Target audience

Target audience is a very important concept, as it is the group of people at whom a product is aimed. For a general product, such as a type of food eaten by a wide range of people, there would be a very large target audience. An example of such a product may be burgers sold in a chain of restaurants. Many different types of people will eat such food and so the advertising and publicity for this product need to be quite general. However, for other products, such as specialist books, there will be a very narrow target audience, as only people who are interested in the subject matter for these books would buy them. An example of this may be a book of locomotive numbers published for train spotters. Any train spotters reading this book will now be protesting that this is not a narrow interest and there are thousands of people who share the hobby. However, even the keenest train spotter will accept that there are more people who eat burgers than spot trains and so will accept that the book itself, as well as any advertising, must appeal to that relatively narrow target audience.

Target audiences are usually defined by the characteristics of the group that a product is aimed at. There are many ways to describe a target audience and some are listed below:

·     geography - a local newsletter will appeal to a small group of people who, for example, live in a certain area

·     age - some products are aimed at people of a certain age. Teenage magazines are a good example of this

·     gender - products may be aimed at either females or males or both

·     income - this can be a very influential factor on who buys a product. This is not only a question of the cost of a product but also what the product says about the wealth and income of the person

·     educational background – a person’s level of education can influence how and what they buy. This is not always as clear cut as, say, the geographical factor, but can still be influential.

These are just some examples of the different groupings which can be applied to target audiences. As well as using these and other factors on their own, these factors can be combined. For example, the target audience for a regional magazine may be described as ‘women over the age of 30 who live in Wales’. If other groups of people choose to read the magazine, this is not important. The target audience is who the product is aimed at and not necessarily who actually uses the product.

Remember - when you write about the target audience for your Recycle GB website you need to make sure you include all the types of people who you want to use it - the scenario below is to remind you what the website is supposed to do and who it is supposed to be aimed at: