Various Audiences

For my Audience Research class, we had to read four articles from MediaPost Publications and discuss how the marketing and advertising industry is able to learn about each audience.

The first article is called Targeting Young Males. Obviously about marketing to the young male sect, the article raised a number of interesting points. Brian Bolain, who is the national sales promotion manager for Toyota Scion, refuted the intial idea that young males are not watching TV and are merely not watching TV with a mindset receptive to advertising messaging. The way to market to them is to reach them in their own environment - similar to Scion setting up in front of music stores frequented by their target, allowing test drives and handing out merchandise. Another thing I took away from this article is that young males may not be watching what you think they are watching. The common belief is that males 18-34 can be found watching violent action films and Adult Swim on Comedy Central. However, the article pointed out that "scantily-clad, sexy women" will always attract them; ABC's "Desperate Housewives" is no longer just your mother's show.

The next article is entitled Cracking the Fickle Tween Code. Out of all the articles in this post, I loved reading this article the most. I've always wondered, for example, if tweens really buy Proactiv on the basis of Jessica Simpson's commercials, and it seems Simpson sells more items by actually using, rather endorsing, them. Talk about another way for celebrities to get perks! Marketers will definitely attempt to get celebrities that are on the teen radar to use their product. And if the celebrity genuinely loves the product or brand and buys it without prompt? Free advertising which you just know works.

The last two articles, Targeting Boomer Women and Hispanic Women, kind of fell hand in hand. The former discussed marketing towards the women of the boomer generation while the latter focused specifically on Hispanic Women. My mother is a member of the baby boomer generation, so I definitely agreed with a lot of the points brought up. Barbara LaPlaca, associate publisher of marketing for More magazine, said a number of things that caught my attention. She talked about needing to market a product to the women as something that can just fall into place with their lifestyle -- and mentioned Swiffer as an example. Truthfully, the Swiffer marketing plan is so great that I've found myself wanting one! The second article dealt with the cultural issues in marketing toward Hispanics. For example, a large of the Hispanic culture revolves around the family unit. Marketers need to understand that, when marketing to Hispanics, they need to shy away from singling one person out. Products and brands need to be good for the whole family. Hispanic women are brand loyal, but willing to change to another brand if there is technological progression involved.

Regardless of which article you're looking at, one thing stands out very clearly: in order to market to any audience, you first must put yourself in their shoes. Great advice!