19/03/19

Focus Group:

• Range of ages
• Range of occupation
• Class
• Race/ethnicity
• Religion
• Disability
• Sexuality

Primary research – Research that has been undertaken by you personally in order to gain new data. This is also knows as first-hand research.

Secondary research – The use of data or findings from research that has already been undertaken.

Qualitative data – Typically descriptive data, useful for studies at the individual level, and to find out, in depth, the ways in which people think about the product.

Quantitative data – Data that can be measured numerically. Things that can be measured precisely, such as the number of people who listen to a radio station or who have purchased a video game online.

There are many methods of primary research and the most appropriate will depend on the information needed. Methods include:

• Questionnaires – These consist of a series of questions that are tailored to gather specific information from audiences and they are an integral part of market research. Open questions allow the audience to write extended responses acting as qualitative data that can help identify specific likes, dislikes and trends. Closed questions are often those that answer in a ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ranking style and provide quantitative data that can be easily translated into percentages or graph formats.
• Focus Group – A group of people assembled to participate in a discussion about a product before it is launched, or to provide feedback on a political campaign, television series, and so on.
• Interviews – These are a standard part of qualitative research. They are also used in journalism and media reporting and, like questionnaires, are integral to market research.
• Online Surveys – These are questionnaires that the target audience can complete over the internet. Online survey services such as SurveyMonkey make them quick and easy to create.

Secondary Research is commonplace when gathering information about audiences. Some examples of secondary research are:

• Internet Research – This is when internet search engines are utilised and data, personal opinions, news articles and academic research are gathered on a particular topic.
• Books and Journals – Textbooks and their digital editions can still provide a valid way of gaining information and ideas. Academic journals that can be accessed online are also a good way of gaining up-to-date information about a particular topic.
• Magazines and Newspapers – Can provide a wealth of information. Very often, articles have been written by professional journalists who have used primary research methods, such as interviews, to gather information about a particular subject.
• Television – Documentaries, news and factual advice programmes can provide a lot of information. The use of audio-visual media is a visual aid and whilst some documentaries (such as historical documentaries) may have a particular bias, they can condense vast amounts of information into a shot, manageable chunk.

Key Terms

Circulation – A count of how many copies of a particular publication are distributed.

Readership – An estimate of how many readers a publication has (there may be more than one reader per copy).

Gap in the market – A group of potential customers who are not yet purchasing a service. This creates opportunities for companies to expand their customer base.

Audience feedback – When the audience provide a media producer with feedback about a product or brand. This is done through market research instigated by the producer or by the audience members themselves giving feedback via Web 2.0 technologies.

Competitors – Media institution, products or brands which are direct rivals against each other

Market possibilities – The ways in which institutions believe their brand or product can expand into another medium as a cross-media product or spin-off.

21/03/19

Four reasons for why companies conduct research:

1. Identify potential new customers
2. Understanding your existing customers
3. Set realistic targets for your company
4. Develop new, effective strategies

Product Reach
Media institutions expect that mass media products have a large potential product or audience research. This means that the product is likely to be successful and will make profit through sales numbers or advertising revenue. However, one of the main reasons that media institutions conduct research is to find out how many people actually consume the product within any given potential reach.

Audience Feedback

• Vital part of raising awareness of a product
• Can spot a gap in the market
• Media institutions use online methods to identify pros and cons about products and for advertising campaigns
• Social media used for this

Advantages of using social media
An advantage of using social media as a tool to gain both qualitative and quantitative feedback is that it is cheap and, on the whole, easier to administer. Online surveys are also cheap and many institutions will ask you to complete a questionnaire about their experiences with you, which is distributed to smartphones as a popup advert once a user has clicked on a product website.
In terms of identifying a gap in the market for a special product or service, producers will need to have completed a qualitative research before they launch a brand.

Competitors
Research is undertaken by media producers to find out what audiences think about the products and brands owned by direct competitors. BBC and ITV are constantly using online technologies to conduct focus groups about what viewers thought about major storylines such as EastEnders Live week (2015) and Coronation Street’s ‘Who Killed Tina?” storyline (2014).

Market possibilities
In terms of market possibilities, the most successful products will often have spin-offs and sequels. However, this will only be based on audience feedback.

Analysing
It is important that you can interpret the data that is presented to you about the ways in which audiences consume products. If you are, for example, a researcher for a television company or radio station, then you will need to be able to interpret that data.