Media NEA Blog Entry: 3

 

Market research:

• According to the brief, my target audience is Gen X to Millennial audiences, who are aged 25-56 years old approx.
• Gen X- busy with work, mortgages, yet they are quite online on social media. They also know what to shop for, but do make impulse purchases. Marketing to this audience could be done through email promotions, anything tailored to the benefit of the environment, and grab attention with deals, promos, etc.
• Millennial- Value social issues over economics, shop online a lot, less so in stores, spend a lot. Decides their outings based on feedback from social media. Marketed with reviews, social media ads/incentives, rewards.

• In reference to the content I wish to put in my magazine, I want to find out the average readership of audiences in this age bracket to décor, travel, food etc. I may also want to shortlist the age of my TA, so I don't appeal to audiences who don't wholly associate with my themes. Another area may be the most widely used social media apps.

• I want to know this so I can stick to conventions, where I can appeal to a mass audience and fit in the broader home, travel and food lifestyle theme for my magazine. This is also because I want to see how audiences in this age bracket react to the themes I have chosen, and what and where their interests reside.

Cultural industries:

Companies in the cultural industry should limit risk while maximising audiences in order to maximise profit, according to David Hesmondhalgh.

As a result, media texts tend to be less original and more generic in order to reduce the risk of failing to appeal to a broad audience and reducing profit.

Large corporations also work across a variety of platforms and industries, indicating both vertical and horizontal integration.

Vertical integration: When a company owns various businesses along the same supply and value chains.

Horizontal integration is the ownership by a company of multiple enterprises in the same industry or market.