Reception theory is referred to how certain individuals accept information that is given to them by some kind of media product. The way in which they interpret the information (often given in text) is affected by social status, gender, age and other factors. The theory states that any text has to be encoded by the producers and then is decoded by the audience in a certain way. So there may be a large difference in how certain individuals interpret a give text. So authors of the text have to make their text understandable for the particular audience they are targeting.
The Hypodermic Needle Model
This model describes how the audience reflects on the mass media that it sees. The model suggests that people do not analyse the information the receive from sources such as Internet or TV and print. Audience just take it how it is and do not try to know if it is true or not. So this means that it is easy to manipulate by such individuals and control them as they are being passive while receive information.
Hegemonic Model
The theory that suggests that the population may be ruled by people with power such as church who really do not have any real power. So it means that the elite of society actually dominates the public sphere. Ideas such as capitalism or fascism may be promoted by this elite groups.
Demographics is the statistical data of a population, especially those showing average age, income, education, etc.
For the chosen product which is Shrek Franchise I will discuss the target audience and describe its gender, age, lifestyle and spending power. The knowledge of this aspects allows media companies to advertise their products in the right way and aim the advertising campaigns at the right audience. This directly refers to four Ps of the marketing mix: Product, Price, Place, Promotion. And if all of the Ps are set right than the media product will be sold and bring profit. That is what media companies want.
In Paramount Pictures Interactive Marketing Department is responsible for developing marketing strategies and implementing them in a right way. This department is dealing with all kinds of theatrical releases including official sites, creative and advertising content, online publicity, and social media. Also, this department analyses industry and technology trends to help the Paramount Pictures corporation to develop innovative ideas and campaigns.
Creative Advertising department creates the material that will be presented to advertise oncoming media products. This includes posters, movie trailers and TV spots.
Where National Advertising Department focuses on the marketing of all Paramount films, with a stress on advertising for foreign countries. They come up with unique campaigns for every film, and develop creative ways to promote the films throughout all the world.
So, returning to the product I chose.
The
gender of the target audience. The franchise targets both genders as there both love story that attracts girls and tense battles that will attract boys audience. As we all know girls like love stories and the theme of relationship. In Shrek all the three parts of the series follow the story of relationships of Shrek and Fiona (who are the main characters as well). The main feature that attracts young girls is that the story finishes with happy ending and Shrek with Fiona stay together. This leaves a good impression with girls and gives them a good mood when they come out of the cinema. This is vital because on the general impression depends whether they will watch it again or not.
Where to attract young boys audience it is important to have scenes of battle or fights. in all the episodes of Shrek there is always a couple of very intense fights. Especially this is associated with Cat - one of the main characters. He always takes part in fights to protect other characters and this may be an example for the boys to behave in the same way. Also, in each movie there are a lot of chasing scenes that are really exciting, so young boys will be never bored through the entire movie.
Age of the target audience can not really be determined because the movie is targeted at children 7 to 12, teenagers 12 to 18 and sometimes adults 18 to 30. The movie seems to be for children more than for other age groups but adults and teenagers may find it interesting to watch too. I suppose was the idea of the marketing team of Paramount Pictures. Any child goes to the cinema with an adult and for adults not to feel lost and boring creators of the movie put some "adult" jokes to make it attractive for elder audience. This is very clever in my opinion as this involves two age groups at the same time and you can say that it doubles the target audience.
The average income of the Shrek audience is really hard to analyse. The movie is aimed at all the income groups and only those who can not afford the cinema ticket or a DVD are not included in the target audience. All other income groups from middle earners to high income groups are targeted by the advertising.
The lifestyle of the target audience is easy to determine. These are the people who like to spend time in the cinema or watching a great movie at home with their children. Usually these are the people who enjoy their life and have a considerable amount of free time to be able to do it.
