Demographic, Psychographics and our target audience

Demographic, Psychographic and our target audience

Definition:

Demographics are how a film company can ‘segment’ an audience by using personal profiling, this method of research defines the adult populace largerly by the work that they do. Breaking each proffesion into 6 different catagories, labelling these groupings with a letter coding to describe the income status of members of each group.
For example in figure 1:

A	Higher management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals.
B	Middle management, teachers, creative and media people e.g. graphic designers, editors and producers.
C1	Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff- White collar.
C2	Skilled manual workers, plumbers, builders- Blue collar.
D	Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers.
E	Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers.

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Psychographics is a way to describe an audience by looking at their behaviour patterns and their personality traits. Psychographics labels a particular type of person and makes an assessment about their viewing and spending habits, the information gained from this type of profiling is important to thriller films and this is because by studying what ‘traits’ the audience has the director can get a greater understanding of what would appeal to their tastes and incite different emotions making the viewing experience more enjoyable. An example of this is ‘The Grudge’, by working with a professional psychologist the film gets into the psyche of the prospective audience, adding realism and making them paranoid for weeks after watching it.
Examples of psychographic persona's in figure 2:

Mainstreamers	Seeks security. Tend to be domestic, conformist, conventional, sentimental flavour value for money family brands. Nearly always the largest group.
Aspirers	Seeks status. Materialistic, acquisitive, orientated towards image and appearance, persona and fashion. Attractive packaging more important than content. Typically younger people, clerical and sales jobs.
Succeeders	Seeks control. Strong goals, confidence, work ethic and organisation. Supports stability. Brand choice based on self-reward, and quality. Typically higher management and professionals
Resigned	Seeks survival. Rigid and authoritarian values. Interested in the past and tradition, brand choice stresses safety, familiarity and economy. Typically older people.
Explorers	Seeks discovery. Energy, individualism and experience. Values difference and adventure. Brand choice highlights instant satisfaction. They’re the first to try new brands. Younger demographic students.
Strugglers	Seeks escape.  Alienated and disorganised. Few resources beyond physical skills. Brand choice involves impact and sensation. Buys alcohol, junk food, lottery tickets, D and E demographic
Reformers	Seeks enlightenment. Freedom of restrictions and personal growth. Social awareness and independent judgement. Anti-materialist but aware of good taste. Gas attended higher education and selects products for quality.

Our target audience:

Our intended target audience is teenagers this is because our film has a sci-fi undertone as well as thriller the overall thriller theme; believing that the use of technology would make it it more appealing to a contemporary audience. We’ve decided to aim for15 certificate because we will still have a large target market and more freedom to show violence and drug abuse, making it very flexible when writing the script and filming although not quite to the same degree as an 18 certificate which usually endorses this behaviour.
Although having said that BBFC must be compatible with that audience , and the most desirable certificate is a 12A because it means parents can take their children therefore making the film accessible to anyone.