Marketing... NRS to the Simpsons

Media products are nearly always marketed to a set group of people. This could mean an age group, gender, race or to do with peoples interests. This is done so that the product reaches its full potential selling – wise, and depending on the company and product this could be to a large or smaller group of people. Market research is so essential as media companies can find out what their audience would like, what has worked in the past to plan for the future. So how do media companies carry this out exactly? How do they go about marketing their finished product?
 Media companies use research so they can identify previous what media products appeal to what type of audience in a demographic and psychographic sense. They can use quantitative results such as surveys and gathering numeric values, these are more statistical results, and qualitative results which for example may be a more 'in depth' questionnaire, giving the company more information about the audiences profiles and what class they may resign in.
Quantitative research is in essence numbers. Taking in results from a survey to gain statistics about what you are asking. This can then be displayed in different ways to show trends in the market and what may be coming up in terms of media products depending on what people have liked in the past, e.g. in charts to further display the results. For example a media company may make a survey to ask how many people bought an adventure style PC games in each month last year. After taking in results they can see if a trend is appearing, or if the business is going to other way. Obviously this is a very basic example but the principal remains.
On the other hand, quantitative results mean taking in more information than just statistics and numbers. It means asking more ‘in depth’ questions in forms such as a questionnaire. For an example instead of asking how many people bought adventure style PC games in each month last year, what exact game did they buy? Did they feel it was a good product from their opinion? How would they review it?
Companies after researching previous products and what type of audiences they appeal to would need to market their products to a pre - determined class or set of profiles.
As an example, the NRS (National Readership Association.) takes out surveys in which they ask people about their readership of newspapers, magazines and articles. They go to a wide proportion of people aged over 15, to their homes and using a dual - screen questionnaire to see and gather data about the audiences’ demographic profiles and psychographic profiles.  They can then create documents and know where advertisements are most appropriate for each magazine or newspaper, after collecting their results from the survey they know what audience they appeal to.
Demographic and psychographic profiles are ways of grouping people to market your product to, meaning you know what will appeal to which profile group. Demographic profiles will include information such as what the person’s age group is, their gender, what class they are in (Meaning in terms of social status, e.g. middle, middle class, upper class etc.) Whereas psychographic profiles mean the information about the person is not just a statistic, but goes in to more depth with the person themselves, this is information about the persons profile, their interests, attitudes, lifestyle and questions asked to them will have more personal answers.
In terms of the Simpsons as a media product, the creators would have first of decided who they would market the show to. And then, based upon previous research from other shows marketed to the same people, they could create the product to suit their target audience, or make alterations to the previous design.
The Simpsons is targeted to a wide audience profile range. Some of the more obvious audiences the Simpsons is marketed to would be the average American, middle aged, average intelligence and with no real special qualities. ‘Homer’ (A character of the Simpsons.) Is just this and yet he manages to have many odd adventures which touch lightly on many of the day to day issues people face. Ideals such as people disliking their jobs, dysfunctional family relations and many other issues. The Simpsons has a very simple comic side to it, which appeals to a younger audience. This adds to the audience profile range that the show is marketed to. Although it does have this simple comic side, there are more important messages behind the simplicity of it; these can involve real life issues.
The creators of the Simpsons acquired different levels of sophistication within the series. As this was delivered successfully, the Simpsons was made on other platforms such as many video games including the ‘Simpsons - hit and run’ game. Also since then the’ Simpsons Movie’ has also been released as well as a comic book.
The success of the Simpsons is clear today as millions still view the show worldwide as well as having many sales on other platforms, such as the video games. Media companies can improve their products or services by getting feedback from customers. This can also show how successful a product is and what people would like to change about it, to help improve it for a more successful outcome.
The fact that the Simpsons has fans shows that the show has brought mainstream viewers in to  becoming regular viewers, creating demand for the show. And ever since the first show, the Simpsons has continued to grow in terms of viewers.