UK Tribes is a project, commissioned by Channel 4 and created by Crowd DNA which "takes you to the heart of young Britain." It is a categorization technique, putting all different types of young people into groups depending on their social interests, preferred brands, and countless other qualities.
"Tribal alliances are less hard and fast than they once were. The exchange of ideas is more fluid the social glues that unite people more varied - you might disagree on which band is best, but you could still share a loyalty for Topshop, Sony PlayStation or Channel 4." This is what the UK Tribes website states is the way they create a Tribal categorization and therefore, allowing them to understand the dynamics of tribal UK and gain key information for brands who wish to engage with the youth market.
The results look at UK youth culture from the teenagers perspective. The website also states "So if they're saying nasty things, don't blame us! We just wanted to create an honest, uncensored expression of young people's attitudes and affiliations." Showing the genuine opinions which are stated in the websites findings.
How did UK Tribes start?
One small aspect of this project looked at youth culture and offered a breakdown based on the shared social interests (music, sport, fashion, technology etc.) around which young people find common ground over. When this research was presented to the media and marketing executives, this section proved a big hit; conjuring up real interest.
The idea of UK Tribes was born from this, with a brief to extend this research; to explore youth in honest terms and compile information based on young people themselves; to acknowledge that whereas once it was about monolithic youth tribes that seemed to out shadow all others (punk, rock ‘n’ roll, acid house are key examples) now the categorization of youth tribes is more commonly acknowledged, providing a wide variety of options.
UK Tribes wanted to make sure their research was real, genuine, close-up and to ensure they effectively got the information from a young persons perspective whilst avoiding the generalisations and glossing over which often provides data for similar studies. They state that "there are times, perhaps, when findings may seem derogatory or negative, but this is all about youth culture as described to us by young people themselves. We didn’t come up with the title Street Rats, for instance. They did!" Summing up just why the survey was conducted; to provide an accurate representation of the youth market as it currently stands.
How They Did It
UK Tribes used both a collection of Qualitative research techniques as well as Quantitative research to ensure they have a widespread collation of information and views as well as ensuring they reach all types of young people in all of the different Tribes. The techniques used for both are as follows:
Qualitative Research
Desk Research
Online Forums
Depth Interviews
Video & Picture Diaries
Expert Interviews with Marketers, Media, Event Promoters, DJ's etc.
SMS-derived insight
A UK network of young people providing regular trend reports
Quantitative Research
An online survey called Find Your Tribe that was distributed through relevant blogs and online media. The incentive for young people was in "the fun and talk value of having your tribal identity defined". The benefit for Channel 4 was in gathering data on youth preferences across over 250 brands and media, along with their lifestyle attitudes and habits. Find Your Tribe first ran in 2006, gathering data from over 50,000 respondents. Version two ran in August 2008, with the response count at 38,000 and rising.
So, Basically....
The current count stands at 25 tribes (they started with 23 and have gained four and lost two along the way) but that’s almost sure to change. The key objective to the UK Tribes project is that they ensure they keep up to date with all the most recent trends, using constant updates, allowing them to identify new tribes whilst also allowing them to note changing behaviour among existing tribes. In doing so, they are building up an extensive archive of the ever-developing landscape of young Britain.
So how do they do categorize the tribes?
The study categorizes the 25 different tribes into groups, these groups are collated by looking at the shared interests between the different groups. The 5 main groupings are:
Aspirant Mainstream
Mainstream
Urban
Alternative
Leading Edge
Below is how the 25 different trends are categorized within these groups:
Aspiration Mainstream:
- Trendies
- Rahs
Mainstream:
- Ravers
- Townies
- Chavs
- Boy Racers
- Sport Junkies
- Street Rats
- Casuals
Urban:
- Get Paid Crew
- Blingers
- DIYers
- Trackies
Alternative:
- Gamers
- Emos
- Scene Kids
- Skaters
- Metalheads
- Young Alts
Leading Edge:
- Hipsters
- Geeks
- Craft Kids
- Indie Scenesters
Using this website, I can determine who is my target audience by looking at the various tribes that are categorized within the research. It allows me to see the icons of the said tribe, meaning I can base my features in my magazine accordingly (the artists I feature will be based around what my target audience like). This is mainly centred around the Clubbers/Ravers.
The various brands they wear, use and associate themselves to are shown along with the persons consumption of different media types.
According to UK Tribes, these are the characteristics of my target audience. At first you will note the types of media they buy, use or interact with. The first is a Dubstep/Drum & Bass Magazine called MixMag. I shall be doing a post on this shortly. Next is the less successful magazine called DJ Mag. It has the same views and similar features to MixMag therefore I feel it is unnecessary to review this. Next is FHM. This magazine is found to be popular with my target audience. The FHM Media kit below fortells of a majorly based male readership. It can therefore be assumed that my target audience will be males, or at least the vast majority will be.
Moving swiftly on, my target audience seems to listen to Kiss Radio. This radio station, from my knowledge plays a variety of dance, hip hop, and R&B music. The radio station also frequently features up and coming Dubstep artists. Galaxy Radio, now known as Capital FM, does not feature Dubstep as much, focusing mainly on mainstream pop music now after its merge with The Hits. They also listen to BBC Radio 1. This was expected as it is stated that during the origin of Dubstep:
It is also shown that they use facebook (once again expected due to the increase in popularity of the dubstep genre over the internet & forums) MTV Dance a dance music channel found on SKY (focusing mainly on dance music therefore may not be entirely relevant). Finally there is the slightly confusing conclusion that many read a magazine called attitude. From what I've gathered this is a gay lifestyle magazine for men....perhaps the confidentiality agreement of some peoples surveys could not be stronger here.
Another section they focus on is brands, showing the most purchased brands by individuals who rest within this tribe. Key names involve Diesel (the clothing brand) generally high quality, rather expensive clothes, All Saints (clothing brand) sells fairly ordinary, modern chic clothing, Miss Sixty (a womens clothing shop) aswell as well known brands in terms of clothing such as TOPMAN, urban outfitters and River Island. There are also 2 popular clubs/events mentioned:
Godskitchen : A worldwide company specialising in electronic music events. Popularly known and are responsible for the increase in popularity of electronic artists.
Cream : Perhaps the more well known club is mentioned, along with this, news on the website indicates that Swedish House Mafia are headlining the Milton Keynes Bowl on Saturday 14th July for a 9 hour set. This sort of news is what I would expect my target audience to want to know.
Finally there is a link to Sony Playstation. This is suprising, evidently my target audience are keen on technology and like the newest gadgets and games, I shall be sure to include a story about gadgets in my magazine.
From the media consumption level chart, it is clear that my target audience use the internet a lot and read magazines fairly frequently. Due to this I shall combine both and offer a digital copy of my magazine. This will be a simple way of allowing my magazine to be available to the masses.
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