Audience Research

Within our group we were all allocated different roles, so that we all completed an equal amount of work. Josh was responsible for finding out  'What Makes An Effective Marketing Campaign'

Josh's Audience Research

There are several factors which can influence how successful are marketing campaign is including the target audience, promotion techniques, financial support and essentially the actual product being marketed.

Target AudienceThe target audience has a huge influence in making a marketing campaign effective as it is essential to market your product to the right audience. by targeting a specific audience it allows you to recycle past ideas which have proved to be successful for similar products if possible e.g. use techniques in a film which have been praised from another film of the same genre. If used correctly and to a good standard this should also be beneficial for the company replicating the technique. Another benefit of having a specific target audience is that it allows you to use techniques which will specifically appeal to those members of the audience, this can be done through genre, ethnicity, cultural differences, language and other characteristics which help define different individuals and groups they associate with.

Also in this section I will be looking at audiences which have been targeted by film makers and distributors which have chosen similar genres to ours (mainly horror) so that we can get ideas as to what to include in our film trailer and also what age groups and sexes to target.

• The target audience for these three films are adults/teenagers this is because people of this age are usually less scared than a child would be as they perceive the film differently, they are also unsuitable for children as it may cause nightmares for them.
• The target audience more defined would be for those that enjoy horror films and being thrilled, people that it does not suit is those that get scared easily and suffer from nightmares as a result of something scary happening.

Age Range: When deciding on your target audience for a film you must think about the specific age range that you would like to have as your target, you must ask yourself which age range you want as your target audience and why? By choosing this age range this will allow you to then look into other films and do research about what other things attract this age range, for example, what genre is a selected favorite from the age range. 




Ethnic Groups: When producing products for a film you can also target a audience by the use of a range of different ethnicities in the cast. The race of the characters in the film can be seen as being very important. If the audiences are the same race as members of the cast, the audience will then feel that they are able to relate to the character. The use of different ethnicities therefore helps to widen the target audiences.

Gender Groups: It is also important to think about the gender of your target audience. For example, a mixed cast of both male and female will attract both genders as the audience; this will widen the audience range. Therefore in the trailer, it will be essential for us to cast both males and females. As well as this, the type of language, clothing and mise-en-scene can also impact what gender will be attracted to the film.



Age Certificates:
15 Certificate: Horror usually has strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.
18 Certificate: Been created through the commission of a criminal offence where material or treatment appears to bring risk or harm to individuals or, through their behaviour to society. Portrayals of sexual or sexualised violence which might for example, eroticise or endorse sexual assault where there are more explicit images of sexual activity which cannot be justified by content.

Target Audience for Scream

• This film again like most horrors targets the age groups late teenagers and upwards as they enjoy horror films more than children and are less likely to be scared by them.

• I think that it targets both genders as it involves a girl so the female viewers can relate to her in the film, but also as it is a horror men often tend to enjoy this genre of film more than girls however this is not always the case as sometime males are more scared than females whilst watching horror films which is why I think that both genders are targeted.
• I don’t believe that ethnicity will affect the viewers of the film as despite there being only the Caucasian race displayed throughout the film there is no racism making it friendly for people of other races to watch and enjoy.

How Are These Social Groups Attracted To This Product

• Adverts around town and on various other sources of media such as the Internet and radio will attract viewers to this film as it makes people aware of the film.
• The trailer of the film will also attract many people as it shows what the film is about by revealing a part of the story which may encourage people to go and watch the film.
• A good review of the film will also attract viewers as if people have said it is a good film, other members of the public will also want to watch it as they know that they wont be wasting their money on a film they don’t like which is a major influence in whether people go to watch a film.
• The colours used in the poster for the film could attract viewers as it is only black and white which makes Drew Barrymore look scared, this could attract viewers as it indicates that the film is a horror and therefore will attract fans of the horror genre.
• The image of Drew Barrymore's face could also attract viewers as it shows the audience that she features in the film and they could be fans of her work which may make them want to watch the film.

Target Audience For 28 Days Later

• This film targets ages from teenagers upwards as whilst it is a horror film it is not too scary for the younger teenagers e.g. 13 year olds especially if they watched it with a family member. I believe that younger teenagers will be able to watch the film without being scared as they most likely have a better perception of reality than younger children and therefore know the storyline of 28 Days Later is fictional.
• I think that both genders are targeted to watch this film, however I do believe it is aimed more towards the male members of the audience as it involves possessed monsters and violence which are often associated with films males are attracted to.
• Ethnicity doesn’t affect the audience targeted in this film as again similar to Scream, despite only Caucasian people featuring in the film no racism is used making it friendly for other races to watch and enjoy.

How Are These Social Groups Attracted To This Product

• Advertisements on TV and around town on buses and billboards etc. Would attract a majority of the audience watching this film as it is the most common place where people see and hear about films.
• The colours of the poster for 28 Days Later are red, black and white, the red could represent the death in the film, black for the evil of the zombies, and the white could be the purity of Jim as it is the least used colour on the poster. Also by having the colour red on the poster it makes the poster stand out to the viewer and therefore more noticeable.
• Reviews of the film could also encourage viewers to go and watch the film as if it gets good reviews people may follow the advice of the reviewer and watch it. Also if the audience members peer groups talk about a film it would make them want to go and watch it as they may want to join in conversations or jokes about the film etc.

Target Audience for Saw II

• The target audience for Saw II ranges from teenagers upwards however it is not suitable for all people as it includes very gory scenes of which may be too disturbing for some viewers with actions such as having to cut his eye out to retrieve a key to release himself from a fly trap like device otherwise he will die. Because of these gory scenes the certificate is an 18.
• I think that both genders could watch the film however mainly males will be targeted as females have tendencies to be less interested in gory films of which involve a lot of blood, there are anomalies in the female gender however so it may be suitable for some female members of the audience.
• Race has no influence on the audience to this film as there is no racial abuse from any of the characters involved in the film allowing people of all races to watch and enjoy the film.

How Are These Social Groups Attracted To This Product

• I think that the film trailer can appeal to fans of the horror genre as it looks like a scary film as there are a lot of jumps in the editing of the trailer, however I think that it mainly appeals to those that have seen Saw as it has some the same characters which appeared in the first film, this makes it more appealing to those members of the audience as they will be more aware of what has happened and what is going on as the story is developed in the later films.
• The poster for the film could attract viewers as it shows the public that the saw franchise is about the loss of limbs by the two fingers which represent the two, however this could potentially put viewers off watching the film as it may be too disturbing and gory for them.
• These social groups could also be attracted to watch the film by reviews, as if the film received good reviews it will make the public want to watch it more.
• The audience could be attracted to watch Saw II by posters on billboards and buses etc. as they will see these advertisements when they go to work or whilst socialising etc.
• Also as the film has a prequel (Saw) this may also attract members of the audience to watch the film especially if they enjoyed the first film.
  
  
  
  Promotion TechniquesThere are various promotion techniques which can be used to make a marketing campaign effective, this includes; advertising and promoting via. media sources such as the Internet, radio and television. By promoting the product through multiple sources sales will increase as more people are likely to be made aware of the product. Billboards and banners on buses are a successful way of promoting films as people will see them during every day life without doing a particular activity, such as going to the cinema; this is most successful if it is a sequel or has previously been mediated as the audience will already have an understanding of the film, therefore they will not have to base opinions on the picture, title or phrase alone. The Internet, radio and television are also extremely successful ways of promoting a product as it shows and tells members of the audience more about the product than a still picture does. Also if promoted through the Internet it allows the audience to further their knowledge as they can look into the film more e.g. through search engines such as Google.

Primary Research
To Target a specific audience for our film we had to conduct primary research designed to gather the publics opinions/views on what they would like to be included in the trailer for horror film, magazine cover and poster, and how they believe we can make them effective. To aquire this data we created a questionnaire asking several questions on what people like about successful horror films and the way they have been edited etc. By gathering this data it will allow us to get an insight into what is popular amongst films of the horror genre of which we could then recreate to improve our film trailer, magazine and poster.




Questionnaire

For primary research we created a questionnaire which allowed us to see the most favoured characteristics of horror trailers, magazines and posters. By gathering this data it allows us to use it to add more successful traits to our products and therefore make our work more successful.

















Questionnaire Results
In response to our questionnaires we created several graphs displaying the data we collected. This makes it easier to see the most favoured choices and also shows the boundaries between options.