Psychographic profiling

Young and Rubicam’s cross cultural consumer characteristics which is an approach in terms of peoples aspirations and there are four categories of audience:

Mainstreamers – 40% of the market, the largest section. The group seeks security in conformity and tends to buy well-known names.

Aspirers – People who are motivated by status. Buy smart, high tech and high fashion goods.

Succeeders – these have already climbed the ladder and want to keep control of what they have.

Reformers – this group wants the world to be a better place.

A new group was introduced to this in 1988 the individual who respond to quirkiness and individualism.

I think out of these five groups the group we would be aiming at is the individual as the genre is quite individual in itself as is the artist and the way it is performed. We wouldn’t appeal to the mainstreamers because it is not a well know name and doesn’t appeal to everyone.

Project phoenix surveyed 2,200 15-39 year olds (equal amounts of males and females) in order to look at attitudes of people towards music. It looks at the different attitudes and behaviors in relation to the way the audience consumes music.

They identified four main degrees of interest in music, these are:

Savants for those who everything in life is tied up with music. This represents 9% of the group in 2003.

Enthusiasts music is a key part of the life but have other interests. This represents 16% of the group.

Casuals music plays a welcoming part but most other things are a lot more important. This represents 26% of the group

Indifferents they would not lose sleep if music didn’t exist. This represents 48% of the group.

I think our group to try and aim to please would probably be the savants. I don’t think it would be the casuals, as they would probably just listen to popular music and songs that are in the charts.

There are subgroups within the four different areas which are:

Savants – Insiders – males in the mid to late 20’s who are often in bands there self

Curators – males in their early to mid 30’s who are self-declared aficionados of good music

Hoodies – mainly teenage schoolboys living at home with their parents

Enthusiasts – Miss Dynamites – knowledgeable, world wisely and ‘sophisticated’ mid to late teen girls.

Ipod Tourists – mostly males in their 20s with a passion for niche music, using it to define moods and occasions

Party Grandees – males in their late 20s and early 30s who put an active social life ahead of adult responsibilities

Casuals – The Glamour Club – music plays an important role in their lives but it’s not something they give much thought to

Weekend rowdies – males and females in their mid teens to early 20s who live for the weekend

Mums in touch – women in their 30s with busy lives who want to ‘keep up’ and not be boxed in by their age or parenthood

Indifferents – there are no sub groups to this category.

After looking the groups in more detail and the different subgroups I think they are different groups we would appeal to from the different categories. In the savants I think we would appeal to the insiders as being in bands themselves acoustic music would be their kind of thing. In the enthusiasts I think we would appeal to the Ipod tourists as they chose music to define moods and occasions and I think in some situations acoustic music may be what appeals to them.

Vicky Wright