Audience Theory: Psychographics

Psychographics are a way of categorising an audience based on why they use a product. The categories are listed below:

• The Explorer: Driven by need for discovery or to challenge oneself
• The Aspirer: are described as 'materialistic', they care more about what others think of them
• The Succeeder: self confidence, strong goal orientation, organized
• The Reformer: values their own independent judgement and are anti-materialistic
• The Mainstream: this is the largest group, there is a need for security and to live in a daily routine
• The Struggler: seek escape and live for the moment
• The Resigned: these aim to survive and are predominantly older people

I would not describe my audience as mainstream at the moment as new wave, and Psycho Killer particularly, to not fit modern popular conventions. Therefore, I would think that this also rules out many 'Aspirers' as these are more likely to be influenced by the Mainstream. Though many new wave fans might be from older generations, I don't really understand how my song could help with survival. In fact you could say it is not a necessity to spend money on a song so these may be less likely to be my audience. On the other hand, this audience would be more susceptible to special offers on merchandise and music costs which I should bare in mind for my website. The Succeeder could be compared with the middle class geek who I have identified as fans of new wave, but apart from that I do not think it is really applicable. The Explorer may be more likely to seek out alternative, indie music so perhaps these may make up part of my audience, however, this brings me to the Reformer who I feel is most suited to my genre. The Reformer could be described as, in my opinion, a hipster, and would be the most likely to listen to non-mainstream music such as mine. The Struggler category could encompass all music listeners as people will generally listen to a song for escapism and recreation.