Towards the end of September, I went to a George Ezra concert at the Royal Oak Music Theatre. I went for a fun distraction from school work, but I learned an important lesson about market segments.
George Ezra is a 22 year old singer/songwriter whose hit song "Budapest" is one of the most streamed songs of 2015, with over 195 million plays on Spotify. His voice is most aptly described as sultry. His music is inspired by Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, musicians who hit their prime a generation before George Ezra's fans were born.
So who are George Ezra's fans? Based on his sound, I thought he would have a big range, varying from college aged indie fans to middle-aged soft rock fans. Clearly, I was not thinking about segmentation.
It turns out that Ezra's fans were almost exclusively women between the ages of 16 and 22 (this is not scientific research, simply what I gathered from being at the concert). It turns out that Ezra's fans were there as much for his looks as for his sound. It turns out that Ezra's fans thought his shoulder movements and hair flow were the most appealing parts of his concert.
Just like consumers often find sexually appealing advertisements to be persuasive, George's target audience found him to be persuasive (Babin/Harris 146). They will be a part of his following now for a long time. He has gotten his followers to have consistently positive affect, cognition, and behaviors towards him: they feel good when listening to his music, they think rationally that he has good quality music (like Dylan or Guthrie), and they buy his concert tickets and listen to his songs on Spotify.
Ezra focused on his market segment and turned off many of the men or older adults because of the behavior of his engaged target audience. Their high pitched voices masked his low voice and their constant snapchats blocked our view. I will still love listenign to "Blame It On Me" and "Cassy O'", but I will no longer want to listen to them at a live performance.
I really enjoyed reading your article, Robert, because although I've heard the song "Budapest" (it seems like constantly) on the radio over the summer I never actually knew who sang it, much less what he looked like or how that could affect his fan base. I can definitely see how annoying it might be to not be surrounded by your particular age or gender demographic at a concert of a singer you are really looking forward to seeing, and I can see how whiny teenage girls with their phones out constantly could get on your nerves! It did make me think about how so much of how performers market themselves is through how they look, just think of all the boy bands that are becoming popular and how obsessed Millennials are with these "heartthrobs" (even if the quality of their music is questionable...). This is an interesting article I came across the other day (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10595848/Beliebers-to-Directioners-why-hysterical-teen-girl-fans-arent-as-mad-as-you-think.html) that goes a little more into what you were talking about with the attractiveness of these kinds of bands, and the power of sex appeal in the music industry. Hopefully you find this article interesting as it deals with a lot of what you touch on in your article!
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