To wonder who Zoella’s target market is?

[Fluffysparks]

After all the stuff about Zoella going around on here I decided to watch a few videos to see just how she can get away with the likes of that £50 advent calendar

I couldn’t help noticing that she kept repeating phrases such as ‘Although most people that watch are over 18, I do have some younger viewers’ and ‘Obviously most of my viewers are adults’ etc etc. As well as this most of her content has a few swear words and often a lot of very adult humour, so I just can’t believe she is targeting herself at tweens, and for someone who doesn’t drink much there’s a lot of focus on alcohol.

I suppose I just don’t understand who she is aiming for? I can easily see past most of her products and they seem quite young, but her fans apparently aren’t. The branding side of it just seems a bit muddled really (don’t get me started on Louise Pentland).

[SugarMiceInTheRain]

I wondered that - I assumed her fans would be teens but the price of her stuff made me

[Fluffysparks]

I’ve always thought it a little overpriced, but that advent calendar is just on the next level.

[chanie44]

although I haven’t watched her for more than a few seconds, I suspect that she’s trying to attract an older audience as her tween audience have now become teens and have probably moved onto something cooler.

Meanwhile, the new generation of tweens will be finding their own ‘zoella’. Now that she’s in her late 20s, she’s not really a ‘cool big sister’ figure and is closer is in age to their parents.

[EmilyChambers79]

I've heard of her, I thought she was aiming at teens?

What does she do exactly? My 10 year old is into Stampycat and Dan TDM and they are irritating but seem fairly harmless!

[Katedotness1963]

£50 for a twelve day advent Calendar?!?!

[Lokisglowstickofdestiny]

The gullible.

[Jerseysilkvelour]

She's trying to sell things. Therefore she needs and audience with money. Actually as she's been around for so long it's a reasonable assumption that her audience have grown up with her and are now working adults who have the disposable income to pay £50 for an advent calendar (which is ridiculous!)

[Ohyesiam]

I know year s 6,7 and, 8 who like her. Dd days no one in year 9 at her school is into her.

[nancy75]

Zoella, her brother & boyfriend opened a pop up shop in Covent Garden a couple of months ago. Everything I went past there were queues around the block to get in - the age was a mix of tween up to mid twenties ( with a few pissed off looking mums dragged along)

[eyebrowsonfleek]

I have s 14 year old and she’s definitely outgrown Zoella. She loved her most in y5/6 which is typical imo.
Are the over 18 fans perverts or her marketing agency ?

[missiondecision]

A few years ago when she was less commercial the teens who followed her watched her become more famous and later endorse products. They can know afford her products, ie 18 at least.

[BriechonCheese]

Her content was aimed at a younger market a few years ago. For the last couple of years her and her boyfriend have been hammering the "although xx% of my viewers are under 18, most are over 18" - at least my DS (13) has told me that.

I think the products, especially the "Sugg life" stuff have to be aimed at that younger element purely because very few adults will part with cash for a Zoella handcream. My nieces are 11,13 and 14 and they like her and the younger two buy her stuff, however whilst it is "pocket money territory" it is very expensive for what it is. Her beauty stuff is basic but expensive.

She is clearly trying to change her target audience. Having watched a lot of her stuff recently (I was the OP who complained about HelloWorld and have subsequently been off sick so done some watching and research) I see her content has become really quite adult with lots of off the cuff comments about sexual positions, body parts and swearing. All great for her age group but not as safe and wholesome watch as many parents believe.

[lunabear1]

I'm 24 and started reading Zoella's blog and then watching her youtube videos when I was about 18. I still occasionally watch her videos. That's because (previous to her own range) she reviewed high end beauty products but bought high street clothes which was something I did.

I do agree her target audience is a bit muddled now.

[melj1213]

I just posted this on the advent calender thread but I think it fits here too:

The main issue with Zoella's range is that she's still marketed at the tween/teen audience, but is making products aimed at the adult market and with adult prices and the two are just too vastly different an audience & market that by trying to cater to both, she ends up catering to neither.

Her advent calender is a prime example of her "brand" being all over the place - how many tweens are bothered about a room fragrance, bauble and scented candles (or are even allowed to burn candles?!) and how many adults are bothered about a couple of cookie cutters, confetti and stickers?

If the calendar was aimed at teenagers it needed to have the usual 24/25 windows and be more in the £10/15 price bracket. With that price band nobody would have minded some of the crap gifts (confetti, stickers, notebook, cookie cutters) - if the other windows made up for it eg some of her beauty products (novelty shaped soaps, lipgloss, eyeshadow, perfume etc) even if they were only in mini/tester sizes. That way the crap stuff could be written off as little trinkets to "make up the numbers" to the 24 gifts with the beauty range being the main draw and worth spending the £10/15 to try out.

If it was aimed at adults and was going to have the £40/50 RRP then it needed to lose all the crap gifts and instead focus on quality items that adults would be interested in. She could have even kept it to 12 windows if the products are decent enough to command the price, since most adults would prefer quality over quantity. Lose the confetti, stickers, cookie cutters etc and just have the 2 scented candles and room fragrance that are already included and fill the other 9 windows with a couple of full sized items from her beauty range - a bath bomb, hand cream, body butter, lipstick etc - and her lifestyle range - hell she could even keep the pen, notebook & little makeup bag if they were together in one window as a little "stationery set" rather than spread out over 3 windows.

[PortlyWino]

My 13 yo seems to have lost interest. She went through a huge phase of loving Zoella from about 11 and spent all her pocket money on make up. This has passed. She tells me no one at school is that bothered about it all, and she is watching other things. I thought I had good ideas for Xmas and know I have to rethink them! Was not spending £50 on that advent calendar though!

[BarbaraOcumbungles]

Thick people and children with thick parents.

[AdoraBell]

Aimed at teens, expecting that parents will pay.

[Whinesalot]

i think she's aiming at the younger market but making it seem cooler to them because "it's really for older girls" - but it isn't...

[gillybeanz]

My dd friends were about 11 when they watched zoella.
Mine wasn't interested thank fuck.

[GherkinSnatch]

Whinesalot

Bingo. Her analytics might say that she has a large proportion of viewers in an older age bracket, but that will be children watching through their parent's accounts.

[sweetbitter]

I am in my thirties and sometimes watch Zoella /other Youtubers in a very specific context: when I'm on the treadmill! I can't watch anything "proper" it has to be absolute fluff, relatively high energy, short and crucially watchable on my phone, so it fits the bill. It's the only time I watch it, bit over the last few years I've clocked up a fair few hours of Youtuber videos.

OTOH I would never even remotely consider buying any of the merchandise or any of the recommended products. Or leaving comments or talking about it with my friends or really admitting it anywhere except on mumsnet tbh!

I think the 'loudest' voices that but her stuff and leave comments and go to the events are the younger viewers, but it doesn't surprise me that there are older viewers like me too.

I think the calendar thing is the pinnacle of an increased amount of merchandise flogging - it really is totally out of hand now. I wonder if it is because in the last 12 months YouTube has been introducing more and more restrictions on as revenue so creators are looking to other avenues. Is there any Youtuber Who doesn't have a book deal / own branded merchandise to sell now? I guess it's tweens and teens mostly buying it in the same way they buy One direction stuff or Frozen stuff or whatever. Which is one thing when it's a pocket money item but another when it's a £50 calendar o' crap.