Wiktionary
n. (context marketing English) The primary group of people that something, usually an advertising campaign, is aimed at appealing to.
Wikipedia
A target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message. In marketing and advertising, it is a particular group of consumers within the predetermined target market, identified as the targets or recipients for a particular advertisement or message. Businesses that have a wide target market will focus on a specific target audience for certain messages they are trying to send, such as The Body Shops Mother’s Day advertisements, which were aimed at the children and spouses of women, rather than the whole market which would have included the women themselves.
A target audience, is formed from the same factors as a target market, but it is more specific, and is susceptible to influence from other factors. An example of this was the marketing of the USDA’s food guide, which was looking to appeal to the age range of 2-18 year olds. The factors they had to consider outside of the standard marketing mix, were things such as the nutritional needs of growing children, children's knowledge and attitudes regarding nutrition and other specialized detail. This reduced their target market and provided a specific target audience they could focus on. Common factors for target audiences can be reducing the target market to specifics such as ‘men aged 20-30 years old, living in Auckland, New Zealand’ rather than ‘men aged 20-30 years old’. However, just because a target audience is specialized doesn’t mean the message being delivered will not be of interest and received by those outside the intended demographic. Failures, however, of targeting a specific audience are also possible, and occur when information is incorrectly conveyed. Side effects such as a campaign backfire and ‘demerit goods’ are common consequences of a failed campaign.
Demerit goods are goods with a negative social perception, and face the repercussions of their image being opposed to commonly accepted social values. Defining the difference between a target market and a target audience comes down to the difference between marketing and advertising. In marketing, a market is targeted by business strategies, whilst advertisements and media, such as television shows, music and print media, however, are more effectively used to appeal to a target audience. A potential strategy of appealing to a target audience would be playing advertisements for toys during the morning children’s TV programs, rather than during the evening news broadcast.
Reaching a target audience is a staged process, started by the selection of the sector of the target market. A successful appeal to a target audience requires a detailed media plan, which involves many factors in order to achieve an effective campaign.
Usage examples of "target audience".
So now the writing reflected that, working on one level for the target audience but with sophisticated puns and observations delivered innocently, slipped in edgewise.
To the NCLF's target audience, pictures are truth and written words automatically lies.
They were priced to satisfy exactly the sort of rich bitch Herman had suggested she play, but as far as Wednesday was concerned they were a dead loss: the target audience was too old, even if they were well preserved.
Why offend both parties in the name of fearless journalism-in reality, just to raise a brief smirk with SeeNet's target audience?
However, the target audience wasn't the older generation, it was the young, so the old folks could go stuff themselves for all the band cared.
The Suits at the ad agency hyped what their demographics told them to: that upper middle-class whites were their target audience, blue-eyed, clean-cut, blond.
I don't know who you think your target audience is at that time, but please give me a break.
Cars, toothpaste, soap, cereal, beer, soft drinks, apparel, cologne-all of the most heavily advertised products have young adults as their target audience.
Companies test-marketed names and logos and spokespeople, held conferences and meetings to determine how to best capture their target audience, based decisions on demographics.
Last quarter's Arbitron ratings showed them taking over twenty-four percent of the target audience.
Giving her a few attributes in common with the target audience starts you on the road toward sympathy-but doesn't get you very far along that road.
Unremitting exposure to this kind of thing produced mediatronamong the target audience.