Studio Brief 1 - Demographics

Studio Brief 1 - Design Processes, Frame Shape

Research - Demographics 

As an extension of my research I decided to look into the demographics of the brands I visited during my primary research; Wilkinsons, Next and Urban Outfitters. I felt this would help me to better understand the customers that the products are targeted at. I feel that it is paramount that the product is tailed to its customer so should accurately represent their interests. 

Socio-Economic groupings are often used during market research as a means of grouping people and dividing the population based on their occupation, this system is typically used to identify a specific type of customer and to draw comparisons across a wide range of people. The grouping system looks like this; 

A- Higher managerial, administrative, professional e.g. Chief executive, senior civil servant, surgeon

B - Intermediate managerial, administrative, professional e.g. bank manager, teacher

C1- Supervisory, clerical, junior managerial e.g. shop floor supervisor, bank clerk, sales person

C2 - Skilled manual workers e.g. electrician, carpenter

D- Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers e.g. assembly line worker, refuse collector, messenger

E - Casual labourers, pensioners, unemployed e.g. pensoiners without private pensions and anyone living on basic benefits

Wilkinsons is a British homeware company founded in the 1930's with over 365 stores nationwide. It's built its reputation on low prices and affordability. For this reason it targets people of the C2, D and E socio-economic groups. It can be seen as a budget shop that does not attract connotations of affluence or social prestige and is not renowned for the quality of its products.

Next is a fashion retailer based in Britain however has multi national stores across the globe. I feel Next targets the B and C1 categories of the socio-economic groupings because of the companies quality and mid price range. Next is seen as a fairly upmarket brand that offers a range of luxurious homewares that is at the higher end of high street stores.

Urban Outfitters is an American multinational clothing company that also sells contemporary accessories and a small range of homeware. It is targeted at a young fashionable market that is predominantly between the ages of 15-30. It targets a socio-economic grouping of C1 C2 and D because of it young target audience who will not have high ranking jobs in their youth despite the high pice points on many of their items. Urban Outfitters is seen as fashionable hip and popular with teenagers and young adults, The brand thrive off new trends and popular culture which makes the products current and exciting. 

From determining the socio-ecomonic grouping each brand targets I know have a clearer understanding behind their design decisions when creating their products, When designing for this brief I will consider a client and attempt to tailor my outcomes to appeal to a similar target audience in order to determine my concept a success.