Audience Targeting and Positioning

It is rather vital to understand who my audience is and how I can target to

them. To do this, researching similar artists (and possibly the artist
themselves)’ demographics and learn more about how I can appeal to my
audience in a more effective fashion.

Lana Del Rey is an artist I keep going back to analyse and that is mainly for the
very reason that she is the most similar mainstream alternative artist to
Alvvays and therefore is the most accessible. She also makes music that fall
into the same subgenre as Alvvays (which is Dreampop, a subgenre of
Alternative music) and has similar vintage styles (although Lana is much more
provocative and explicit). Through a poll on Reddit where some of the
demographics of Lana Del Rey were revealed, we can acquire some
information on biases and trends.

Here it is visible that surprisingly, Lana has more

male listeners than female listeners. There is
however a large number of female ones
nonetheless; so, it’s important not to exclude
them in targeting an audience. In fact, they can be
gratified because of the P.O.V style my video has
(Escapism based on the Uses & Gratifications
theory). My music video does have elements of
Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory and may in fact,
appeal to males. Most listeners were 20-25 which
makes sense as Lana’s lyrics and themes are often
quite adult and it would make sense as to why
that would be her target market. Alvvays does not
have as much provocative content as Lana does
and therefore can appeal to a wider age audience (however there is a target
teen female audience anyways.)
 Not a surprise. Most of Lana’s songs are love
songs and perhaps single listeners can be
gratified (Uses & Gratifications Theory) by
using her music as a means of escapism. A
large amount are dating however and that
could be because they identify with the
content of the music. I think that targeting
single audiences is something I will probably
do as the music video itself highlights an imaginary relationship and mat offer
escapism that the audience can be gratified by.

Targeting the right countries is very

important as culture is something that
comes to play heavily. Lana’s songs
and music videos have references to
western culture (USA makes sense
due to her being American and
making constant references to
American culture in her music/music
videos e.g Coney Island and her JFK
reference in her music video for
National Anthem). She also
references Catholicism in her music
recurrently and it would make sense
for the top 10 countries to be
predominantly Christian. Additionally, those are the countries that would most
identify with the culture she references and promotes. Alvvays is a Canadian
band and would probably appeal to western audiences too.

Most listeners here are

obsessed but it’s important
to take the fact that this poll
was taken on a subreddit for
Lana Del Rey and therefore
fans would probably be the
ones to answer. Other than
that, this could be linked to
the fact that Alternative artists have better relationships with fans than
mainstream artists due to the way they market their image as the “everyday
person” to create a more intimate feel.
Again, this poll is on a Lana Del Rey subreddit and is a sample. However, it
shows some useful demographics.

The full poll:

https://www.reddit.com/r/lanadelrey/comments/4s8n4i/rlanadelrey_demogr
aphic_survey_results/

Tame Impala is another alternative artists that has songs that are similar to
Alvvays’ Dreampop and therefore is a relevant artist to look at. Tame Impala is
a fairly obscure band that is more popular online (they gained most of their
popularity online) and would therefore cater to a upper-middle class target
audience that can afford to look for quality music (reformers) online. Since my
Alvvays is similar in the way that they are also fairly obscure and have less
mainstream music (even more so than an artist like Lana Del Rey) means that
the music video has to particularly convey the band quite clearly (their brand
image) and be the main form of promotion of their music video.

It’s particularly hard to find audience information when it comes to Alvvays,

but their vintage brand image can be seen in their website, music videos and
the way press describes them; an article on the Odyssey Online states that “All
of their songs have such a nostalgic feel. They are like daydreams. It seems like
they are almost floating.” – it perfectly reflects the introspective and uncanny
music reformers look for rather than mainstreamers. Their website has a polka
dot design with hand-drawn elements which give a fairly retro look as well. In
some ways, yes, the video has to cater to the music in some way (like all music
videos do) but because of the independent and unconventional nature of the
artist; the music video has to reflect a kind of creativity/unconventionality that
pulls in viewers and introduces them to the artist. Additionally, this intimacy
(usually strived for with alternative/indie artists) with the artist can be created
by the very fact that the video is a low-budget video that doesn’t take itself too
seriously.

The Odyssey Online article:

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-everyone-needs-to-start-listening-to-
alvvays