How and why do media institutions profile audiences?

Media institutions profile audiences to give them a clearer understanding of who they are aiming their media products at.

Demographics

One of the methods a company will do this by is splitting audiences up into socioeconomic classes known as demographics. They are split into 6 classes; A, B, C1 , C2, D, E. The A class for high managerial persona like a company director. Someone that is usually on a £100,000 + a year contract.
Someone in the B class, could be in the administrative line of work or professional job employment.
In the C1 category, you might find a bank clerk or a junior manager of some sort that is responsible for only a very small team. C2 people are skilled manual workers like plumbers and electricians etc.
Someone that is categorised into the D category would be an unskilled manual worker like a farmer or packager, a job that requires little training and knowledge. Finally, category E is for the unemployed.

A strength of this is that it accounts for everyone and is an easily measurable method. This means they don't have trouble identifying who is who according to the chart. However the categories are extremely broad meaning there can be lots of different cultures and opinions in the categories, its not as if they all like the same things. Furthermore, it doesn't account for lifestyle choices made by the people within the classes. Thus making this a less favourable option due to negatives outweighing the positives.

Tribe/Subculture Model

The tribe and subculture model splits up today's youth into 5 main groups. The 5 being; Alternative, Mainstream, Leaning Edge, Urban and Aspirant. This model is slightly more specific about the interests of the consumers meaning it becomes easier to target products towards them due to them identifying as a group with more things e.g music. This is also good because the fact that it only targets teenagers means its more specific and easier to use for companies.
However this model also lacks the complexity and capacity to look in detail at the identity of audiences because there is no clear way of defining them without creating a database way to big. Furthermore it reinforces narrow minded stereotypes of youth showing them as only certain types of people.

Habits and Lifestyle

YouGov.co.uk made a survey system that classes people into groups based on common interests. It is extremely detailed for the person, telling you their socioeconomic status, rough age and other general demographics. It also states other interests that that person is likely to have. This makes it useful as companies can be thorough and get lots of background information on a group of people. However, similarly to the other methods it lacks the complexity and doesn't account for anomalies within that group. Not everyone is going to be the same and have similar interests.