Coursework Research -Target Audience

What is a target audience?

A particular group at which a product such as a film or advertisement is aimed.
A target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message. In marketing and advertising, it is a particular group of consumers within the predetermined target market, identified as the targets or recipients for a particular advertisement or message. Businesses that have a wide target market will focus on a specific target audience for certain messages to send, such as The Body Shops Mother’s Day advertisements, which were aimed at the children and spouses of women, rather than the whole market which would have included the women themselves.

what is the target audience for each of the following genres?

Comedy - the target audience of a comedy film is very dependent on the content of the film. for example children's films labelled as PG's or U's can have comical scenes in which would link it to the comedy genre, the films would appeal to young children as well as parents as they are often family films. However the audience  would be completely different for a comedy film labelled as a 12 or a 15, these films have the target audience of the audience of the certificated age given to the movie as the base, the movies are likely to appeal to people over the labelled age of film simply because comedy has a large target market appealing to larger proportion of the comedy theme market.  the final age partition of the comedy target audience is 18 certificates, these films although still based around comedy are often more explicit in terms of language and scenes, making the film heavily aimed at over 18 years.

Horror - The target audience of a horror film is very dependent on the content of the film. For example horror films labelled as a 12 or a 15 have the target audience of the certificated age given to the movie as the base. The final age partition of the horror target audience is 18 certificates, these films although still based around horror are often more explicit in terms of mature scenes, language, making the film heavily aimed at over 18 years. 
Action - The main target audience for action films again is age 13 – 28 years of age and generally aimed at mainly males, this is because males of this age range generally are more interested in fast paced storys with lots of action filled scenes that include explosions and fight scenes. This genre attracts men as they like to imagine themselves as the main character. Depending on the graphic nature and style of violence can alter its audience as comic book styled violence will attract fans who prefer a more unrealistic style of action, e.g. sin city, 300 and watchmen.

Romance - The wide appeal of romance films is because of the emotions that the characters display within these type of films, and this is why in our opening we have not used any dialogue but only used emotions as this is what is stereotypically related to romantic films. The aim is to get the audience to feel connected with a ‘real life situation’ or a’ slice of life’ . The likely gender would stereotypically be females as it is said that they prefer films of which they can relate to and emphasise with.

Drama - Shown from research, the main target audience for a period drama film is typically women aged 17-50. The period drama genre can span a wide age range due to the content. It has a wider target audience than some genres such as teen movie, as it can related to a wider audience, du to the range of characters and varying plot lines. many period drama films have a romantic storyline, which could also appeal to women more than men. However some period drama films are not targeted at a  female audience, such as 'Dorian Gray' which involves more violence and has an overall dark feel than most over period drama films. This could have been done to attract a wider audience. Although i also believe that the target audience is also very dependent on the age certificate labelled on the film covers. 

what would be the target audience for 'your idea so far'? And how would you attract these people to watch your film? 

I understand the target audience for our 'idea so far' would most probably be the age certificates of 12. My group and i understand that our film idea would not be suitable for anyone younger than the age of twelve to watch. 

Studies show that Internet users are becoming increasingly responsive to video, and we should therefore be using video to capture our target audience. We need to keep our videos short and sweet, and make sure they are informative, entertaining, and – most of all – relevant to our target market.

In the film itself you can attract the target audience, the age of the characters and clothes they wear can attract the appropriate target audience. Location and setting does the same, for example if the film is set in a house party then you know that the film is aimed at younger age groups.