Categorisation — AQA GCSE Media Studies
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Categorisation explained
Audience segmentation is the process of dividing a large target market into smaller, more defined subsets using specific variables.
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These variables act as the criteria for segmentation. Demographic variables include age, gender, and socio-economic status, often utilising the NRS social grades like C1 and C2. Geographic variables segment audiences by location, such as region or urban versus rural settings. Psychographic variables focus on lifestyle, values, and personality types. Behavioural variables look at the audience's relationship with the media, including usage rate, brand loyalty, and the specific benefits they seek from a product. By combining these variables, producers create precise audience profiles.
Your focus
- Define audience segmentation and explain its importance in media production.
- Identify and describe demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioural variables.
- Apply segmentation variables to construct a profile of a target audience for a specific media product.
Categorisation exam tips
Marking Points
- Segmentation divides a broad audience into specific, manageable groups for targeted marketing.
- Demographic variables include age, gender, and social grades.
- Psychographic variables categorise audiences based on their attitudes, interests, and lifestyles.
- Behavioural variables focus on how audiences interact with media products, such as their viewing habits or brand loyalty.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Learn to match specific audience characteristics to the correct type of variable (demographic, geographic, psychographic, or behavioural).
- 💡When analysing a media product, consider how multiple variables might be combined to define its target audience.
- 💡Remember that social grades like C1 and C2 are key demographic variables based on the occupation of the chief income earner.
Common Mistakes
- Treating segmentation and categorisation as completely unrelated concepts. Correction: Segmentation is the specific process of applying variables to categorise an audience into smaller subsets.
- Misidentifying geographic variables as demographic variables. Correction: Geographic variables relate specifically to physical location, whereas demographics relate to personal statistics.
- Writing social grades incorrectly. Correction: use the standard NRS notation C1 and C2.