Thursday 9 March 2017

Demographic location

Demographic location.

When speaking about demographic location I am talking about the statistical view of population which usually includes ;

  • Gender
  • Age
  • Income 
  • Occupation
  • Schooling
By understand the demographics of your target customers is vital in making your business a success.
You can get an idea of your demographics from searching on your local council website. 

For Manchester I found the following statistics : 

  • In the city of Manchester area there is 11,564 hectares ( A hectare is equal to 10,0002) (Manchester city council, 2017)
  •  268,400 males *(Manchester city council, 2015)
  • 261,900 females*(Manchester city council, 2015)
  • 18.4% of residents were aged 16-24 *(Manchester city council, 2015)
  • 33.9% of residents were aged 25-44* (Manchester city council, 2015)
  • 18.3% of residents were aged 45-64* (Manchester city council, 2015)
  • The number of under - and postgraduate students was 70,750* (Manchester city council, 2015)
  • Claimant count ( including job seeker allowance and non workers) for the city of Manchester (as a % population aged 16-64) was 2.7% **(Manchester city council, 2015)
  • Claimant count ( including job seeker allowance and non workers) for greater manchester ( as a % population aged 16-64) was 2.5% ** (Manchester city council, 2015)


Key
* in 2015
** updated in Dec 2016

My having a look at this documentation it gave me an insight into the demographic location for Manchester and what I should consider when I am thinking about my business, however the demographic location will not really affect me as due to me wanting to go into the special effects, tv, film and live performance industry I won't be dealing with individuals unlike make up artists who are freelance and for example will be doing occasion make up . However I understand why it is important to know the demographic location as if you are in an area that has a high percentage of claimant count ( such as people who don't have jobs or who are claiming job seeker allowance) you will know that you can't make your prices overly expensive as people simply won't have the money to pay it.

When I was looking at competitors that affects me I found it very hard to find artists that do exactly what I want to do once I have graduated as most make up artists for special effects,film, theatre and live performance are either part the production company or they know the producer or artist. I think that the main reason why I had trouble finding a make up artist that does special effects alongside theatre,film and live performance is that for this industry you have to market yourself differently than most make up artists who are doing occasion make up , I thought of this when I was creating my website as well, as I was going to include a " book now" section to my website however after thinking I have realised that it wouldn't be suitable to my clientele as everything varies and I wouldn't just be able to have sections such as " special effect make up £50" or " character make up for theatre £60" as there would be many questions that would need to be asked such as " what special effect make up are you looking for?" as this would determine on the price of the make up as if they only wanted a simple cut or bruising it wouldn't cost £50.


However when looking at Manchester special effects artists on google, the first page that came up on google was for a make up artist called Sophie who is from Oldham, Manchester. I have included a photograph of her website below (image one)

Image One.The homepage for make up by sophie.(Battersby, n.d.)
Firsty I really like the layout of Sophie's website, I like how it mentions in the sub header that she does both make up and hair as people who require both are more likely to stay on her website now just because it says she does it from the get go rather than them clicking on it then clicking straight off it because it doesn't mention she can do both so by her including this she is improving her chances of getting employed/ clientele However the thing I don't like the most is the section named "shop" as it takes you to an etsy shop for handmade bridal and occasion headpieces, as someone who doesn't know Sophie I don't know if this is her other business or if it is an endorsement deal where she advertises for this company and in return she gets given pieces she can use on clientele.


Sophie is skilled in many areas including :

  • Beauty 
  • Fashion/editorial 
  • SFX/ character 
  • TV/ film/ music 
The first thing I notice about Sophie's portfolio section is that her images aren't captioned with anything therefore I am assuming they don't have alt text. Alt text is added to your image which then allows search engines to have information about your images as they can't understand images just text so by having alt text you are optimizing your SEO.Another thing I have noticed about Sophie's portfolio is that some images aren't blurry therefore I can't see the make up work. Going back to the sections especially SFX/character and TV/film/music I noticed that they include the same photographs which makes it very repetitive and makes me question if she meant to do this or if it was a mistake. I like how Sophie has included video footage into her portfolio as this shows variety which also allows the viewer to have a break from looking at images. Sophies portfolio section is very good and it has a mixture of male models and female models however I don't see a variety of skin tones and ethnicity. In the about section of Sophies website it is here where she has included all of her qualifications, Sophie has also included all her clients alongside where she studied which was the Van Garland school of make up. Sophie's client list to name a few include : 
  • BBC 
  • ITV 
  • Age UK
  • Little black dress
  • The sun
  • Macmillan
I feel like Sophie's list of clients along side her place of study will make clients want to go to her rather than me as I am just starting up and don't have the respected clientele she does. 
To have a look at Sophie's website follow the link here : 
https://www.make-upbysophie.co.uk/



I then found a website for a make up artist called Sarah Faulkner, who is based in Salford which is where I live. I have included a photograph of Sarah's website however you can see that compared to Sophie's ( image One) Sarah's website is very plain and basic and as a result of this I feel like it isn't as inviting than Sophie's.
Image Two.Here is a screenshot of Sarah's website which you can see when compared to image one lacks in colour and creativity. (Faulkner,n.d)


As I mentioned with Sophie's I feel like possible clientele would choose to go with Sarah as she has worked with credible people and she mentions on her profile that she has over 15 year experience so therefore clientele would be more than likely to chose to hire Sarah than me simply due to my lack of experience in the industry.


Sarah's list of clients include :

  • Granada TV
  • MUTV ( David Beckham interview)
  • BBC
  • CBBC
  • ITV

However I noticed the same thing that I did with Sophie's and that is that she doesn't caption her images which again would be an indication that she doesn't include alt text. I feel like they would both benefit from both captioning and alt texting their images as it all helps with SEO, I also feel like viewers and possible employers would be interested in knowing a bit about the image/photoshoot rather than there being no text or description. I would also feel that as Sarah has over 15 years experience that she would have more images in her portfolio, in addition to this I personally feel that the images she has included in her portfolio aren't to a good standard and I think this comes from there being no text or description as they all just look out of place, for example it goes from an image that looks like a fashion/editorial style to a photograph with "new years eve  black & white ball " with a group of 23 people which I start to question if she did all the make up or just one and what the event was for as I also noticed a logo with a bottle of something with the text " find your comfort zone" so then I am wondering if it is an advertisement or if it just a image of the make up she did for a party . Another factor of Sarah's imagery I am not keen on is the fact that especially on the film & special FX section it is clear that the images aren't of a professional standard and that Sarah took the photographs herself,in that section there are three photographs of the same make up as well which shocks me again as I mentioned before about her having over 15 years experience.

I feel that by looking at the artists around me has given me an insight in what I need to do in order to gain work and to not lose possible clientele as a result of other make up artists. The few ideas I that I have taken from looking at just these two make up artists are:

  • make sure my website is looking good and eye catching.
  • ensuring quality of photographs are the best standard possible.
  • get as much work experience with companies such as the BBC, ITV etc.
  • make my website easy to use.
  • Include special offers to the public such as a special effects workshop ( especially when coming up to halloween )/ halloween make up services with the call to action of they get a free gift such as a small pot of fake blood so they are able to top up throughout the night.
  • Ensure that as soon as I have worked with a client I have included them on my website.

Overall by completing this I feel more understanding about how demographic location can play a massive part in being successful as the key thing I have taken from both website is that they are both based in Manchester however they made it clear that they travel all over the world, this is the key problem I face I feel as a make up artist who wants to make it in the special effects,tv,film and live performance industry as I can't drive which would be the key in being able to travel the country and I also have a part time job where I am required to work weekends and evenings, therefore I am limiting my availability whereas I should be entirely flexible for possible employers.

I then thought that I would check my statistics for blogger as I was really interested in seeing what my stats are for this, I was very surprised as I didn't expect so many views from different countries! Have a look at image Three to see, another thing that surprised me was to see the traffic sources of were my views were coming from! This made me feel proud as the traffic sources showed that most views were coming from google, therefore my SEO is good.
Image Three.The stats of my overall audience count for my blog, including country and what browser is used.(Blogger,2017)

Image Four.Here is a screenshot of the traffic sources of my blog, this shows how people are finding my site.(Blogger.com , 2017)



Bibliography

(Manchester city council, 2015)

Manchester city council, (2015). A01 Manchester factsheet. Manchester: Manchester city council, pp.1-2.

Image One.The homepage for make up by sophie.(Battersby, n.d.)

Battersby, S. (n.d.). [Photograph] The homepage for make up by sophie .Available at: https://www.make-upbysophie.co.uk/ [Accessed 19 Mar. 2017].

Image Two.Here is a screenshot of Sarah's website which you can see when compared to image one lacks in colour and creativity. (Faulkner,n.d)

Faulkner,s(N.D).[photograph] .Here is a screenshot of Sarah's website which you can see when compared to image one lacks in colour and creativity. Available at :http://www.sfmakeup.co.uk/MakeUp/index.html. [Accessed 19 Mar. 2017].

Image Three.The stats of my overall audience count for my blog, including country and what browser is used.(Blogger,2017)

www.blogger.com(2017).[photograph].The stats of my overall audience count for my blog, including country and what browser is used. [Accessed 19 Mar.2017]

Image Four.Here is a screenshot of the traffic sources of my blog, this shows how people are finding my site.(Blogger.com , 2017)

www.blogger.com(2017).[photograph].Here is a screenshot of the traffic sources of my blog, this shows how people are finding my site.[ Accessed 19 Mar.2017].

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