Target Audience

As part of trying to target the preferred audience, I not only created a character profile, but also interviewed a few people, created questionnaires and summed up my own personal views. This helped to target my audience and make sure I understand who out media product was actually aimed at rather than giving a vague estimation. From my character profile I generalised that males aged between 16 and 25 was our target audience however after looking into specific likes and dislikes, I decided I generalised too much and tapered it to a better quality.


Example of a Questionnaire:

HORROR QUESTIONNAIRE

1)  How old are you?

17

2)  Are you Male or Female?

Male

3) What is your favourite genre?

Comedy/Action

4)  Do you watch Horror films?

No

5)  Why do you/not watch Horror films?

Too scary. Increasing gore factor nowadays. Psychological factors are good in some dated films.

6)  How much are you prepared to pay at the cinema?

£5 - £6

7)  How often do you watch films/movies?

2/3 times a week

8)  Do you share/pass on films to other people?

We share films with friends and family on a regular basis.

9)  Who do you watch Horror films with?

Friends, but only if necessary.

10)  Do you watch them for specific actors?

No.

Robert Clemmens

Overall, I gathered results from 13 people. They are all of a variety of ages and mostly have a similar variety of different attitudes and opinions, especially when it comes to Horror films and the horror genre. Ages ranged from 15 to 42, giving me a wide spread to try and derive the true target audience. I also gave out questionnaires to both males and females to see if gender made a massive difference. 

- 9/13 of the people I asked said they did watch Horror films. I felt this was higher than I actually  initially expected as I personally don't see the horror genre as one of the most popular. 

Of these 9 people, 7 were male and 2 were female which shows that the male gender are more acclimatized and interested in this specific genre. 

- Despite 9/13 people stating that they watch Horror films, only 1 person said it was their preferred genre. Other preferred genres included Comedy, Action and Crime/Detective as well as many sub-genres such as Rom-Com's and Sci-fi.

- The costs of which people were prepared to spend at the cinema didn't exceed £7, and from local research, Stevenage cinema costs over £7 for an adult ticket. However Letchworth charge around £5. This shows that the cinemas have taken into account the market research regarding their target audience. The costs can't be too high as the main profit is made from students and teenagers who don't earn high amounts of money. From my results, females weren't as easy to give their money away as the males and so implies that mainly men would visit the cinema with their friends as a social gathering.

- The question regarding how often films are watched was answered much higher by males than females. This could be because, in a stereotypical view, males spend more time watching television and on their laptops/the internet. than females. 

- 13/13 of these people said they share and pass on their films to other people. When asked to specify, these included friends and family. This is bad for the film industry as this means less products are being purchased and if pirate copies are being made, could be crippling for major film companies and distributors.

- In regards to the horror genre and horror films, when asked why they watch them, more than half (7/13) said it was for the 'rush/adrenaline factor that keeps you on your toes'. 3/13 people said it was for the gore and shock factor of some scenes and the last 3/13 claimed it was for the way the characters had been manipulated as well as the story lines.

- Also, when asked whether they watched the horror films for specific actors, 6/13 said yes, which implies that the target audience only choose certain films depending on who is in them.


Horror Film Talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0Me-zvy9hE&feature=youtu.be

Interview: http://youtu.be/R6_ZPR6a6bg