Audience profiles and questionnaire on genre for audience research

Audience profiles help us to get a better concept of what particular type of person would see a film. Stereotypically speaking, someone who watches horror films a lot won't be the same person who likes romantic films, which is why profiles are important to help identify who a film is targeting and why it would appeal to them. Here I have devised four demographic profiles based on the kind of people who would watch films of that particular genre:

Action fan profile

Age: 8-18
Gender: male
Ethnicity: American / English
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Class: Middle

Comedy fan profile

Age: 12-25
Gender: male / female
Ethnicity: Depends on the region they're targeting, because each country has different views on humour.
Sexuality: Heterosexual, often mocking the homosexual
Class: Lower and middle

Horror fan profile

Age: 15- 25
Gender: male
Ethnicity: American
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Class: Middle

Romance fan profile

Age: 12+
Gender: female
Ethnicity: All, because the theme of love is a constant throughout the world and therefore appeals to everyone
Sexuality: Heterosexual, however this changes on occasion with films such as 'Brokeback Mountain'
Class: Middle


To get a better idea of the kind of audiences that are stereotypically associated with a particular genre, I created a questionnaire and gave it to a wide variety of people to fill out, making the results non-biased and therefore all the more dependable. Doing this questionnaire gave us a better idea of what specific target audience we should appeal to, depending on our genre, and how the general public associate these stereotypes.

Here is a copy of the questionnaire:

Audiences – genre questionnaire

What is your name?

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How old are you?

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What particular genre do you find most enjoyable?

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What age group would you usually expect to see a horror film?

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What is it do you think that appeals that target audience to the horror genre?

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What age group would you usually expect to see a romantic film? 

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What is it do you think that appeals that target audience to the romantic genre?

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What age group would you usually expect to see an action film?

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What is it do you think that appeals that target audience to the action genre?

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What age group would you expect to see a comedic film?

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What is it do you think that appeals that target audience to the comedy genre?

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Here is a graph displaying the results of the 20 questionnaires I handed out, to show what the most popular genre is:

 

 

This graph is evidence that suggests the favourite genre among teenagers is comedy. Knowing this, we now know that our drama genre is to be targeted at a more adult audience, as apposed to younger. After collecting the results it was conclusive that a majority of the people found the comedy genre to be the most enjoyable and used the stereotypes that they already knew and applied them to their answers. For example, one person answered the question of what they thought it was that appealed the romance genre to it's target audience, stating 'Tend to light-hearted feel good films.' This shows how much of a general consensus stereotypes have become, which is why they're used so often in films, as well as to appeal to a particular audience.