page?

Women: Again the images, show happy people, makes you want to read the articles. Also the heading is quite knowledgeable because you learn about national milk day.

Man: The article headline about the dad is quite infuriating and makes you want to read more.

ADVERTISEMENTS

5.      What advertisement on the front page appeals to you more?

Women: Personally, the Frankie and Bennies one as I have a big family and it would be nce to treat them to a Breakfast there! The foods great!

Man: The Frankie and Bennies advert, the car advert is too small in comparison.

6.      Do the advertisements distract attention from the main article?

Woman: Yes it’s very colourful and the words are very large and big, easy to see.

Men: Yes the food side tracks you.

INCLUDING AND APPEALING TO A TEENAGE AUDIENCE

(Research/questionnaire/analysis)

Target Audience research!

In order to broaden the target audience of my local newspaper and appeal more to teenagers, I used the social networking site ‘Facebook’ to do some target audience research. The target audience of Facebook is mostly teenagers and having a Facebook account at my disposal, I decided to ask my friends what they thought on Local Newspapers. The answers I receive will help me adjust and subvert existing conventions of local Newspapers so that they appeal more to teenagers.

  Already, I can see that the teenage audience I asked enjoy reading local Newspapers. This fundamentally tells me that teenagers are interested in the news of their City. I intend in my own product to make it exciting and interactive for this audience. Interestingly, the genders who answered this question balance out. Again this suggests that a Local Newspaper is gender neutral.

The intention of this question was to find out how involved teenagers were in the purchasing of Local newspapers and whether they would spend their pocket money on it. The answers I received tell me they read it from a family member, suggesting they wouldn’t themselves go out their way to buy one. This tells me that marketing strategies towards the teenage audience aren’t as emphasized and promoted as other audiences. By improving this for my own product, I will be able to appeal more to that age.  

To approach this section of my target audience on a less formal tone and make the questionnaire more comfortable for them, I asked them a basic question to get to know their personal opinion. The most popular choice was ‘Main article and headline’. This research will help me when it comes to construction my product as I will know to include more conventions into this feature to make it appeal more to teenagers. Article image was also selected which tells me that my main image will make an immediate impression on the audience and therefore more be tailored suitably to my target audience.

The purpose of this question was to see how much the local conventions of a newspaper had an effect on the audience and what differences they notice from national to local papers. It is evident from my research that the masthead is the main feature that enlightens them the paper is local and therefore for my own product I will concentrate on the masthead of it and make sure it has a catchy and eye catching name that registers to the audience its purpose.

This question will not only help the construction of my product, but my ancillary task which is to build a website to help the promotion of the paper. It is a stereotypical assumption that teenagers and the younger children are very interested in developing technology. The main audience of the internet and social sites is teenagers and by creating my product on a platform that is more adaptable and accessible for them is a way of promoting my product to that target audience.

I asked an open question in the questionnaire to draw a more evaluative conclusion and also be on a more personal level with my audience. I wanted to know whether they felt Included in the audience of a local newspaper. Nearly all my response tells me they think Local Newspapers are more targeted for middle- older aged locals. Because the teenagers I have asked have built this assumption on the grounds of looking at previous products, this tells me not many features included appeal to them. This has gave me the initiative to stretch the target audience of a local paper even further with attempt to make them feel included and welcome of hearing news from their local vicinity.

How has this research helped me/what have I learned?

·        Out of my research I Was hoping to get an idea of what teenager’s thoughts and emotions are towards local newspapers. For my own creation I will manipulate some of their response and use them to my advantage to appeal more to that specific target audience.

·        I have learned that the format of the news being online will be more appealing to their age and more dynamic for them as they frequently use internet and social networking sites. This will meet their needs and gratifications to a more successful level.              

·        I have differentiated teenage expectations of a local newspaper to middle-older aged locals.

Production

To make sure my creative decisions were appealing to my target audience, I printed off the work I have done so far and asked a fair representation their opinion on it.

Lauren Kirtley and Kirsti Anderson, aged 18 said that

·      They like the Crayola article as they thought it was something different and created variety.

·      The image was their main attraction to the article, the bright red colour of the costume.

 James Redford, 18 commented

·      There was a variety of articles and something that could appeal to everyone. The review as really helpful as I’m interested in the Empire.

·      I really like the layout; it’s easy to follow!

Points they didn’t like:

Lauren ‘There’s a lack of images and too much text, may add a couple of more images to break the text up!

James “The box at the bottom of the page doesn’t look very professional because of the big gap. Maybe get rid of that

Talking to my target audience has really helped me evaluate where I’m at with my product. It has been helpful, as I know what areas to improve with.