Why is a target audience important?
A target audience is a particular group of people that a service or product is advertised for. It helps to achieve effective communication and marketing strategies. In addition, it distributes relevant messages, products, and services to specific demographics. This allows businesses to allocate resources efficiently, enhance customer engagement, and build brand loyalty by addressing the unique needs and preferences of a specific group. Additionally, different social media platforms target different demographics. For instance, TikTok is a platform dominated mostly by teenagers and young adults, therefore, TikTok is effective for this particular group of audience.
example
The South Korean boy group BTS. They used a strategic approach, including social media engagement, live concerts, and advertisement partnerships to connect with their fan group. BTS targets specifically young listeners globally despite the language barriers. Their music blends pop, hip-hop, and R&B, and features lyrics that touch on themes such as self-love, mental health, and societal issues. The fans created a massive community due to the group’s active presence on social media platforms such as Twitter, and Instagram. Their highly active profile has built intimacy and loyalty between fans and the group. As a result, BTS was consistently ranked as one of the most-followed and influential social media accounts globally. With their popularity, their music has made remarkable success. The single "Dynamite" became the most-streamed track in a single day on Spotify with over 12.6 million streams within 24 hours of its release in August 2020. This ideally exemplifies the power and influence of targeting the audience. Furthermore, to improve and expand their visibility and accessibility to a wider audience, BTS collaborated with McDonald’s and launched the “BTS Meal” which draws them more attention as their image is portrayed in a globally successful fast food business and intrigues new listeners.
The target audience for our MV
‘get him back!’ by Olivia Rodrigo is in the genre of Alternative/Indie and Pop which favors 43% of the Gen Z population millennials (39%), and Gen X (42%) as they rated Pop as their favourite genre in 2023.
She told People magazine that: “her angsty pop-punk anthems about teenage drama and the pain of being pure at heart appear to be landing with fans beyond her Gen Z target audience.”
These statistics are from similarweb.com
Breakdown of Demographics:
In general, our MV is a concept video with narrative elements embedded within it. Olivia Rodrigo’s music is relatable through her lyrics.
One main targeted group is the audience who enjoys the genres of Alternative/Indie and Pop. For instance, the common themes in her songs: love, heartbreak, and self-discovery are all universal experiences that appeal to a wide demographic. Therefore, for our music video, I intend to target audiences internationally ranging from teenagers to young adults (age 14-30) who connect this music and feel relatable.
Despite featuring 2 Asian girls narrating a love story about a boy in our music video, we embrace all ethnicities and do not judge sexuality since the overarching theme is love.
To distribute, an online release is the ultimate choice. However, to achieve global release, using different platforms is worth considering. To exemplify, to target a Western audience, TikTok and YouTube are the most popular platforms to receive attention. On the other hand, to achieve a similar effect in Asian countries such as China, Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), Xiaohongshu (similar to Instagram) and Weibo (micro-blogging website) are great ways to draw traffic.
Breakdown of Psychographics:
People who listen to Pop music and enjoy concept and narrative music videos may often be creative and with character. Personality-wise, a Turkish study has found that extroverts preferred rock, pop, and rap because these genres facilitated dance and movement. However, this does not necessarily mean our music video only attracts extroverts but there is a likelihood that most of our listeners could be. Furthermore, the lyrics address wild and passionate ideas that are likely to be preferred by individuals who live a free, confident, and optimistic life. Audiences who enjoy our music video will hold strong personal opinions towards life and goals as we plan to feature diverse emotions and changes throughout the video. Undoubtedly, they would also consume other similar genres of music and music videos on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and TikTok for their interests and artistic sublimation purposes.
Audience theories
Audience theories suggest that different representations are open to different interpretations and that their meanings are not fixed. It also refers to the relationship between the audience, media texts, and producers
Audience engagement theory
Audience engagement theory coined by Jeremy Tunstall discussed how audiences actively engage with media content and how this engagement influences their perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours. Audiences consume media texts in different ways or levels of intensity depending on the situation and context.
There are 3 categories of engagement: Primary, secondary, and tertiary.
1. Primary audience engagement
When the audience pays close attention to the media text. For example, while in the cinema, requires the audience to pay detailed attention and concentrate text displayed on the screen.
2. Secondary audience engagement
The media text now exists in the background while the individual is concentrating on something else. For example, listening to music while reading an article will affect the intensity and how concentrated compared to listening at a live music concert. Another concept, “ambient television” explains behaviours such as a show playing on Netflix while people are more interested in social media notifications on their phones.
3. Tertiary audience engagement
Tertiary consumption is when the audience is almost unaware that they are consuming media. For instance, when walking by billboards and adverts on the street, people take a glance but do not recognize or pay attention to the actual text written on them.
The theory goes beyond traditional models that portray audiences as passive receivers of messages, but as active individuals who include their thoughts and values when they encounter media texts to shape the meaning in media texts.
Audience engagement EXAMPLE: Sherlock TV show
Audiences transcend from their traditional roles to now actively participate via fan groups and social media platforms. Fans were consistently sharing their ideas on social media platforms (Twitter, Tumblr) about plot twists, character developments, and hidden clues to solve the unraveled mystery. This pheromone is supported by Jenkin’s Fandom theory that the digital revolution has expanded the scope of fandoms. Additionally, fans also contributed to the creation of content such as fan art posters. Linking to Shirky’s End of Audience theory, as audiences, we no longer hold our traditional roles as only consumers, but the revolutionary impact of digital technology has reduced the barrier to media production.
The Hypodermic Needle
This theory argues that the mass audience are passive recipients and information gets ‘injected’ into them by the media which results in predictable and manipulated behaviours.
Example: Netflix series "13 Reasons Why."
The show contains sensitive topics and received widespread criticism about the possible impact on viewers for its graphic depictions of suicide and sexual assault.
Some critics argued that these scenes could have a negative influence on audiences, especially on teenagers and vulnerable individuals. The issue was that individuals who receive these scene messages could be "injected" with those harmful behaviors after watching the show. This idea could be linked to another theorist Bandura as he argued as a psychologist, violent behaviours are learnt through modelling. He concluded children can learn from observations after watching an adult model behave aggressively towards a Bobo doll.
This suggests the powerful impact of media messages on audiences as it is explained by the Hypodermic Needle theory. However, the absence of determinative evidence supporting the actual negative impact questions the potential influence of the show, while on the other hand, the show has prompted important debates about mental health.
To respond to this incident, Hannah (who suicide) is no longer the narrator or even the focus of the third season after Netflix announced it had removed the scene depicting the character’s suicide.
Theodor W. Adorno
Adorno is a German philosopher, musicologist, and social theorist who argued that mass media are standardised, and popular media are the standardised cultural product which passively manipulates the public’s taste and produces a false sense of diversity. He addressed his concerns about the future of commodifying art and shaping a conformist mass culture.
For instance, in the music industry, many artists write repetitive songs with predictable chord progressions, catchy tunes, and a formulaic song structure that attracts listeners for a short period. These kinds of music are absent in artistic value and appreciation which affects the authenticity of music appreciation.
Example:
Katy Perry's album "Teenage Dream" has been analysed for following established pop music formulas that lead to success. Many songs feature catchy hooks and a unified production style that is the most trendy in the mainstream pop industry. Adorno might exemplify these kinds of music as standardised products that serve the mass audience with a lack of innovation and artistic values. However, the emersion of products like this is heavily linked to the current market needs. As Hesmondhalgh argued, the main initiatives when businesses and conglomerates create content all encompass profit-driven motives.
Relevant theorists and ideas we will incorporate in our MV
1. Semiotics: Roland Barthes (use of symbolism. Connotations are created through: props, post-production effects, pose, costuming, composition, and lighting.)
2. Genre Theory: Steve Neal (Genre hybridization. Our contrast between ‘love’ and ‘revenge’)
3. Media and Identity: David Gauntlett (Media narratives mirror the process of identity transformation. For example, the 2 artists change their attitude about ‘get him back’)
4. Postmodernism: Jean Baudrillard (the double-meaning of ‘get him back’)
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