Demographics of the target audience refers to selected population characteristics as used in government, marketing or opinion research. It means categorising people by quantifiable things such as age and gender.
It is very important for magazine companies, such as Vogue to know who they are targeting. This is to ensure their product is attractive to their buyers, and to provide accurate data about their buyers to potential advertisers.
To define the target market and choosing specific demographics to target you need to consider the following factors:
- Age
- Gender
- Education Level
- Location
- Ethnic Background
- Income level
- Family status
- Occupation
You should also consider the psychographics which are more personal characteristics of the target audience which consider:
- Personality
- Attitudes
- Values
- Interests/hobbies
- Lifestyles
- Behaviour
To ensure Vogue are meeting the demands of the target audience, it needs to determine how their magazine product will fit into the target's lifestyle, and what features are most appealing to them.
Firstly, it shows that the median age for buyers of the vogue magazine is 38.5.
It shows that there are in total 87.5% females who buy the Vogue magazine to 12.5% of men. From this, Vogue can see that their magazine mostly targets the women and so they know what to include in the magazines to maintain their buyers. It also shows that 66% of buyers are in education, 64% of buyers are employed, and 24% professional or management employment, showing Vogue that their product appeals mostly to the younger generation of those who are still in education.
Demographics to the target audience:
Gender: From the media kit, I found out that 87.5% of the vogue magazine buyers are female, and 12.5% are male.
Age: From the media kit, I can see that the Vogue magazine appeals mostly to the younger generation. The median age is 38.5 and there are more buyers who are still in education rather than in employment.
From looking at the Gender and age, it shows that the target audience of Vogue magazine appeals mostly to young females.
Vogue magazine provides the audience with information on:
FASHION BEAUTY CULTURE FASHION SHOWS CITY GUIDES
These factors contribute to the target audience. Many young females are interested in the 5 factors above which is why they are the targeted audience.
Single Vogue magazines in the UK cost £3.99. This is an expensive price for a single magazine showing that the spending power of the buyers of the vogue magazine is relatively high.
Psychographics are also included with demographics and the target audience of Vogue.
Interests/hobbies and lifestyles are very important factors to consider when targeting the audience.
Vogue is all about the latest fashions, makeup brands, beauty, culture, fashion shows and city guides. This means that Vogue need to target audiences who are interested in fashion and beauty and want to keep up with the latest styles.
Psychographic market research tries to divide people in 'types' in a wide range of ways.
Such as:
- Mainstreamers: They go with the flow and do not want to stand out
- Aspirers: They want to have more money or status and will often by 'flashy' products to try to send out messages about statues.
- Succeeders: They have more money to spend than aspirers but won't feel the need to show it as much.
- Individualists: They want to show the world they are different.
- Carers - They want to save the world.
The 'main types' of people who will buy Vogue magazine consists of mainstreamers, who are generally interested in fashion and buy Vogue for information about their interests.
Aspirers, this is because Vogue is a relatively high-priced magazine and many people may buy it without considering the purpose but want to have a higher status, and Vogue is a magazine in which many 'high-status' people will buy.
Lastly, succeeders will also buy Vogue magazine as they have more money to spend, so they will be interested in the best magazine for fashion, in which Vogue is the highest magazine company for beauty and fashion.
Here is a screenshot of the Vogue Circulation and audience, showing that 86% of readers are Female and 66% of readers are between the ages of 16-34 years showing that the target audience for Vogue is focused on young females. This is due to young females being interested in upcoming fashion events, celebrity fashion and new season upcoming fashion.
Example of adverts of products which will attract the reader, in which is young females at the age of 16-34 years will be makeup brands and clothing brands.
E.g New Michael Kors clothing or a Dolce & Gabbana perfume:
Vogue advertises fashion products such as perfume, clothing, makeup and bags from well known fashion brands because they attract their target audience which is young females. They buy Vogue so that they can see upcoming fashions for new seasons. Vogue advertises products like this to increase their market position and readership.
Meaning and Purpose:
Demographics of the target audience refers to selected population characteristics as used in government, marketing or opinion research. It means categorising people by quantifiable things such as age and gender. The purpose of this is so Vogue can select certain characteristics in their print magazine to enable they are targeting the correct audience.
Here is a quote from David Gauntlett:
Media power versus audience power
In chapter two we set out the background debate over whether the mass media has a powerful influence upon its audience, or if it is the audience of viewing and reading consumers who wield the most power, so we should return to that question here. During the discussions in this book we have found, unsurprisingly, that the power relationship between media and the audience involves 'a bit of both', or to be more precise, a lot of both. The media disseminates a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable forms of self-expression, gender, sexuality, and lifestyle. At the same time, the public have their own even more robust set of diverse feelings on these issues. The media's suggestions may be seductive, but can never simply overpower contrary feelings in the audience. Fiske talked in terms of semiotic 'guerrilla warfare', with the audience metaphorically involved in 'smash and grab' raids on media meanings, but this imagery inaccurately sees change as a fast and noisy process. It seems more appropriate to speak of a slow but engaged dialogue between media and media consumers, or a rather plodding war of attrition against the forces of tradition and conservatism: the power of new ideas (which the media conveys) versus the ground-in power of the old ways of doing things (which other parts of the media still like to foster). Neither the media nor the audience are powerful in themselves, but both have powerful arguments.
'The media disseminates a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable forms of self-expression, gender, sexuality, and lifestyle. '
He is explaining that media has a huge impact about identity and the type of person you are, and this can include size 0 models. Many young females will think that being beautiful is being a typical size 0 woman because this is all they see in fashion magazines, especially Vogue.
Readership:
Readership of Vogue = 1,148,000
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