Audience Research: Digipak

Target Audience Profile

Age Range: 14 - 25 years old

Gender: Male and female, we decided that members of an 'indie' audience are equally as likely to be male as female.

Typical hobbies: Going to gigs, playing instruments such as guitar and drums, going to the cinema, drinking, smoking, driving, painting, writing music etc.

Other Media Consumption: The target audience would buy music magazines such as NME and Q, and watch music channels like ‘NME TV’ and ‘MTV Rocks’. They would also listen to radio stations such as ‘Virgin Radio’ and ‘Kerrang’. Websites such as ‘Last.Fm’ and ‘Spotify’ would also be useful for the audience as they allow them to find new and interesting artists.

Consumption Patterns: Would typically shop at stores such as ‘Topshop/Topman’, but would avoid most chain stores. Enjoys eating Subway sandwiches and would download independent films such as ‘Juno’ and ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’. Would drive a Vespa moped and would usually buy records at a record store, would use the internet to find out about new bands.

Typical Music Interest: Two Door Cinema Club, The Kooks, The Maccabees, Los Campesinos, Bombay Bicycle Club, Hot Chip, Vampire Weekend, Good Shoes, etc.Would typically go for 'underground' artists produced by indie record labels, as opposed to 'polished' mainstream artists who convey a 'perfect' image. These people are more likely to illegally download music in bulk, and pay for merchandise, gigs/festivals and music magazines instead. For this reason, the digipak and advert would have to be as eye-catching as possible to encourage them to purchase it, and must appeal to their demographic as much as possible.

I published several 'mime' photographs to the social networking site 'Facebook' and tagged members of my ideal target audience in the photos. I have asked them to answer the following questions regarding the photographs:

1. Do these images comply to the indie genre?
2. Do these images look interesting/entropic?
3. Would they be suitable for album art or a magazine advert?
4. If you saw a digipak with these images used on the album art, would you be interested in buying it?
5. What could be done to make these images more suitable for a magazine advert or digipak?

Here are some of the responses I gained:

1) yeah
2) yes, especially his facial expression and the make up
3) yes because it's weird ... so you would be intrigued
4) yes
5) i don't know, its really good already :)

1. i don't think so really, it's not really what i think of when i think indie.
2. yes.
3. advert more than album art i think :)
4. possibly.
5. i don't know really

1) yes
2) yes, especially the costume/makeup thing you got going on
3) yes
4) yes
5) maybe something more eye catching, like making the hat red or something.

These responses are useful for the production of my digipak, and I'm going to take the comments on board when creating my final design. I am going to work on the comment stating "it's not really what I think of when I think indie", and incorporate different fonts and photo arrangements to ensure the final design corresponds with the genre.