Why is determining a target audience important for institutions?

Institutions must know who their target audience is in order to appeal to them. People of different ages, sex, working class etc. like different sorts of films so they must be aware of their target audience in order to know what to include in the film. The company must have their target audience in mind when creating the storyline and jokes as not everything would appeal to all types of people. For example, if a family film was being made, childish jokes would be included as well as some adult humour that the children would not understand but the adults would, meaning it appeals to a wider audience.

Some institutions may try to make a film appeal to everyone even though this is impossible as not everybody likes the same thing. If this is the case then they could end up appealing to no one as they may not have had a realistic target audience.

Advertising

Institutions must be aware of their target audience so they know how to advertise the film. For example, if they were trying to appeal to a male audience then they would typically show fighting or other action scenes in the trailer as these appeal to the majority of men. Where the film is advertised is also important as the company must make sure that their target audience will see it. For example, if their target audience were teenagers then a good place to advertise would be at bus stops because many teenagers would see it as they may not be able to drive yet and will be taking public transport.

Language

Depending on the target audience, the film must have the correct type of language. The older generation would relate to proper grammar and well spoken words whereas teenagers may find this boring and prefer the characters to use more modern language and abbreviations as they will be able to relate and connect to them more.