Audience Profile for the Song "Home"

Audience profiling is a way for the music industry to categorise their audiences through detailed accounts, and segment them specifically to be able to target the market better afterwards. Rather than using the mass market as one segment, they prefer to split them up, sometimes to even find niche markets and to make more money by trying to make more genres and sections successful. This is usually according to the types/trends of music, and the music industry does further research into the demographics and psychological interest of people to be able to make their marketing more direct.

Demographic segmentation includes the JICNARS scale; this is the basic market research in accordance to gender, class, race, sexuality, and so forth. This narrows down the individual sections and then gives them the ability to target specific people immediately.

For the song "Home" I imagine the levels on the scale that would most apply to our target audience would be C1 (supervisory/clerical/junior management) and C2 (skilled manual) - this implies that the main demographic would be middle class; these are the people that are able to enjoy dance songs and probably enjoy a weekend out. I imagine average people including their children like you and me enjoy these kind of songs and would probably listen to them on a regular basis. This is probably the most obvious target market and the largest segment of the mass market.

Using the VALS (Values Attitudes and Lifesyles) profile, the music industry is able to use psychographic segmentation to figure out what their target market's lifestyle is like, what their attitudes towards things, values, beliefs, and other lifestyle choices may include. By doing this the music industry will probably have a better chance in creating advertisements, music videos, album covers, and songs which will embody what their target audience is supposed to stand for.

For the song "Home", I imagine that the VALS profile applies in several different segements when it comes to our target audience. I would imagine that the target audience could be classified under "EXPERIENCERS", which stands for a group of young, enthusiastic, impulsive and rebellious people. They are in awe of other people, especially their wealth. They enjoy outdoor and social activities, and are regular consumers of clothing, music and films.

Another profile I could imagine our target audience fitting in would be "STRIVERS". These people look for motivation anywhere they can and try to gain approval from those around them. They are driven by the success of money, but often hope to obtain things that are out of their reach. This may fit in with the "worship" of the artists/bands, and may therefore invest a lot of time and money into them, striving to be just as successful as them.

There are also specific teenage VALS which may apply to our target audience for this song. I feel that for this song, Puritans (who hope to feel virtuous), Rebels (who hope to make the world their own place), and Drifters (who are not sure what they want) fit in well. Not only is this because of the star image that we are trying to represent with working together, self-confidence and gaining the might to do things, but also because the artist we are creating should be free, spiritual, and excited for what they stand for. Click here to see my word cloud.

When thinking about the record company that our artist should be signed to, I believe it should be one that embodies all these qualities that I've listed. That means that the record company would probably be one of the more popular ones, such as Epic Records company.

Epic Records company may be a good pick to have our band to be signed to, because they have many bands that target a similar audience. Some of these bands include Rihanna, Chris Rene, and the late Michael Jackson. The only reason why I would not have the band be signed to this record company is because of the lack of organic artists that they have worked with and signed. Perhaps a different one would be more suitable in this case, so the band can keep their original star image, although they have had Natasha Bedingfield who has stayed out of the spotlight more than other artists signed with them.

In order to uphold the star image of the band, I think a record company such as Motown would be suitable. This record company has started out with artists such as Michael Jackson (as well, he started out here and moved), Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, and so on. I feel that these artists (apart from MJ) are quite organic in a sense and therefore may be better to help the band maintain what they actually stand for, and don't disappoint the target audience and market.