Target Audience Research - Miss Miller

A target audience is a group of people that a product is aimed at. A target audience needs to be identified before I create my music video so we know how to make our product suitable and appealing to this audience. When a media product is being planned, one of the most important questions the makers have to consider is, "Does it have a target audience?". If the answer is "No", then there is no point in going any further in creating the product. The target audience for my music video is teenagers and young adults aged from 17-25 years old. We carried out this research to see what our target audience would expect and like to see in our final product so we can consider what we need to include to satisfy our audience. To do this, we created a questionnaire and asked 40 people a list of 11 questions. We asked 40 people because we believed that interviewing a larger audience would give us more varied results which were more reliable so we can ensure we will create a successful music video.  The results we obtained from the questionnaire results will help us create our music video because the answers given by the audience shows us what they would expect to see in an indie music video and what they like. Therefore my group can try and interpret their ideas and expectations so we know our product will appeal to the target audience.  

Our questionnaire

First my group and I decided to ask the audience questions about themselves such as 'How old are you?' so we could order them into age groups and 'What is your gender?" so we could separate the males from females.  This allowed me to understand the difference in opinions on the indie genre in different audiences.  Asking for the age of our subjects meant we could see what age group is more likely to enjoy the indie genre as we could see who was more knowledgable and who had more positive things to say about it. This also helped me to see what conventions were most liked by what age groups and so once we had established our target audience we could focus on including those specific conventions. We mainly asked teenagers and young adults as they are most knowledgable of the most recent and current music in today's charts and so they understand more what is pst popular and what world well. This pie chart reveals that the majority of the questioned population were aged 17-25 at 40 per cent which reinforces that this is our target audience as most people in this age group were willing to take part in this indie questionnaire compared to older or younger ages who did not know much about it. The minority of the questioned population were aged 46 and above at only 3 per cent. I took this on board and therefore knew to focus on the answers this age group were giving most as this would be our target audience.






We then asked for the gender of the person as the vox pops we all created do not show the entire gender distribution of the questioned population. This pie chart does however and it shows us that 58 per cent of the population were female and so only 42 per cent where male. All though this is a small difference in percentage it still shows us that females are more likely to listen to indie music. Therefore as a group we know that females are more likely to listen to indie music compared to males and so will remember to make our music video suitable or both genders but more specifically females. However we cannot completely disregard the male audience as there is still a large number of males who listen to this genre of music. Therefore, my group will aim to make our music video suitable for both genders so the target audience will be larger and our music video can be watched by more people. Interviewing both genders gave us a balance of views so we will know how to make our video suitable for everyone.

The third question was also closed and entailed asking the audience a yes or no question. We asked the target audience whether or not they like the indie music genre so we could see is our music video would be received well by the audience and if it was even worth creating a video in this genre because if the majority of our audience disliked this genre then we would consider changing our genre. Luckily this was not the case as 90 per cent of the questioned population stated that they do enjoy this type of music. This means the majority of our target audience are likely to watch and enjoy our music video and so it is more likely to be successful. 10 per cent of those who I questioned said that they do not like the indie genre which could be due to them being unfamiliar with it or not liking a specific artist and so their opinions could be changed by watching our video as they may decide they do in fact like it. However, this will be more difficult to achieve as we did not ask the audience why they do not like the genre and therefore have made it harder for us to change their mind and appeal to a wider audience. this would be what I would change if I was to complete this task again as it would have been useful to hear the audience elaborate on this answer.

I asked my audience what conventions they would expect to see so it would give me ideas of aspects I could include in my coursework. 30 per cent of those I interviewed told me that they would expect to see instruments in an indie music video. This was good to hear as my group had already decided on including a guitar in our music video and so  we were able to know that using that would make our music video conventional in our target audiences opinion. Narratives about love was rated second most expected which helped me and my group to decide to base our music video narrative around a couple and the good and bad times in their relationship. This also suggests that love is an important theme for the audience as it is engaging and relatable and therefore will have to come across professionally and not false as they would not relate to it as much. Therefore I have decided to use a real-life couple to act in the music video as their relationship and chemistry will be real and therefore not appear forced like it may if it was two actors who did not know each other but had to pretend to be in love. Quirky costumes are recognised in indie music video by 23 per cent of our target audience which I will take on board because my group has yet to decide on costumes for our artist and therefore learning that quirky costumes are expected let us know what is conventional. The final convention that was mentioned in 20 per cent of the audience is close-ups. Although this is not the most popular convention of the indie genre among my questioned audience, it was still recognised by a number of them and is therefore important to consider. Close-ups are also an aspect of Goodwin's theory and will therefore make my music video more likely to be successful if they are included.  Using close-ups in my music video will allow the audience to build a relationship with the artist by relating to their facial expressions and feeling as they sing the relatable song.

  Despite having vague of idea of the iconography we would use in our music video from previous research, we still asked what iconography our target audience would expect to find in an indie music video. We did this to see if the results would support our previous research and current ideas and also to see if any other popular iconography was identified. We discovered that fairy lights were expected most in as iconography in a music video and this is something we did not previously consider so we decided that as this is popular we should try and use it in some way. Another popular iconography item was guitar which reinforced my groups ideas as we had already decided to use a guitar and this proved to us that it would work well. In terms of the artists costumes, we did not have a vague idea like we did of the iconography and so this pie chart was helpful as it showed us that our audience thinks quirky and edgy style costumes work best. Therefore we have a set style and will just have to research further into edgy and quirky clothes and watch their music videos to help us decide on set outfits.

We then asked what style of music video they prefer so we knew how to shape our music video in terms of including a lot of performance aspects , focusing on a storyline or having a hidden meaning.  This pie chart tells us that narrative music videos are most popular because 42 per cent of the questioned population thought so. Paired with my other research, this question proved that narrative music videos are the most successful and popular. Because of this we have decided to base our music video on a specific storyline. However, we can also see that other music video styles are not completely disregarded by the audience and they are still enjoyed. Therefore as a group, we have decided to try and interpret each of these styles into our music vide. We aim to provide a storyline so the audience can engage with the audience, shots of the artist performing so the audience can see her talent and build a relationship with her and we will also try to create an interesting concept from the music video as a whole.

We asked what was liked about our chosen artist in order to see if we had made the right decision in choosing her because it would show us if she was popular or not. If she was very disliked by the majority of our target audience then we would have considered changing her to someone else who was more popular and so our audience would enjoy listening to the music video. Luckily though, our target audience all appeared to like Gabrielle Aplin and gave us a variety of reasons why. The reasons they gave let us know what is likeable in an artist in the indie genre so we can try to replicate these traits in our own artist. We would do this by portraying her as talented through the performance style and showing her playing the guitar and making her stand out so she appears unique and quirky.

The highest rated answer for this question was: 'a point of view shot is my favourite camera technique because it allows me to understand the artists perspective'. 23 per cent of the 40 people questioned gave this answer and I noticed a lot of point of view shots in other indie music videos when analysing my research. This is possibly used so frequently because it makes the song lyrics and narrative more personal to the artist and suggest that they have experienced what they are singing about before. This is conventional to the indie genre as they often sing about personal experiences and therefore I think it is a good idea to use point of view shots in my music video. Long shots were also a popular answer at 18 per cent. This camera angle is very useful to establish the shot as it can show the entire setting or character which helps the audience to understand the narrative. Because I am creating a narrative based music video I will remember to include several long shots to make the storyline clear to the audience. A blurred effect was voted as a favourite editing technique because it portrays how the artist is feeling as it represents the artist as confused and overwhelmed or reminiscent of the past. This may be enjoyed by the audience because it allows them to relate to the artists feelings and build a relationship. 15 per cent of the questioned public stated that their favourite camera shot is the shot reverse shot because it shows the relationship between characters which will be useful in my music video as the narrative is based upon the relationship between two characters. 

The next question I asked was 'What is your favourite Gabrielle Aplin song and why?' Asking this allowed us to discover our target audiences preference of music video so we know what examples to follow for our own in terms of what narrative they like etc. It also helped us to decide what song we should choose for our own music video. From this pie chart I can see that most of our target population would list the song 'Panic Chord' as their favourite. 'Panic Chord is an upbeat catchy song about the breakup of a relationship  and reminisces on the good times before it all went wrong.  Because of this my group has decided to choose this song because it is the most favourite by our target audience and therefore they would enjoy listening to it most. I know that I should focus on aspects of the Panic Chord music video when I create my own version because that way it will be equally as enjoyed by the audience. For example, I will make sure the narrative is relatable for the audience. Making this question an open question and asking the public why allows them to elaborate on their answer and tell us what it was about their favourite song that made them enjoy it. The highest rated reason for enjoying their favourite song was the fact that it was upbeat. This tells us that our target audience like songs to be catchy and light-hearted so they are easy to listen to.

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An open question I asked was aimed to find out what lighting my audience believed work best and what their reasons are for this. I found out that the audience preferred natural lighting the most because it is simplistic and allows them to see the artist more clearly. As a result I will try to include natural lighting in my music video to establish and introduce the artist to the audience so they can build a relationship with them. 23 per cent of the audience said that high key lighting works best because it creates a warm atmosphere and so I have decided to use high key lighting in my music video during the happy parts of the relationship before it goes wrong to create this happy atmosphere and mood.  To keep my music video interesting and varied I will also use low key lighting during the relationships dark times because it "imitates the breakup of a relationship".

The final question I asked was 'What narrative would you like to see in an indie video?' I asked this question so I could see what the most popular narrative types are in order to get ideas for my own music video narrative. I compared the audiences responses with my own previous ideas to see if they were similar and would therefore be received well by the audience.  The most common answer was relationships. This works well with my ideas because my group are planning on creating a love story narrative of a couples happy memories before they break up which reinforces one of the second highest answers given which was breakups. This means that because our target audience would like to see breakups and relationships in an indie music video they should enjoy watching my music video as that is what the narrative is based on. 

I created some vox pops of my audience when questioning them. Vox pops are recorded interviews with members of the public. We asked the questions with the aim of finding out what our target audience would prefer and expect to see in an indie music video. I asked both opened and closed questions which had both pros and cons for each. The open questions allowed the audience to elaborate on their answer and therefore give us more detail but are harder to organise into data. Contrastingly, closed questions are quick and easy to ask and easy to organise into data but lack the detail you would find in open question answers. 

Creating vox pops instead of just writing down the audiences answers in a questionnaire was useful because it allowed me to watch back the answers if I wanted to. Watching the vox pops back will allow me to pick up on any extra detail they gave if I missed it during the interview. Furthermore it makes the audience more likely to elaborate on their answers as they just have to speak and do not have to write their answer down. If they had to write their answer they may become lazy and not go into much detail. This is beneficial as a result because it allowed me to obtain more detailed answers from my target audience. 

VOX POPS HERE

Katie

Vicky

mchael

harry

Sub-culture is a group of people who are connected through a common value system of their tastes of music, clothes or politics etc. This group is often positioned outside the mainstream and so they go against the majority and what is 'popular'. People from this culture conform to what they believe in and not what is popular and rebel against the norm in doing this.There is tribal rivalry between groups regarding what each thinks is normal. They are either traditional or neophyte. This means a new idea or concept. 

I am going to apply Hebdiges theory to my music video. He believes that 'if you look deeper, there is enough richness to warrant remaining sub cultures as little cultures'. This is because what each sub culture believe is mainstream to their group is different to other sub culture. Therefore it is difficult to say who is right and what actually is mainstream. 

I believe that mainstream does not exist as cultures are constantly changing and there are so many different cultures.If there is no mainstream culture then there is nothing for other cultures to react to and rebel against and so they are driven by alternative motifs. This idea is from the CCCS (Centre for Contemporary Culture Studies). These ideas will be included in my coursework and theories for my music video because I agree with it and so would be able to apply it to my own work.

I have found this research useful because asking the target audience he questions gave me an incite into what they are expecting/want to see in my music video and therefore taught me what would work well. I will incorporate the answers given into my music video by taking on board what answers rated higher for each of the questions and then trying to include that aspect in it. For example, I will remember to include a lot of natural lighting in my music video as it was voted the  lighting technique that works best. This will make my music video more conventional and successful because it will attract the audience.