Demographic profile

A demographic or demographic profile is a term used in marketing and broadcasting, to describe a demographic grouping or a market segment. This typically involves age bands, social class, and gender

A demographic profile can be used to determine when and where advertising should be placed so as to achieve maximum results. In all such cases, it is important that the advertiser get the most results for their money, and so careful research is done to match the demographic profile of the target market to the demographic profile of the advertising medium. For instance, the multi-television season survival of the science fiction television series, Star Trek, in the 1960s on the NBC Television Network in spite of poor ratings is credited to the network's marketing department's newly instituted demographic audience profiling techniques that indicated that the series' main young urban audience was highly desirable for advertisers. In 1971, CBS acted on their own marketing department's demographic findings about their television network's programming and canceled several series that appealed primarily to older and rural audiences in a move nicknamed the rural purge.

A tool for determining a demographic profile is the use of demographic partitions. Demographic partitions (verb: Demographic Partitioning) refer to the multitude of advanced segmentations of user groups. The segmentation structure is determined through the analysis of large data collections where the conclusions drawn are specific to an underlying set(s) of initiatives. Data retrieval in this instance occurs on a per-asset basis utilizing and determining the varying KPI's. The rapid compilation of user demographic data across digital mediums (such as social media) has allowed the continued enhancement of predictive modeling, providing business intelligence to growing markets such as digital advertising and conversion rates.

In more recent years, such demographic marketing considerations does not always dictate such drastic programming decisions with the rise of numerous cable channels. For instance, on the channel, The Hub, it was discovered that their original animated series, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, was not only attracting good ratings with its intended young girl demographic, but also a significant teen and adult male and female audience as well. Although this cross-demographic appeal was entirely unexpected by the network's executives, the franchise owner, Hasbro, decided to take advantage of this opportunity with some considerations for this fandom in the series' writing and marketing and the decision produced favorable results with the series attracting the highest ratings in the network's history.

A good way to figure out the intended demographic of a television show, TV channel, or magazine is to study the ads that accompany it. For example, in the United States the television program The Price Is Right most frequently airs from 11 a.m. to Noon. The commercials on it (besides the use of product placement in the show itself) are often for things like arthritis pain relievers and diapers. This indicates that the target demographics are senior citizens and parents with young children, both of whom would be home at that time of day and see that show. Another example would be MTV, for it has many ads with digital audio players indicating that the channel is targeted to young adults and teenagers and/or fans of music.

See also

• Demographics
• Demography
• Elderly
• Geodemography
• Market segmentation
• Mass marketing
• Niche market
• Population profiling
• Precision marketing
• Psychographic
• Psychological development
• Target market