Audience research

Considering the distribution of my product includes thinking about the audience I am targeting, this either being a niche or mainstream group.

Niche - A smaller group of people who hold the same interest about a specific subject. The audience usually wanting to know something in particular, rather than broad.

Mainstream -The typical audience for something, liking something of the same kind as many others. The subject being most commonly known by wide amounts of people.

My product consists more of a niche audience, as the genre of book that I am producing is specific in itself, crossing two specific themes of poetry and photography. The audience choosing this book therefore have the intention of viewing something more precise, rather than a whole worded book with stories and photos / illustrations only for aesthetic. The photographs within my book telling a story, and reflecting the characters thought processes, etc.
An audience member example being a growing female teenager, aged between 14-23, falling under the 'explorers' psychographic group. The explorers of the group being energised and independent with the desire to experience challenging and new things, in constant search of discovery. The idea of discovery is explored within the dream, where the character explores and experiences the nature and artistic landscaped surroundings, accompanied with people around culturally and relationship wise. Some themes included and desired word phrases will be mature, with the idea of many teenagers possibly wanting to move from their area, facing cultural awareness and issues linked with identity, and experiencing new love, this being reasoning behind the aimed typical teenage growing age.
In terms of primary research, my audience consists of young teens using social media, especially apps such as Tumblr and We Heart It, where aesthetic photos of picture books are taken, & young teens who also enjoy photography. Secondary audiences may include upcoming media crews, this including film directors or script writers and story developers, searching for a new story-line to make a film or videography piece about. Secondary audiences could also be authors. The secondary audience would therefore focus more on the message and story of  the book, rather than the physical features, this being what the primary audience focus on.

The socio-economic status in terms of the primary audience could be low,  the lack of culture or art within their society or life meaning a lack of social norms around them that have as such, this book being a different reading to them,or accessing this book in search for relating to similar situations. The age group also aimed at one where individuals are beginning their life, this being socially with meeting new people in workplace environments and economically beginning in employment. Socio-economic statuses for my said secondary audience contrasts, this being higher statuses due to the popularity film making has, along with authors having high statuses with good education.
Overall knowing that the psychographic of my audience is explorers has sparked ambitions including ways in which I can make the story line more adventures and experimental, along with the demographic being photographers, poetry and English writing lovers.

Similar products that I have researched have similar target audiences, for example, Note to self by Connor Franta having users of social media, using the book for photographic aesthetics, along with targeting those with high interests in photography, special interest wise. An older aged demographic however have been targeted for the book due to the heavy exploration of mature themes such as first adult situations, depression, etc as stated in my case study. The audience of this book also consists of those from the YouTube fanbase, this caused from postings the vlogger uploaded on his channel, with a supporting audience of over 5.4 million subscribers. Further books in my case study include First Light by Joe Cornish, which has a similar primary audience of aspiring and learning photographers. The photographic audience of my book links to this, though the age demographic may be different as Cornishe's advertisement of works is more in galleries and books for an older audience, rather than social media (younger) To develop my audience demographic, this being secondary audiences and age wise, I could advertise in similar places, highlighting the photographic side more e.g a gallery or exhibition on boards of the photographs in the book, or extras taken. Finding out more about the audience and being specific on age and interests concluding to have a specific niche audience as possible.
Another audience group under a book I have read in preparation and research being The sun and her flowers, Rupi Kaur. The primary audience of this being females and poetry lovers, and the secondary consisting of authors. This relates /links to the primary/secondary audience of my product. In terms of competition and the product in the wider marketing, there is not much competition specifically under photo books, though juxtaposed in poetry book audiences. 'The poetry market is growing as audiences for poetry - and poets - are diversifying,' (Poetry summit London Book Fair,2017) Many types of non fictional poetry are developing, the competition between modern poets  such as R.H Sin and Nikita Gill being high. Though my storyline is fictional, the emotions and wording would be based on real situations, meaning there is competition, with publishing industries around the genre also becoming increasingly popular. The idea that there is a large audience for the product being good however, as there are already group members who will like the product, with an increase of 1.3% of adults (1.3 million people) engaging with the poetry genre from 2015-2016.  "Instagram alone features 19 million posts with the hashtag #poetry. Insta poets like Nikita are using social media intelligently, bringing poetry to a broader, mainstream audience," (Emma Smith of Trapeze)My products USP being the fact that it intertwines two themes, both artistically combining well with each other and able to visually telling a story with room to creatively experiment with composition and aesthetics, experimentation being different to a typical product.
The photographic book audience being niche and smaller, with photographers producing work to a less competitive part of the industry. This makes the product more intimate and allows the smaller audience to interact more - majority of this being photographers, editors, etc. An example of a photobook that has been successful and is one in which I would like to follow composition wise is Find a Fallen Star by Regine Petersen. There are further informative photography books, these including information of artists and their work, along with technical and aesthetical explanations behind the creation. As photography has become more popular, with 1.8 billion digital images uploaded to the internet everyday, there has been an increase of photographic books produced by artists, or edited with memorable photographers included inside over periods of time, an example being "Read This If You Want to Take Good Photographs" By Henry Carroll, also used for my historical research under Ansel Adams. The market for these informative books not being mainstream, though not as small as a niche.

Bibliography - 
http://fmcm.co.uk/news/2018/4/13/poetry-market-is-growing-as-audiences-and-poets-diversify-verdict-from-the-first-ever-poetry-summit-at-london-book-fair (poetry statistics)

https://vimeo.com/132026832?width=1080 (Find a Fallen Star)