Audience Profile

My chosen song is Freaks by Surf Curse, an American indie rock band.  Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music.  Its key characteristics are that a band would be signed to an independent record label, that a band would write their own songs, perhaps record them too and that there is an authentic feel to their music.  It allows musicians to express themselves, to experiment as it is not about commercial success. Indie Rock is often described as a DIY attitude, that a band creates its own sound and promotes its own music. Some of the most well known indie rock bands are Radiohead, The Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes.

The indie rock audience is generally accepted as being young, ages 15-25 approximately and both male and female.  The audience themselves are thought to be independent, they don’t follow the crowd or fit into society.  They are often in higher education or University.  They consume music via streaming sites and get to hear of it via social media.  The audience listens to the music for the music, not for band members and they don’t expect slick music videos to accompany a song.  Live performances are really important for the audience of indie rock as is the choice of venue.  Small independent festivals, art exhibitions, less conventional venues work well as opposed to huge arenas. Regular concert dates are expected. Fans are drawn to Indie Rock as they feel different. They find the authentic, original music created, often expressing thoughts, feelings and emotions resonates with them.  It is said that indie rock has given a voice to people who feel marginalised in society.

Demographics are the characteristics of a person, this could be the age, income, gender or race of a person. This is useful as it allows companies to segment audiences based on certain characteristics and makes it easier to understand who the audience is and market to them.  For example, a demographic could be male, aged 19, in higher education, so a student, single, low income with part time job.

Psychographics is a way of defining people according to their personality, such as how confident they might be, by their lifestyle, their beliefs, their habits, their interests and social class.  This information provides valuable information to companies about why people are attracted to buying products. A psychographic profile could be someone who values time with a small group of friends, wants a healthy lifestyle, believes in an environmentally friendly way of living, is a fan of Pinterest. 

Young and Rubicam invented a successful psychographic profile known as their 4Cs Marketing Model, where people fall into one of 7 groups.

Aspirers: people who want to appear rich and attractive. ‘People who aspire to be’ Materialistic, interested in image, appearance, charisma, persona and fashion. Attractive packaging more important than quality of contents. Often younger, clerical/sales type occupation

Reformers: people who want social change, are unimpressed by status and make decisions based on their values. They value personal growth, social awareness, value for time, independent judgement, tolerance of complexity, anti-materialistic but intolerant of bad taste. Curious and enquiring, support growth of new product categories. Select brands for intrinsic quality, favouring natural simplicity, small is beautiful.  Often in Higher Education

Explorers:  adventurous people who like taking risks, independent, enjoy new challenges. Brand choice highlights difference, sensation, adventure, indulgence and instant effect - the first to try new brands. Younger - student

Mainstreamers: people who follow the crowd, conformist, conventional, sentimental, passive, habitual. Part of the mass, favouring big and well-known value for money 'family' brands. Almost always the largest 4Cs group.

Strugglers: Alienated, disorganised - with few resources apart from physical/mechanical skills (e.g. car repair). Heavy consumers of alcohol, junk food and lotteries, also trainers. Brand choice involves impact and sensation.

Resigned: Rigid, strict, authoritarian and chauvinist values, oriented to the past and to Resigned roles. Brand choice stresses safety, familiarity and economy. Older

Succeeders: strong goal oriented people, confident, have good work ethics, support the status quo, stability. Brand choice based on reward, prestige, the best. Also attracted to caring and protective brands.  Often management.

The main age of the indie rock audience is 15-25 years old. They are a youthful audience and are not going to be looking for a sense of belonging, what they want is a sense of purpose. The indie rock audience has its core roots in the UK and the USA, as band like Oasis in the UK and Nirvana in the USA made the genre popular. This led to this genre having strong roots in both these regions for fans, and why I believe that these are my target locations. The lifestyle of an indie rock fan would be one who wants to be different, make they own decisions and are freethinkers.  They don't have the need to fit into mainstream groups, they are mainly students so they will like the nightlife and will have a mostly urban lifestyle. There is a very even split between male and female in the gender makeup of the audience. This means that I would not advertise to one gender more than the other. The audience is mainly white because its roots are based in 1960’s rock and this didn’t allow for major expression form other races. 

I believe that the psychographic profile of my target audience are Reformers as they don’t believe in social status or in how society acts, they like to make a difference.  They don’t have the need to belong to one social group. They are young and want to see change in the world. Their values are reflected in the bands they follow, who are inclusive and forward thinking. A good example of this is the band 1975. They disagreed with Malaysia over homophobic laws. The lead band member, Matty Healy, made a speech criticising the Malaysian government and their laws, he then kissed another band member on stage in defiance of the law. 

I will advertise to the indie rock audience by using an Instagram page, as the main age group of Instagram is 18-24 year olds. This is useful as this links with the indie rock audience who are 15-25 year olds. My two main audiences are based in the UK and the US which have an active number of Instagram users of 171 millions. This will give me the best opportunity to attract the right audience. Instagram will give me the opportunity to design my brand and to create an identity. The identity will be an outsider from society, someone who doesn’t fit into one social group. It will be inclusive, allowing the audience to create their own identity and sense of belonging within the indie rock genre. The band will try and reflect their values of the audience and not of society as the audience don't feel the need for a social hierarchy or to convert to it. This will set the band apart as the main band members don't have conventional male haircuts. They both have long or curly hair, reinforcing the idea that fans don’t have to fit in and it's okay to be different. I will keep most of the photos to an urban setting as it keeps in theme and allows me to keep to the style that many of the audience will want to see and feel like they are a part of. 

From my research, I have learnt that showing bands are key to the making of an indie rock music video. For example, The 1975 are a band  who are filmed in a concert setting for their music videos.  This is because, as I have said before, concerts are important to an indie rock audience. I knew that I needed to include a performance element in my music video.  Another key feature that I understood is that indie rock music videos do not have strong narrative stories but instead have key themes that will over arc the music video.  My idea will be to have a collection of clips that will all relate to the theme of feeling like a freak, an outsider  and also match the visuals to the lyrics.  

I learnt that consumers of music videos do not watch a music video to get insight into the band or find some underlying meaning but they do expect to see a plethora of good looking images that will entertain them.