The Consumer

For this week’s professional study’s we talked about the consumer. The consumer is an important part of any form of creative industry. In the chain of people that are involved with a product the consumer will always be last. The product is aimed at an audience of consumers with the hope of a purchase. Now with the huge boom of the internet and social media aiming a product at its intended buyer is a lot easier and directed. For example if I look at a book about animals then there is a good chance that I will have web ads showing similar products.

As I want to be an illustrator I thought it would be good to look at how the consumer effects the children’s book industry. The usual chain of work in the children’s book industry starts with the writer. After the story has been completed then an illustrator will be hired, sometimes the illustrator will have also written the book. When the book is illustrated then it is passed on to the Agent and Publisher. When the book is published it is then sold to the consumer. In the case of books for small children like picture books they are not aimed at the child but the intended buyer is the child’s parents. This means the book has to look appealing to the parents. Ways of doing this include making interesting illustrations, characters and also making it seem suitable four young children. Another appealing factor is making the book have educational elements or a moral underlining. This can include trying to teach the child to understand and read different words or telling them what a bad thing is. Or it might just be a bit of fun. The well know children’s book “The Gruffalo” by Julia Donaldson has elements of all these things. The book was illustrated by Axel Scheffler and has a really fun style. It has words which the child can read. It also has interesting characters and an interesting plot for the child to understand.

A great way of understanding a consumer is to work out what type you are. What would I buy? and how much will I spend? are good questions to ask yourself. If you want to create something that you like then there you have an understanding of the people who also like those things. I like fantasy and monsters. I’m a PC gamer and I also take an interest in the natural world. Just some of the things like D&D, Diablo, Warhammer 40k and The Godzilla moves. I also have to consider that I’m a student and I have no job. I won’t spent a lot of money when I don’t need to.  A lot of the things I’m interested in (often games) have advertisements on YouTube and other similar sites. I suspect this is because they know that their consumers are often young adults and will be using these sites a lot.

It’s important to understand the consumer because it could affect how well you do in the creative world. You might end up catering to an entirely different type of consumer than yourself.