Core Concept #5Audience

Ms.LeBouthillier

Two ways to look at ourselves as media audiences: As consumers of media products we are:

Target audiences

Active participants in media construction

Target Audiences Who are they trying to reach? If a media product doesn’t reach its

target audience, it will cease being produced

Media delivers audiences to a sponsor It’s a numbers game

Active Audiences Have you ever disagreed with a friend about

the interpretation of a movie or tv show? Are you a fan of a performer or rock band

that many of your peers dislike? Our responses to media are based on

unique elements in our personality and back ground. (gender, age, class, ethnicity, religion, life experiences etc.)

Think backpack activity (WHAT IS YOUR WORLDVIEW? See wiki )

Psychographics Help identify how large groups within the

population will react to a given media message

VALS (values and lifestyle) Developed in the late 70’s. VALS™ evolved

to explain the relationship between psychology and consumer behavior.

Essentially four basic groups of citizens according to VALS Belongers Emulators, Emulator-Achievers Societally Conscious Achievers Need-Directed

Belonger 1 in 3 Typical traditionalist Cautious and conforming Believes in God, country, and family Strong community consciousness Arch enemy is change Consumer profile: drives a dodge or

Ford, drinks Coke, Pepsi or Budweiser, eats McD’s and love Jell-O

Emulators Not set in their ways Small but impressionable group of young

people in desperate search of an identity and a place in the adult working world.

Represent 15% of the population Will do anything to fit in Lack self confidence and discouraged by

future prospects Compensate for this pessimism with

unabashed personal hedonism Confused and vulnerable Purchase products from advertisers who

offer solutions to their post adolescent dilemmas (prey on their insecurities)

Emulator-Achievers Materialists, who are already successful Own a Mercedes or Lexus Most comfortable with high end brand name

products (Tiffany, Gucci, latest high tech toys)

20% of population and in a funk Believed the sky was the limit, today

frustrated, bit cheated, stuck just below the top rung of the economic ladder

¾ fear they won’t attain their fiscal goals Cheered up with commercials that

transform everyday items into things of accomplishment, success, and taste. Buy and you will appear…

Societally Conscious Achievers

Care more about inner peace and environmental safety then financial success and elegant surroundings

Person, not professional, fulfillment matters most to these individualists

20% of population Are experimental as long as it fits into

their belief system (acupuncture to Zen) Shop often by mail, choosing LL Bean

over Gucci, drive smaller foreign cars, lighter wines, wholesome foods, use refillable water bottles etc.

Need-Directed Are survivors, struggling to sustain

themselves on low incomes 15%, at least ,of population Are not consumers in the true sense To busy to worry about image they

present or the type of beer they drink Rarely have the time to go out to eat;

just struggling to survive.

Activity 1: Assignment 1: VALS You will check out an article online Todays’ VALS are different (revised in

the early 1990’s) . Read about each type today and complete the assignment.

Notes for next time: