Designing for an Audience
Audience Assessment

How to identify, locate and reach groups
of people who need your product or
service?
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The Art of Making Useful Generalizations
“A market is a group of
people who reference
each other when
making buying
decisions.”
Crossing the Chasm
G. Moore.
“Owning” an Audience
What does a publisher own?
 A preferred relationship with an audience.
Audience Analysis
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What do members of the audience have in
common?
Are there different segments in the audience?
What kind of choices do they make and why
might they choose my product or service?
Where can I find them?
What motivates them to buy? to participate? to
join?
Reaching Your Audience
How many ways exist for you to connect
to your target audience?
 What sources of information exist that
allow you to understand the audience or
market?
 What companies do they know or what
products do they use?
 What media reaches them?

In a Nutshell
 We
want to understand how
communities are organized

Demographically
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By Common Motivations
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By Shared Affinities or Choices
Traditional Analysis
Demographic Research
Identify Characteristics of Populations
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Geographic
newspapers (sfgate.com)
city guides (bayinsider.com)
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Age/Stage of Life
SeniorNet, ThirdAge.com
ParentSoup
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Student publications
Gender / Race
Women.com
NetNoir
Demographic Applications
Determining Buyers for a Product
 "Demographic analysis identifies those
population or household characteristics
that most accurately differentiate
potential customers from those not likely
to buy. The second part of using
demographics is finding those geographic
areas with the highest concentrations of
potential customers." (Miller, 1995)
Profiling
Profiling of Audiences for Advertisers
 What is the size of potential audience?
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What growth trends are associated with
it?
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What economic factors make the
audience attractive?
Two Sides to Every Profile
Profiling Example
ThirdAge.com
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The per capita income of the 50+ segment is
26% higher than that of the general population.
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Third Agers online have an annual average
household income of $60,000 compared to
$38,000 for younger users.
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Third Agers earn an average of $10,000 more
per year than other online users.
Sample Demographics
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Time Magazine
Barron’s
Wall Street Journal
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Mendelsohn’s Affluent Survey
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Survey Questionnaire
Mail survey based on 20,173 U.S. adults,
18+, in households with incomes of
$75,000+.
Online Demographic Sources
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Zip Code Segmentation CACI
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Let's try 90210
US Census Bureau
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Statistical Abstract of the US
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American Demographics Magazine
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U Michigan’s Documents Center - Stats
Psychographics
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Understanding how values, lifestyles and
attitudes influence behavior of groups of
people.
What Motivates People
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"Knowing where your customers live, how old
they are, or how much money they make is
important, but it isn't enough. To anticipate
their behavior relative to your client's products,
you must look at what motivates your
customers - their values, behaviors, and beliefs."
(MarketMatch)
Psychographic Profile from
ThirdAge.com
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75% want to get more pleasure out of life
49% feel the need to satisfy their hunger
for new experiences
56% describe themselves as "fun-loving"
44% want more excitement and
sensation in life
40% describe themselves as creative and
ambitious
Psychographic Applications
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Psychographic segmentation
Segment individuals into groups based on
where they fall on a spectrum of possible
attitudes.
Travelling Types
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Plog (1974) identified three personality
types in relation to travel, each of which is
associated with certain travel patterns
and kinds of destination.
Travelling Types 2
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Psychocentrics focus on risk aversion and thus
either do not travel at all, or restrict their travel
to safe, familiar destinations.
Allocentrics, in contrast, are confident and selfempowered, and tend to travel farther afield.
Most of the population, however, is midcentric.
(Weaver et al, 1995)
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From "PSYCHOGRAPHICS AND TRAVEL
BEHAVIOR OF SASKATCHEWAN OLDER
ADULTS"
Segment
Characteristic
Product
Psychocentric
Reluctant to
Travel
Family-related
travel. Goes to
same place
Travel Videos
Midcentric
Allocentric
Frequent trips
to unique
locations
Group
packages;
condo or
vacation home
Adventure
travel
VALS
SRI's Values and Lifestyles Program
 Questionnaire
 I am often interested in theories.
 I like outrageous people and things.
Mostly disagree
Somewhat disagree
Somewhat agree
Mostly agree
VALS Eight Consumer
Segments
Actualizers
Fulfilleds
Achievers
Experiencers
Believers
Strivers
Makers
Strugglers
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Ranked from High
to Low Resources
Resources
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Resources refer to the full range of psychological,
physical, demographic, and material means and
capacities people have to draw upon. It
encompasses education, income, self-confidence,
health, eagerness to buy things, intelligence, and
energy level. It is a continuum from minimal to
abundant. Resources generally increase from
adolescence through middle age but decrease with
extreme age, depression, financial reverse, and
physical or psychological impairment. (SRI, Vals
Segment Profiles)
Communities of Interest
Also called Affinity Groups.

Hobbies

Interests
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Functions (Work-related)

Activities
Lifestyle choices
Reflect lifestyle, attitudes and choices.
 Behavioral patterns
 Possible differentiation between
psychographics and affinities is that
individual chooses to belong to the group.
 What groups of people form around a set
of choices? How important to them are
those choices?
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Examples

homeowner, bicycle rider, student,
amateur photographer, horse rider, hiker,
Mac user, guitar player, fitness fanatic;
Civil War history buff
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Sites visited frequently
Past Purchase Decisions
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History
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What things you already own are a good
indication of what you might buy.
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Computer equipment
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Books, CDs, etc.
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Home, etc.
What sites you visit is important.
Virtual Communities
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net.gain (Hagel, Armstrong, 1997)
describes how successful e-commerce is a
result of organizing online communities.
Economic Potential of Online
Communities
Leading Indicators (from net.gain)
1.
Size of potential community
2.
Relative value of being on-line
3.
Value of being in a community
4.
Likely intensity of commerce
5.
Fractal depth (number of segments)
Seybold’s Eight Success Factors
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Target the right
customers.
Own the customer’s
total experience.
Streamline business
processes that impact
the customer.
Provide a 360-degree
view of the
relationship.
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Let customers help
themselves.
Help customers do
their jobs.
Deliver personalized
service.
Foster community.
iVillage.com: Case study
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iVillage.com
Initial target audience was parents
 Now positioned as the Women's Network
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A collection of sites positioned as related
channels for health, relationships,
shopping, career, fitness & beauty. Sites
include BetterHealth.com,
ParentSoup.com.
Internet Demographics
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If your product or service depends on the
Internet, then your audience
demographics are linked to the Internet's
demographics.
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Nielsen NetRatings
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Hot Off the Net
GVU Survey
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A self-selecting survey of 10,000 Internet users,
organized by Georgia Tech.
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"The general demographics of the user population moved closer to the
characteristics of the general population with a continued increase in the
proportion of female users (38.7%), a decrease in the average income
($52,000 in the US), slightly lower level of educational attainment (50.1%
college or more), and a diversification of occupations away from the
domination of computer and education-related fields.
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This new diversity among WWW users is brought about by a group of new
users (less than a year on the Net) that is mostly female (51.7%) and more
likely to be under 20 or over 50 years old than in their middle years.
(Executive Summary, 1998)
GVU Graphs
Graphs
 Gender, Education, Age, Household
Income
 Membership in Communities
 Hours of Web Use
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Internet User Psychographics
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Wizards
Pioneers
Upstreamers
Socialites
Workers
Surfers
Mainstreamers
Sociables
Seekers
Immigrants
iVALS
Questions About Internet Use

What percentage of a traditional print
audience segment is online?
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How is your segment growing online?
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How active are they?
Crossing the Chasm
Geoffrey A. Moore, 1991
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Technology Adoption Life Cycle
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Defines five psychographic groups in terms of
how they respond to new technology. Maps as
a bell curve.
Technology Adopters
Innovators
Aggressive buy-in; usually technologists themselves
Early
Adopters
Independent decision-makers; positively oriented to
buy.
Early Majority
More practical; wait to see if technology seems
successful.
Late Majority
Relunctant to adopt but somewhat forced to by market
or other influences.
Laggards
Highly Resistant to change
The Chasm

Moore's point is that there is a chasm between
the early adopters and the early majority. It is
difficult for high tech products that were
favored by Innovators and Early Adopters to
succeed with the Early Majority. Different
strategies are required.
References
 Mainstream buyers require more and more
references to make a buy decision. References
may include publishers, other customers, etc.
Target Customer
Characterization
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Moore writes that "target markets"
characterized by numbers are "impersonal,
abstract things." He talks about developing
"informed intuition" about the customers. He
suggests that a team characterize each of the
different kinds of customers and create
scenarios in which each customer uses the
product.
This is a formal process that helps a group make
decisions based on these characterizations.
Moore, p. 97-9.
Personal Profile and Job
Description

Who is the person, what do they do for a
living, what kind of organization do they
work for, what do they value?
Resources

What resources does the person have
available to them that is relevant to the
product. Consider technical resources, but
others as well.
A Day in the Life
(Before)

Describe the person's life at the moment
when your product or service would make
a difference.
Dilemna

State the problem that the person faces
that motivates this person to buy the
product.
A New Day in the Life
(After)

Describe how the product solves the
problem and reinforces what the
customer believes or values.
Surveys

We can ask users to tell us more about
themselves.

We can benefit from direct interaction
with users.

The more we know, the more refined our
product or service becomes.
Developing Surveys
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Market Research uses surveys and focus groups
to collect more detailed information about
users.
Email is preferred method to solicit interest and
ask people to fill out a form online.
Users online are more willing than most to
participate in surveys, especially if they can
learn from the results as well.
List of Online Tests
Assignment:

Write an audience analysis.
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Develop a 20-question survey.