Post 5: My Target Audience

My target audience is a "fun-loving 16-25 year old mass market demographic". I have researched this demographic, discovering their needs as consumers, consumption habits and what appeals and satisfies this target audience. 

UK Tribes is a project commissioned by Channel 4 and created by Crown DNA, whose aim is to understand the 16-25 year old mass market demographic. 

This is their aim as a project:

From this research, 5 different tribes were developed:

1. Alternative

Alternative Tribes are driven by the need set themselves apart from the mainstream. They’re determined to be different – but do it together. Lucky for them, Internet culture means the alternative lifestyle has never been so accessible – or so popular. Though most Tribes are fluent in digital, the Alternative Tribes in particular define their tastes, friendship groups and activities online more than anyone else.

Alternative Tribes are passionate about music, sharing an appreciation for live music, independent record shops and grass roots talents – it’s all about authenticity and being ‘real’. Unusually, Tribe members will buy music to support the artists they love and a dedicated merchandise and gig goers.

2. Mainstream

The Mainstream forms the backbone of tribal society – where most young people start out. The key is in sticking with what you know – chart music, prime time TV, local nights out and booze.

Looking to commercial entertainment channels for influence, Mainstream Tribes prefer to stick with what’s safe. There’s little desire to hunt down underground fashion and music – they are more than happy with readily available ‘high street’ influences.

There’s a strong emphasis on conformity across all Tribes and ages. Siege mentality makes Mainstream Tribes wary of those standing out, anything that’s too ‘out there’ is sure to elicit disparaging remarks – nobody likes a show off! Yet, Mainstream Tribes are among the most loyal of all – both to their friends (often keeping the same group from school) and family.

This is my target audience and demographic, meaning I will use familiarity and mainstream pop convention to appeal to this group. My pop music video, persona, website and social media will be exciting and appealing to this audience, yet will adhere to convention to ensure audience engagement. My mainstream target audience will also be a useful fanbase due to their loyal nature - allowing my artist to have a strong and faithful following.

3. Leading Edge

Leading Edge Tribes are proactive scene leaders that live for the new and now. From making music to being environmental activists – these guys collaborate across Tribes, develop contacts, share ideas and set the agenda.

Attuned to global trends and switched on to developments across diverse fields, they reject passive consumerism and are driving tastes across virtually all other segments on the map. They might be hard to predict, but following what’s going down here is a must for any marketer.

4. Urban

The Urban segment is linked to inner city living – young people living in busy multicultural hubs, with rich and varied influences from a range of backgrounds.

Urban Tribes are strongly influenced by what they see and experience in their immediate environment and many Urbans identify themselves with a specific area in the city.

Urbans are best known for music – from RnB, Grime, UK bass and funk, to old school jungle and rap. Urban Tribes play a hugely important role in dictating the artists that break through to the mainstream.

5. Aspirant

Aspirant Tribes know the look, music and lifestyle they want – and will spend big in order to get it. Attuned to what’s happening in Leading Edge circles, it’s about keeping up with what’s cool but without all the hard work of creating it themselves. These Tribes will be found in Student Unions across the UK.

Social butterflies, they are spending summer holidays hitting the festival circuit. Whether it’s the latest pop-up, food truck, concept store, art gallery or nightclub, they want to be the one to have seen it first – and post it on social media. Experience seeking drives the Aspirant segment, and introducing the newest fashion and music to their friendship group motivates Tribe members.

From the ubiquitous gap year alpaca jumper, to the MacBook Pro, Ugg boots and Hershel backpack, Aspirant Tribes are big consumers with strong brand affiliations. Brands trying to crack the Aspirants need to work hard to prove their cool credentials. They need to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right people – although appealing to them may be challenging, those who do are rewarded with surprising brand loyalty.

Even though my main target audience is the mainstream category, through presenting an aspirational lifestyle within my video and on my website and social media, I will appeal to this category. They will want to interact with my brand to stay relevant and updated on popular trends.

 


What Music Means to a 16-25 Year Old Audience?
To research this more fully, we conducted a survey within the 16-25 year old demographic to more fully understand the consumption patterns and desires concerning music and pop music. These are our results:

The results that reveal that my target audience listens to music to escape and experience escapism was very poignant. I will consider this when making my own music video by creating a melodramatic, overexaggerated and somewhat unrealistic narrative. This will give the audience the feel of escapism from everyday life that they crave and avidly want while listening to music.

I then looked at the economics of streaming services to fully understand the future and evolution of music consumption in the modern-day. This will help me when promoting my own music as I will be able to promote my music on the correct platforms to ensure I engage my target audience and ensure they interact with my brand.

Competition to Pop Music

I analysed the greatest competition to the pop music genre from other genres, finding out that recently pop has been overtaken as the most popular genre with 16-25 year olds by the genre of Rap/RnB/Hip-Hop. Even though it is no longer the most popular, It is still extremely popular among this demographic, making it relatively easy for my artist to appeal to a "mass-market demographic" outlined in the brief. 

Pop Artists Successful with the 16-25 year old demographic

As seen on the graph directly above this title, this year so far, Ariana Grande's 7 rings is the most-streamed pop song of the year, making her the most popular pop artist within the genre. Other successful pop acts this year are Billie Eilish, the K-Pop band BTS, Taylor Swift and Ed sheeran. They are the top 5 artists of the pop genre this year. 

This research has been useful to me as it has allowed me to fully understand my target audience and their consumption habits. This has, in turn, allowed me to understand the role and importance of music to my demographic, allowing me to understand how I need to promote my music and brand to them in order to ensure engagement and traffic. It has also allowed me to look at the different types of demographics and 'Tribes' within my target audience's age group. This has allowed me to see how I should appeal to my target demographic, for example by presenting an aspirational, influential and affluent lifestyle. This will help to appeal to my demographic and give me an edge over the competition, while adhering to convention and creating a high-quality music video, website, and brand identity.

My sources for this post are:

The Guardian,

UK Tribes,

Markets Insider,

Google Surveys