Audience Research

Social class is variable for research purposes, and divides the population
SOCIAL DECCRIPTION OF OCCUPATION EXAMPLE
GROUP
A Higher management, administrative, professional Company
director
B Intermediate managerial, administrative, Middle
professional manager
C1 Supervisory, clerical, junior administrative, Bank clerk
professional
C2 Skilled manual worker Plummer
D Semi or non-skilled worker Labourer
E State pensioners with no other income, widows, Unemployed
casual unemployed and lowest grade earners
into groups based on the occupation of the Chief Income Earner (CIE)

Lifestyles classifying people according to their values, belief, opinions and

interests. There is no standardised lifestyle segmentation model. An
example of this would be that a developed by an advertising agency
called Cross Cultural Characterization.
The 4Cs

Resigned Ridged. Strict, authoritarian, chauvinist values.

Brand choice stresses safety, familiarity and
economy (older)
Struggler Alienated, struggler, disorganised, with few
resources physical/mechanical skills and heavy
consumers of alcohol and junk food. Brand
choice involves impact and sensation.
Mainstrea Domestic, conformist, conventional, sentimental,
mer passive, habitual. Part of the mass, favouring big
and well known value for money family brands.
Aspire Materialistic, acquisitive, image, appearance,
charisma, persona, stability. Attractive
packaging more important than quality of
contents.
Succeeded Strong goal orientated, confidence, work ethic,
organisation, stability. Brand choice based on
reward, prestige. Also attracted to caring and
protective brands.
Explorer Energy, autonomy, experiencer, challenge. Brand
choice highlights difference, sensation,
adventure, indulgence and instant effect. The
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first to try a new brand. (young student)

Reformer Freedom from restriction, personal growth, social
awareness, value from time, independent
judgment, tolerance of complexity, anti-
materialistic but intolerant of bad taste. Curious
and enquiring. Support growth of the product
categories. (higher education)

OCCASIONS - grouped individuals according to the occasions when they

purchase. Use or think of buying a product.
BENEFITS SOUGHTS grouped individuals according to the level of usage
they make of the product, be it heavy, medium or light usage.
USER STATUS grouped individuals according to whether they are non-
users, potential users, first-time users, regular users, or ex-users of the
product.
LOYALTY STATUS grouped individuals according to their level of loyalty to
the product. hard core loyal always purchase another the product/brand
in question. Whilst soft care loyal will sometimes purchase another
brand, and Switchers will not specifically seek out a particular brand, but
rather purchase the brand available to them at time of need, or that which
was on sale.
BUYER READINESS STAGE grouped individual according to their
readiness to purchase the product. This segmentation model is
particularly useful in formulating and monitoring the marketing
communication strategies employed to move consumers towards
purchase of a product or brand.
Stages in Buyer-Readiness
STAGE DESCRIPTION
Awarenes At the launch of a new product, the target market may not
s even be aware that the product exists, even established
products seeking to entre new segments of market may
need to raise awareness of both their company and their
product. The now infamous Benetton brand, and whatever
you think of the methods the company used, the fact
remains that Benetton became one of the 5 most recognized
brands in the world.
Knowledg The audience may well be aware of a product or company,
e but still have either very little knowledge of what the product
or company does, or possibly worse have the wrong
impression of both the product and company. Daewoo when
it first entered the UK Car Market, had to go about educating
the target market about both its product and the company
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itself, early promotional material therefore informed the

audience about the size, history and strength of the
company.
Liking Knowing about a company or product does not mean the
audience will necessarily like either, they may well be
ambivalent, have no feeling at all, or even dislike the
product. An audience with knowledge of a product must
therefore be moved to the stage of liking the product.
Promotion must seek to develop a positive attitude towards
the product, or if market research identifies a poor product
image in the market, promotion must seek to address these
issues within its promotional campaign. IKEA addressed
head-on the target markets concerns, that much of their
furniture has to be assembled after purchase, and that there
are limited staff available on the shop floor, cleverly turning
what the audience may well have originally perceived as
negatives into positives of shopping at IKEA.
Preferenc Given the level of competition in markets today, it is often
e the case that the potential customer will like several
competing products on the market, promotion must now
therefore seek to develop within the audience a preference
for their product. Through research the business must
establish the key features of the product in the eyes of the
target market, these might include efficiency, performance,
economy, value and quality. Promotion will now therefore
underline the advantages of the product in terms of these
key features, which differentiate it from the competition.
Convictio An audience which prefers a particular product, may still not
n buy that product based on pure preference. In fact, many
customers will purchase a competitors product which they
did not prefer purely because they were convinced it was the
right decision at that time. Promotion must now build
confidence in the audience that their preference for the
product is justified, and convince them through a range of
promotion tools including for example the use of positive
press reviews, and expert recommendations that their
product is the right one to buy.
Purchase The last stage in buyer-readiness is purchase of the product,
unfortunately conviction to buy may still not result in actual
purchase, and this may for example be due to the
individuals current financial situation. Many customers will
need further persuasion to make the purchase. Promotion
may offer Sales Promotion discounts, or Personal Selling
through Sales Representatives, in order to convert
preference and conviction into a sale.
Audience Research