Audience Research - introduction
As game designers it is essential to know who we are producing our products to. This means that it is vital to know who our target audience is, this can be done by using several methods/techniques which will help the producers to have an idea on who they are selling their products to and what their interests might be.With audience research it allows the producer to know what their audience likes, How old they are, where they are from, their ethnicity and a lot more information which is necessary to produce a game in which will interest their audience. For example if the audience research final analysis came back that 80% of their audience prefers violence and gore, the producers isn't going to make a video game with zero violence and create a friendly, sweet game because 80% of their audience would not buy it.
There are several techniques to gather this information, each technique having different advantages and disadvantages which will vary the information they get back.
The most popular methods are questionnaires, surveys, focus groups, online forums and interviews. Each of these methods basically falls into a quantitative group or a qualitative group. Here are a few examples;
Quantitative methods
Quantitative research is basically when the research comes back in some sort of mathematical data such as statics, charts, numbers, tables and even diagrams. Quantitative Research gathers numbers instead of words. Benefits of using Quantitative research is that some of the methods are sometimes a lot faster than qualitative research as well as the data being a lot easier to collect from bigger groups than it is using qualitative method's. Once done the research can be presented in different ways such as bar chart, line chart and pie chart.
- Questionnaires
-Telephone Interview
- Surveys
- Polls
Qualitative research
Qualitative research doesn't rely on data or bar-graphs like quantitative research does. When using qualitative research the feed-back is usually a lot more detailed simply because qualitative research uses methods such as in depth interviews, observing the participant or having a focus group. All these methods allow the researcher to get a more detailed feedback for instance; when in a focus group or an interview you can see the participant’s behaviour and personality which makes it a lot easier to tell if the participant is being honest as well as being able to see their emotions towards a question.
Another benefit of qualitative research includes being able to listen to their opinions which makes it a lot more personal and 'human' like than it does doing quantitative research which is more 'scientific' , simply because you are listening and taking in a lot more than just numbers and data. However this is obviously a lot more time consuming than quantitative research. For example, with quantitative research you can pull people up on the streets and ask them some questions which will only take matter of minutes although using methods such as in-depth interviews will be a lot more complex and time consuming. The reason qualitative research is used is because it helps the research to go more into depth; it allows them to have a better insight.
- Observation
- Interviewing
- Focus Groups
Links:
https://zacshawasmedia.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/the-importance-of-audience-research/
https://www.southalabama.edu/coe/bset/johnson/oh_master/Ch14/Tab14-01.pdf
http://libweb.surrey.ac.uk/library/skills/Introduction%20to%20Research%20and%20Managing%20Information%20Leicester/page_51.htm
http://rentingyourplace.com/airbnb-101/furnishing/
https://sphcm.med.unsw.edu.au/research/quantitative-research
http://conversionxl.com/how-qualitative-research-conversions/
Exercise Number 1 - Paper Questionnaires
As it is vital for games designers to know who their audience profile is, We did an exercise using different methods to help us understand what the audience profile is for Pokémon go. Pokémon Go was released in July 2016, once released the game got a lot of attention from all over the world. In this exercise it is necessary for us to do the following research to help understand the type of audience the game attracted.
Qualitative method (Paper questionnaire)
Firstly I began by creating a sheet with open questions on and walked around my local area to gather qualitative feedback. Open questions is when a question relies on a description answer for example, a closed question is a Yes or No answer. A closed question is usually used when using quantitative research.Whilst trying to find participants to answer the questions to my questionnaire, I realised that throughout my college there wasn't a huge variety of people for instance everyone's ages was quite similar so I went to the Lowry in greater Manchester which is a huge shopping outlet with a different range of people. I wanted a different range of people instead of just students to simply get more of a realistic result for instance if I asked students the result will mainly be 16-18 years however the Lowry is full of younger and older people. I personally think this allowed me to get more of an idea which age group preferred Pokémon Go. Using a paper questionnaire was practical because it allowed me to ask the participants my questions face to face, meaning I got to see their emotions/reactions to the different questions. However the main disadvantage for me was trying to find people who wanted to fill in a questionnaire. For instance, I went to the Lowry around 11AM when I asked people for their time to fill out my question air they simply shrugged us off or explained that they do not have enough time to stop and fill it out. Even when a participant did answer our questions, I felt like they could of been rushing which made me feel like some participants did not think probably about the questions, meaning our answers could just be rushed, untrue and not to their full potential.
To the right you can see a photograph of the surveys. As you can see we only did three surveys in the space of an hour, because it was really difficult to find a participant with the time to answer our questionnaire.
Trying to find someone to answer your questionnaire is really time consuming especially with open ended questions. Open ended questions are especially time consuming because they collect a large amount of answers which take time to progress and analyse which means that some participants might be put off because it could take a long time to complete. 
On Pokémon go he picked the team instinct instead of team Mystic and Valor. Team instinct is a yellow team which believes trusting the Pokémon to be themselves and letting their unique talent shine through will win the gym battles, The participants favourite Pokémon was Sandshrew although the participant didn’t tell us why he liked that Pokémon the most, simply because he was in a rush. For the 7th question he said Pokémon go can be improved by adding more Pokémon to his local area so he didn’t have to walk so far to have to collect the Pokémon. For question 8 he explained how he only played Pokémon go if he had enough time and for question 9, he said he never spent any money on Pokémon go because he didn’t play it enough so he didn’t think it was necessary. When asked if he still has the Pokémon go app he answered 'No, it was a novelty'.
2: The second was also answered by another male, who also had similar answers to the previous participant. He also preferred the old classic Pokémon games and though that walking to Pokémon was a good concept because it added more interest to the game. He found out about the app by another social media, he was watching a YouTube video when he came across Pokémon Go. For Question 5 he explained how he picked team Mystic which is a blue team. Team Mystic is a calm team who seems to wins almost every gym battle. However our participant didn’t know the definition of the team and explained how he only picked team mystic because blue was his favourite colour. The rest of the answers from this questionnaire are extremely similar to the previous questionnaire. Just like the first participant; he wanted more Pokémon and he didn’t play the game that often. For question 9 he said he never spent any money on the Pokémon go app because it was too expensive. He also didn’t keep the Pokémon go app and has now deleted it. 
3: The 3rd questionnaire was answered by a female participant. She never played any of the old Pokémon games and wouldn’t consider playing any of the old classic Pokémon. She liked how you have to walk to collect the different Pokémon because she believes it made everyone a lot more active than they would be sitting at home playing games. Just like questionnaire 1, she also found out about the Pokémon go app by facebook. She choose the team instinct which is the yellow team just like questionnaire 1, she only picked this team because she picked at random. Her favourite Pokémon was Drawzee Simply because she thought he was the most adorable Pokémon and was everywhere she walked so it was the easiest Pokémon to capture. She said that the Pokémon go app could be improved by adding more features to make the game more interesting, she suggested upgrading the map and making it a lot more detailed and more eye catching. She also didn’t play the game that often and thought there was no point in spending money on a game she didn’t play regularly. When asked if she still has the app, she responded with ' No. I deleted it because it got old and boring'. http://www.philstar.com/gadgets/2016/07/22/1605519/how-pokemon-go-went-prank-phenomenon
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gaming/what-to-play/pokemon-go-teams-mystic-instinct-and-valor---which-team-is-best/
Quantitative method
Quantitative is data which I have explained above. To get data, the questions have to be closed or it will be extremely difficult to sum the answers into numbers.
For example, with closed questions it’s usually a one answer reply so it’s extremely easy to summarise how many people have answered the same question. To help with audience profiling for the Pokémon go app I decided to create a questionnaire with a few questions in format of a table. Using the table makes it easier to mark what the participants said with a tick or a dot, making it a lot less time consuming. Below are my results; 
Firstly, I printed off the questions and walked around the campus of college and asked several people who have played Pokémon go before the questions. Doing this was a lot easier than the Qualitative method, simply because the participants knew that this table would be a lot faster than the questionnaire which they would have to explain their answers. With these particular questions they just had to pick an answer out of the options which was already there. Once they have answered I put a small dot next to their answer in the correct column. Within an hour we had 7 participants which means we had double as much participants within the same time as we did with the previous method. This makes it extremely obvious that Quantitative methods are a lot more easier to get feedback of a larger amount of people although I was as satisfied with this method than I did with the previous method, simply because the answers had no in-depth description and the participant didn’t seem as interested in the questions, they just picked one of the options as quick as possible. This personally made me feel like they didn’t think about the question as much as they should and just rushed their answer.
Finally, we analysed the data we have collected and released instantly that this method was a lot easier and didn’t take as long as the questionnaire. The reason behind this is simply because with open ended questions you have to read and analyse the individual answers but with closed answers you basically tally the answers because the participant only has a few options to pick. For instance if I asked a participant what their favourite colour is and they said Blue I can simply put that participant with the rest of the other participant that chose blue. But if It was an open ended question, I would ask what is their favourite colour and why?' and it will be a lot harder to put that individual into a group because it is a really unlikely that everyone who choose the colour blue has chosen it for the same reason so there will be more in depth groups just about the colour blue. As you can see to the right, all of the answers have been added all together and put into a column. For example, if I wanted to know how many of my participants take the bus I can easily look into that column and know that 4 out of 7 of my participants do take the bus. Collecting and analysing the data like this makes it a lot simpler to know how many participants choose an answer without having to add up or read words. Using this technique simply takes one glance at a chart. This is useful to help audience profiling because it helps summarise who the audience is. For example 4 out of 7 of my participants were female; this means that more than half of the audience I asked was female. If I asked a lot more people and I got a similar result it would be clear that Pokémon go audience is mainly female for instance if I asked 100 people if they played Pokémon go and 60% of the participants are female and only 40% are male, You can start to estimate how many females play it worldwide and so on.
Summary
Overall out of the two different paper research techniques, using Quantitative and Qualitative methods I have come to the conclusion that I personally think that the Quantitative research was a lot more successful and more reliable than the Qualitative research. This is because I think it’s a lot more effective in bigger groups, more participant were willing to stop and answer these questions because it’s a lot simpler than the open questions. Using this in big groups will help understand who the audience is which is a massive benefit although If the producer wanted to know Why the audience choose a certain answer they won’t get the explanation with a Quantitative method. I think each method has their own disadvantages and advantages so it is important to know what the producer wants from the audience to understand what method to use. For instance, if I only wanted to know if they are female or male then the Quantitative will be the fastest and most effective method. Although if I needed to know if they think Pokémon go can do with some improvements id need to know what the audience may suggest for the improvements for example if I asked 'Do you think Pokémon go needs improving?' In a closed question Id only get Yes or no answers, which can be helpful but it does not explain why it needs improvement so it is pointless asking that question on a Quantitative method and will be a lot more successful in a Qualitative method.
Exercise Number 2 - Online Questionnaires
Qualitative method
I made a qualitative questionnaire using the website 'survey monkey'.
For this questionnaire I used a single text box for my questions so my participants can write about their answer instead of using a drop down box where they will have options. I wanted a single text box because I asked open ended questions so I wanted the participants to do an answer with more description than just 'Yes or No'. Here are my results;
Q1: Question 1 is a simple question which asked if they are female or male. As you can see in the picture to the right two of the participants are female and the other two are male's.
Q2: The second question asks if they have played any of the old Pokémon’s before and if so do they prefer it or if not would they consider it. Two of the respondents said they have played Pokémon before and one of them does prefer Pokémon Go. Whilst the other two have never played any of the old Pokémon games although one of them would consider trying it after playing Pokémon Go.
Q3: Question 3 asks if they like the fact they have to walk to collect the Pokémon and all 4 respondents have replied back with yes because it makes them more active.
Q4: Question four asks how they found out about Pokémon go. The answers were; Facebook, social media, It was everywhere I looked and one of the participants said a friend told them. This shows that as soon as Pokémon go came out it had a lot of attention. It was all over the social media which made everyone really anxious to try the game seen as everyone else was playing it.
Q5: Question five asks what team they all picked. Two of the respondents picked instinct because it was more of a 'chilled' team. For example one of the respondents explained how he just wanted to collect the Pokémon and instinct allowed them to do so although the other teams got more stressed out about it. The other respondent explained how the team is about having faith and believing yourself. The last two respondents both picked different teams. One of them choose valour because 'it’s sick' whilst the other one choose mystic because they like the colour blue.
Q6: Question 6 asks what their favourite Pokémon is. Two of the respondents answered with Pikachu because he was out of the first Pokémon film and they grew up with him whilst the other two have two different favourite Pokémon. One of them preferred Ponyta because it is a cute horse whilst the other one choose Poliwag because its 'sexy'.
Q7: This question asked the participants what they would do to improve the game. This is a vital question because it allows the makers to know where they have gone wrong, it allows the audience to speak and let them know what they want to help improve the game. The first answer was to have less battery usage or trading, the second participant thinks the game should allow you to have friendly battles with your friends if next to each other, Third participant said there should be a An easier way to get pokecoins because it would be a big help instead of gaining the coins from gym battles, you should be able to collect eggs and prizes from gym battles and pokecoins from pokestops. And the final participant said there should be a nearby system.
Q8: Question 8 asks how often did they play the game and most of the answers game back that they played it allot, they played it every day.
Q9: Question 9 asked them did they spend any money whilst playing Pokémon go. Two of the respondents responded back with no whilst the other two said yes and explained it was for more bag space and poke balls.
Q10: The final question is 'Do you still have the app & why?’ The results came back that 3/4 of the respondents still have the game because it’s fun to play and compete against friends and one of them explained that they have kept the app in case there is a important Pokémon around them. However the respondent that said no said they have deleted the game because it got boring to quick.
Quantitative method
For the Quantitative Questionnaire I used a website called Survey monkey like I did with the Qualitative method. However instead of using single text box I used multiple choices which allow me to ask the question and put a few options below for the participant to use as their answer. Below are the questions I included in my questionnaire;
I used multiple choices instead of a text box because in Quantitative methods you do not really want words as an answer, You want to know the Quantity of something for instance in this question I am asking how much did they play Pokémon go and then gave them some answers they can pick from.
For question 6 I tried something different, Instead of using a multiple choice I choose a drop down. A drop down is similar to multiple choices but instead of the options being listed they are hidden in a little drop down. At the end this will create a tally of numbers. Instead of using the exact same questions I did on the previous exercise when I did a paper questionnaire, I decided to change a few questions to make the questionnaire look more interesting. Once finished I shared it on facebook and in total got 17 respondents. Because I am using an online Questionnaire the results are already analysed and put into charts for me, this makes the whole progress a lot quicker and more affect full because I can change the bar charts etc into my own preference. For example if the website analysed my data into a bar chart I can easily change it into a Graph within a few clicks. Here are my results;
Q1: The first question was 'Are you Male or Female' and out of 17 respondents, 12 of the participants who filled in this questionnaire were male and the rest was female. This means that a lot more male has filled out this questionnaire. If I had done this to a larger group I.E 100 people and Male came back as a higher number it would be easier to say that males are Pokémon go's main audience but seen as only 17 respondents have replied, it isn’t realistic enough to do estimations like that. Although I could say out of 20 people 75% of the audience is male. 
Q2: The second questions asked the participants what their age is. I shared this survey on social media so the survey has more potential of being seen by both younger and older audience. As you can see in the image to the right, there is a bar chart explaining how 88.24% of my participants were aged between 17-22 years old whilst the rest were 23-28 years old. This could suggest that Pokémon go is more popular with the 'younger' generation but you can’t always be certain with online questionnaires because you don’t know if they are being honest for instance a male who is 28 could say he is a female who is 17. This can give false data, leading to a false audience profile. 
Q3: Third question is 'Have you ever played any of the old Pokémon go? If no skip next question' and only two participants responded with the answer no. This could mean that the audience playing Pokémon go is the same Pokémon go audience from their old games but is still attracting a new audience at the same time.
Q4: Question four is only for the participants who answered the previous question, so only two have skipped this question. The participants which have previously played the old classic Pokémon go games have answered which one they prefer. The results came back that 9 prefer the old style Pokémon whilst 6 prefer the new Pokémon Go. This is a close result, which could give some vital information about the audience.
Q5: Question Five asks 'Are you in education or in employment' then gives a list of options for the participant to pick. The results came back that most of the participants was employed. Knowing this is important because it can say a lot about their income and free time.
Q6: The sixth question is asking what kind of gamer the participant is. Knowing if your audience is mainly full of hardcore or casual games proves how much time your audience may have. For instance 12 participants have answered that they are a casual gamer, this means they only play when they have time.
Q7: This question asks how often they play the game. 8 of the participants said often, 5 said rarely whilst 4 still said they play it all the time. This means that even though most of the participant might only be a casual gamer, a huge amount of the participants still find the time to play Pokémon go.
Q8: Question 8 is an important question because Pokémon go main feature was the player having to walk to collect the Pokémon. They said they wanted this to make their players more active and social, so I decided to ask if this really worked. With my results I got 10 saying yes it did make them more active and only 7 saying it didn’t. This means that Pokémon go achieved what they wanted to do and explains that their audience is willing to get up and go out to play games.
Q9: Question 9 asked 'In a typical week, which of the following forms of transportation do you use? (Check all that apply)' this question helps understand the finical income of their audience. The answer which was the most popular was bus, this means that most of the audience travels by bus.
10: The final question asked if they still have the Pokémon go app. this is an important question because it shows if the participants still uses the game enough to still keep the app on their phone. The results came back that 5 of the participants deleted the app whilst 12 still have the app, this is a good sign that Pokémon go is still quite popular and more people are using the app than deleting it.
Conclusion
From this exercise I have found it a lot more easily doing online questionnaires than doing paper questionnaires. This is because with paper questionnaires it is harder to find a participant but with online questionnaires you just put a link on a social media and ask anyone who have played Pokémon go before to please answer the survey. For example the most respondents I got whilst doing the paper questionnaire was 7 but with online I got 17. However the disadvantage of doing this is you cannot see your respondent so you can’t see their reaction etc. This means that your respondent online can also be fake for example you can’t see them so you don’t know if it’s a male who is 40 but then pretending to be a female who is 16. It is a lot more risky because you can get false answers but time consuming wise; the online questionnaire is a lot more effectual. Another benefit that I have noticed whilst using online questionnaires is that it is a lot simpler; with paper questionnaires you have to type it up, print it, go out and collect answers and then come back and analyse it yourself. With online questionnaires all you basically have to do is type it and share the link and the website does the rest. So in conclusion, I personally prefer using the online questionnaire simply because you are attracting a lot more people in a short amount of time.
Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/home/
Exercise Number 3- focus groups
For exercise 3 we got put into Several focus groups which all included having 5 members. We were all given a statement which we had to disgust our opinions and emotions towards this statement within the focus group.
A focus Group is a Qualitative research method which involves having a group of people who are then asked about their perceptions, opinions, believes and attitude towards a product, advertisement or any other marketing purpose. In a focus group, each is free to talk about their own opinions and criticisms by answering questions by the interviewer. Usually in a focus group each member have something in common such as their demographics, this gives the interviewer the potential to find their target audience or a group of people who are most appropriate for the particular questions. For example in the focus group which i was put in, each of us are doing games design, are from the same college and all have a similar age.
Advantages of using a focus group as a Qualitative method are;- The participants might feel more comfortable answering questions whilst around other participants.- You are able to see the participant’s body language when asked a question.- You also have the opportunity to ask several people the same question at once and get a variety off feedback.
However some disadvantages of a focus group might include;- The participants going off topic whilst talking to other participants.
- The research needs to make sure they are not biased as this could alter the results.
- A focus group can be expensive to hold if the researcher needs a location & needs to pay the participant’s for their time.
Overall a Focus group can be one of the most effective techniques to learn about your audience.
Links
'Are Video Games really that bad?' - Example Focus Group
We were given a statement which basically states that video games have a negative effect on the younger generation. Below you can see a few brief notes on which I have researched about the statement as well as 12 minute footage of our discussion within the focus group. This is then followed up by a small summary which includes feedback of my own personal experience as well as the pros and cons which I noticed whilst being in a focus group myself.
"Video games are having a negative effect upon the younger generation in today’s society. Explicit sexual and violent content, bad language and the objectification of women and men is leading to worrying trends in behaviour – addiction, isolation and aggression. More regulation is required urgently to clamp down on this problem."
Notes;
Whilst researching I have found various results, some agreeing with the statement and some strongly disagreeing against the statement.
Firstly, I found a website which explained how games can alter young childrens mental health simply by staring at computer screens instead of playing outside can cause physical changes in the brain that lead to attention and behaviour problems. The average child will spend almost 2,000 hours in front of a screen between their tenth and eleventh birthday.
“students who had played a violent virtual reality game had a higher heart rate, reported more dizziness and nausea, and exhibited more aggressive thoughts in a posttest than those who had played a nonviolent game”.
However there are a few positive effects on what video games can do for children. For instance video games teach children how to solve problems a lot more effectively, teaches them creativity, as well as inspiring interest in history and culture and teaching them how to make friends from all over the world. It isn’t hard to notice that video games do have quite a lot of positives. I personally think that there is a lot more positives than there are negatives when children are playing video games. Although I agree that children should be out making memories instead of sitting at a screen all day, video games give children useful skills in an entertaining way.
I think that video games are not harmful as long as parents are watching kids careful enough for example not giving their kids a game not appropriate for their age, making sure they are not spending too much time playing video games and finally, making sure the child does not get emotionally attached to any game and is still connected to real life and has a healthy social life. Restricting your children when they are playing video games will make it less likely your child will get attached in a negative way.
Links
Negative effects:
More Positive effects:
Here is the discussion we had in our group:
Throughout the experience of being in a focus group I released it is a lot more nerve-racking speaking in a group than it was speaking to the interviewer as a individual however the other members also made it a bit easier because after a while We all communicated and had a comfortable conversation so it didn’t feel like we was in an interview. I think this is a huge benefit because being a participant in a group allows you to think of things you never thought about so it allowed you to expand your opinion by simply listening to the other participant’s opinions. However, this makes it easier for you to get a little of topic because you almost forget what the original question was. The main problem I noticed was at the beginning of the focus group, everyone seemed a bit anxious. I think this affected the research because not everyone felt confident enough to express what was on their mind although as the discussion went on, the more genuine the conversation felt. Overall I think that focus groups are really effective for Qualitative research because it allows the researcher to ask a question and then get in-depth answers by several people almost instantly. However I think focus groups can be time-consuming because as i just mentioned, the participants might not feel confident enough to talk instantly and the conversation could get off topic.
Audience Profiling
Introduction
Audience profiling allows video game designers and any other media business to help 'narrow' down who their audience is. It’s important to know what sort of audience you are targeting because once you know who the audience is and have a brief profile on which they are you are able to make the game in the most effective way. For instance you know who you are 'aiming' the game at. This is effective because once you have a brief profile of your audience you know what they like so making a game based on what the majority of your target audience likes is most probably be the best way to get the best results and earn profit.
When defining an audience it is important to know the Demographics, Psychographics, Geodemographics and a few factors that must be considered in the audience. In this section I am going to explain each of these with a brief explanation and example images.
Demographics
Demographics is a study which helps define who the audience is based on the factors below for example their age, race and sex. Demographics is used to learn more about the audience's characteristics for instance demographics will help the developer determine the best way to reach and attract the video games audience. For example, using demographics research will help best 'describe' the target audience. It helps them understand their current customer and their potential customers.
One way to find out who the audience is and what their 'status' is by using the NRS social Grade, The NRS social grade basically breaks the population down into 6 different classes These class's are based on the persons income and status for instance if you’re a student then you will be working class E although If you are a skilled worker such as a mechanic then you will Be in the skilled working class C2. If your audience is a majority of a middle working class it will mean that most of the audience will have a professional job employment and will have a higher income than an audience with mostly working class. Knowing the class will help determine how much money the audience has and it will help have a batter understatement on who the audience for example knows their culture, media interests etc.
Factors
When defining an audience it is important to consider these factors;
Age, Gender, Race and Sexuality
Education
Occupation
Annual Income
Disposable Income
Current Lifestyle / Aspirational or Desired Lifestyle
Culture
Media Interests
Buying Habits
Loyalty to Brands
Things like their general age, gender, education level, religion, language and culture —is the most important aspect of analysing your audience profile.
Psychographics
Psychographics is a study of the audience's personality, values, opinions, traits, life styles and more. It helps define why the audience acts the way they do. Psychographic profiles could include factors like what activities they do, their interest, opinions, behaviour. This can sometimes clash with the demographics although psychographics helps have a better understanding on what they spend their money on and why. There is a chart where the audience is sectioned into a list of different groups. This is called the Cross Cultural Consumer Characterization which was invented by an advertising agency called young and Rubican, in this they explained how there are seven kinds of people in this world. The four main categories are mainstreamers, aspirers, reformers and succeeder. Each category has a definition on what motivates that person for instance it could be security, control, status, freedom, survival, individuality and escape. Below you can see the Cross Cultural Consumer Characterization chart.
Geodemographics
In audience profiling Geodemographics segmentation is a subdivision of statistics of classification techniques to help discover if the audience falls in to a different group. For instance Geodemographics is based on two different principles; the first principle is that people who live in the same neighbourhood are meant to have more similar characteristics than people chosen from random locations. The second principle is that the neighbourhoods can be categorized by characteristics which the population contain. Any two neighbour hoods can be based in the same category for example if two different locations had the same people with similar characteristics then they will be put into the same category even though they are widely separated from each other.
Audience profiling allows video game designers and any other media business to help 'narrow' down who their audience is. It’s important to know what sort of audience you are targeting because once you know who the audience is and have a brief profile on which they are you are able to make the game in the most effective way. For instance you know who you are 'aiming' the game at. This is effective because once you have a brief profile of your audience you know what they like so making a game based on what the majority of your target audience likes is most probably be the best way to get the best results and earn profit. When defining an audience it is important to know the Demographics, Psychographics, Geodemographics and a few factors that must be considered in the audience. In this section I am going to explain each of these with a brief explanation and example images.
Demographics
Demographics is a study which helps define who the audience is based on the factors below for example their age, race and sex. Demographics is used to learn more about the audience's characteristics for instance demographics will help the developer determine the best way to reach and attract the video games audience. For example, using demographics research will help best 'describe' the target audience. It helps them understand their current customer and their potential customers.
One way to find out who the audience is and what their 'status' is by using the NRS social Grade, The NRS social grade basically breaks the population down into 6 different classes These class's are based on the persons income and status for instance if you’re a student then you will be working class E although If you are a skilled worker such as a mechanic then you will Be in the skilled working class C2. If your audience is a majority of a middle working class it will mean that most of the audience will have a professional job employment and will have a higher income than an audience with mostly working class. Knowing the class will help determine how much money the audience has and it will help have a batter understatement on who the audience for example knows their culture, media interests etc.
Factors
When defining an audience it is important to consider these factors;
Age, Gender, Race and Sexuality
Education
OccupationAnnual Income
Disposable Income
Current Lifestyle / Aspirational or Desired Lifestyle
Culture
Media Interests
Buying Habits
Loyalty to Brands
Things like their general age, gender, education level, religion, language and culture —is the most important aspect of analysing your audience profile.
Psychographics
Psychographics is a study of the audience's personality, values, opinions, traits, life styles and more. It helps define why the audience acts the way they do. Psychographic profiles could include factors like what activities they do, their interest, opinions, behaviour. This can sometimes clash with the demographics although psychographics helps have a better understanding on what they spend their money on and why. There is a chart where the audience is sectioned into a list of different groups. This is called the Cross Cultural Consumer Characterization which was invented by an advertising agency called young and Rubican, in this they explained how there are seven kinds of people in this world. The four main categories are mainstreamers, aspirers, reformers and succeeder. Each category has a definition on what motivates that person for instance it could be security, control, status, freedom, survival, individuality and escape. Below you can see the Cross Cultural Consumer Characterization chart.Geodemographics
In audience profiling Geodemographics segmentation is a subdivision of statistics of classification techniques to help discover if the audience falls in to a different group. For instance Geodemographics is based on two different principles; the first principle is that people who live in the same neighbourhood are meant to have more similar characteristics than people chosen from random locations. The second principle is that the neighbourhoods can be categorized by characteristics which the population contain. Any two neighbour hoods can be based in the same category for example if two different locations had the same people with similar characteristics then they will be put into the same category even though they are widely separated from each other.
Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychographic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodemographic_segmentation
http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/2013/09/19/study-the-consumer-potential-of-collaborative-consumption-demographics/
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/silva/bartlett/casa/latest/events/?month=12&year=2013&view=view_archive