Demographics & Physcographics

Age Groups

Using Demographics and Psychographics, I have specified my choice of audience. Demographics are used to group using quantative data about their age, gender and Socio-Economic Group.   The age groups included in Demographics are:

• 15 and under
• 15-24
• 24-35
• 35-55
• 55 and over

      My choice of target audience in terms of ages will be refined from ages of 15-24, to the ages of 18-29. This age range has been decided from the research I have taken from The Fly and NME. The Fly mainly aims at the ages of 18-35 where 73% of their readers fall in this area. This age difference is too broad, therefore I wish to be more direct with my age group. NME also showed a majority in age group, yet it differs from The Fly. 50% of NME readers are 16-24 year olds. Alternatively to The Fly, I believe that this age group is too focused, yet I wish to have a slightly broader target age than this one.

n   Both The Fly and NME show that the majority of readers are male, with 65% male reader population for NME and 56% of The Fly readers male. This research shows that predominantly males enjoy music magazines more than females do. With this in mind, I have chosen to focus on the male audience for my magazine

      Socio-Economic Groups

     Socio-Economic Groups (S.E.G) are important also to target an appropriate audience, as some content may not appeal to certain people in terms of these Socio-Economic Groups. These groups are mainly based on occupation status and income of an individual. These 6 Socio-Economic Groups are:

• A-Higher managerial, administrative, professional e.g. Chief executive, senior civil servant, surgeon.
• B - Intermediate managerial, administrative, professional e.g. bank manager, teacher.
• C1- Supervisory, clerical, junior managerial e.g. shop floor supervisor, bank clerk, sales person.
• C2 - Skilled manual workers e.g. electrician, carpenter.
• D- Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers e.g. assembly line worker, refuse collector, messenger .
• E - Casual labourers, pensioners, unemployed e.g. pensioners without private pensions and anyone living on basic benefits.

During my research, I found that only one of the magazines of the three I have chosen to research actually specify in their target Socio-Economic Group. This was NME, who stated that they focus on the 3 top SEGs as their audience (A, B, C1). I believe that these SEG groups focus on the ‘upper classes of society especially the A group of the SEG. Using this research, I want my target SEG group to be the C1, C2 groups maybe bordering the B and D groups also, yet mainly focusing on C1 and C2. This choice was made because I believe that a concentrated amount of the population belong in these SEG groups which will therefore appeal to the majority of the population. I have excluded the E group from my SEG choices due to the lack of finance that they will be receiving, as I will be giving my magazine a price. On the other hand, I excluded the A group from my selection because they will have a much different interest in music to the indie genre I have chosen for my magazine.

Values And Life Styles.

Psychographics are more about people’s views and personalities. This system will collect data called Interests, Attitudes and Opinions (IAO) variables. The VALS system (Values And Life Styles) can categorize in terms of physiological characteristics. There are 4 main categories:

• Group driven by needs: Survivors, Sustainers
• Group who are outer-directed: Belongers, emulators, achievers
• Groups who are inner-directed: I-am-me, experimental and societally conscious
• Groups who are outer & inner-directed: Integrated

The research I have taken shows that the outer-directed group are most susceptible to things such as advertising (seen in NME research of Audience. This is the main objective of a music magazine, to advertise the magazine through interviews, articles and stories about bands. Content of the magazine will appeal to the ‘emulators’, people who are conscious of how they look and act to their peers, as the magazine will generalise an opinion to the reader  to take into account, therefore the reader will  want to copy this opinion so they continue to ‘emulate’. Yet, the audience must have a passion for music, not conscious of their taste in fashion or anything else which is very important to sustain an audience that are truly passionate about music. Due to these points, I have chosen my audience as the outer-directed population, yet will also hopefully cross over slightly to the inner-directed population for their passion for music and experimental mind frame of potential discovery of new music.

Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs

This theory put forward was a pyschological study about human needs. The first four layers of the pyramid are the basic needs that humans need, which Maslow named 'deficiancy needs'. As a person rises through the pyramid and pass the four basic level of needs, a person will then be in the 'Metamotivational' part of the pyramid, a term created by Maslow which describes those who can create motivation physcologically to sustain a better lifestyle and remain positive. Those who are driven by 'Metamotivation' are people who, as opposed to 'deficiancy needs' strive by 'being needs'. Maslow states that when one level of the pyramid has been acheived, it is only then when an individual can move up to the next layer of the pyramid.

For my magazine, it will be important to sustain a reasonable amount of the population. Combining my ideas about S.E.Gs of my target audiance who are primeraly C1 and C2, I will need to be targeting those who acheive a reasonable amount of income, yet are not over thrown with a workload. This will rule out the top area of the pyramid, Self-Actualistion which constitutes those who want to be the best of the best, yet the C1 and C2 areas of S.E.Gs are those occupations who accept their careers, for example the C2 group primerally have manual labour jobs, such as electricians or carpenters etc. Also, those occupations of the C1 area will also share a similar sentiment, that they accept their occupation status, with some difference in occupation, such as sales people or floor managers. I have also stated that I will be willing to include those from the B group of the S.E.Gs as well as those from the D group.

VALS will also constitute to the choice of audiance in the Heirarchy of Needs. As I stated, the audaince of my magazine will be the Outer-Directed people who are emulators, who want to be part of a group. If we look at the pyramid, the Social layer of the pyramid expresses that people who remain in this area will be those who need to belong in a group. This is very similar to the definition of the Outer-Directed people in the VALS, therefore the Social section of the pyramid will be included in the final choice.

In conclusion, I will be targeting the Social area of the pyramid, as well as the Esteem section of the pyramid. The genre of music in my magazine, I have stated is 'Indie'. Those who are stereotypically 'indie' tend to share the same image and this mutual interest in music. Therefore, those who remain in a group and want to be part of a group who read my magazine will be following this 'indie' image. Also, in the Esteem section of the pyramid, people who consitiute as this area of the pyramid says that they admire others. People in music magazines tend to be figures to look up to. This creates an adimral fanbase for fans to look up to an individual. I could use this fanbase idea to create articles in my magazine which will please those who are Outer-directed as well as included in the Esteem section of the pyramid.