Demographics- Audience profile.

Hey Blogger!

Today was another successful lesson where we learnt about audience demographic profiles in more depth. A demographic profile is a key media and also business tool that identifies  the characteristics of what a target market is interested in when companies want to promote a new product. The characteristics in a profile include; age, gender, race/ethnicity, job, social class and location. More specific categories in a demographic profile seek info on a customers purchasing habits (as shown en the below picture) e.g Clothing brands, restaurants, etc.

For this task, I have decided to go abit vintage and "old-school". I have chosen to do my audience profile on the old classic, Pacman. Yes, i know its old but its certainly legendary! 

For this task, i have written about who atari aimed pacman at, during the time it was released however in the explaination i have explained in more depth as there have been many versions of the game. However all the pictures that relate to the target market are quite modern and "now" and relate to who would buy pacman today. 

Age: I have made the age range 12-25 because at the time when the original 1980s arcade game of pacman was released, the game was aimed mostly at kids and teens as it wasnt popular for people over the age of 25 to play video games, however after pacman was released on gameboy which was in the early 2000's more and more of the older generation got into the habit of playing them, therefore if someone was likely to buy packman today (2013), it will most likely be someone even over the age of 25 as its an old classic. However from the original release, it would be from the age of 12-25.

Gender: Again, at the time it was released it would have originally been aimed mostly at males, approximately 70%, therefore only 30% female as obviously it would have been quite surprising in the 1980's for a woman to be playing video games. But in the 2000's i think it would have been a split between the two. However if someone was to buy the game now i personally think, the main gender buying it would be female as men tend to go for more action games nowadays. But from the original Atari perspective the main gender percentage would be 70% male & 30% female. 

Race/Ethnicity: The main race and ethnicity would have mainly been from the UK as pacman was one of the first video games and the Uk, England in particular, was a extremely developed nation. Also the theme of the game would mainly appeal to people with a retro & vintage taste, which then again would probably be from a white racial background as england was the home of the vintage/retro "style" and pacman is classic & quite retro game. However now, the game has extended and become worldwide therefore it would have a variety of ethnicity's playing it. But originally Atari may have aimed it at people from the UK at the time. 

Job/Social class: From the original atari prespective, the game would have been aimed at the richer and more educated people who could afford it as video/arcade games where mainly for people who had higher standards. However, today ANYONE with ANY class standard can play it and its even available FREE online! But then again, if you look at it from the original POV then it would be mainly, B-A. 

Location: This relates to the race and ethnicity point. Pacman was a game mainly aimed at the people who were richer and preferably from the UK, therefore the main location where the target marget is would be the city. However, now it would even be popular in the countryside as the game is legendary, even the older generation would be highly failiar with it. But then again, from the original 1980s point of veiw it would be mainly people from the city. 

Ana.