If for example, a media company wanted to produce a new film aimed at 16-25, they would have to do many different types of research before they even start to produce it.
Primary research
Questionnaires - Would be used to people in their target age group open and closed questions about things such as their preferred genre, favourite actors, what gender/ethnic group they are, how often they go to the cinema and when they go to the cinema. This is done so that the producers know what to include in their film that will
appeal to their audience the most.
One to one interviews - Used to ask members of their audience face to face what appeals to them in a film and also ask them the kind of questions that would appear in a questionnaire because in person you could get more detail and more qualititative information. This is useful to media companies because they can get more detail about what to and what not to include in a film. The disadvantage is, it's more time consuming and doesn't ask as many people as something like a questionnaire would.
Focus groups - Would be used to ask a group of people about things such as opinions and suggestions about the film idea. It would be a group of people within the producers target age range so the people conducting the focus group find out what they like and what is most popular among that age group. Also because it's a group, opinions can be discussed. If someone's opinion was that 16-25 year olds favourite film type is horror, others might disagree and say that it's comedy, the more people agreeing on one opinion show it's a stronger opinion and the research might decide on the more popular option.
Secondary Research:
Internet - The internet could be used to see what kind of films are currently in the cinema that are popular with their audience because they'll need their film to differ from those films so people will be more inclined to watch it because it's different to what's in the cinema at the time. They can also look at box office sales to see what kind of films sell the most tickets to their target audience to help them decide on genre. It can also be used to see what films are coming out in the future when they plan to release their film, if there's loads of films that are similar coming out around that time, they might want to change when they release it.
Quantitative Research:
Questionnaires would be the main source of quantitative research because it's how many people choose one option. For example if the question was "What is your favourite film genre?" 30 people might choose horror while 40 people might choose comedy, this tells us that comedy is more popular because more people chose it but it doesn't go into detail and tell us exactly what sort of people chose it or why they prefer that genre. Also things such as ticket sales and release dates from secondary research would be quantitative research.
Qualitative Research:
Interviews and focus groups would be more qualititative because the people being interviewed can share their opinions and go into detail. So if asked what their favourite film genre is they might say horror along with a reason why they like horror films. Also you can find out about the kind of people you're interviewing which might tell you that a specific type of people like specific films.
Audience Research:
If the film was aimed at 16-25 year olds, they would do research on the features that appeal the most to this target audience as well as finding out things such as preffered genre's. You might also find out things such as which actors are most popular among that age group as well as location's that 16-25 year olds like to see used in films. For example in a lot of films aimed at teenagers, we see it set in places like high schools, clubs, house parties, football stadiums and other places that are commonly associated with teenagers. Media companies rely heavily on this because they find out what to include in their film to make it appeal more to the target audience so they can get as many sales as possible for it.
Market Research:
If the product was a film aimed at 16-25 year olds, market research would be research into that sort of market, basically researching the competition. You would research what films are currently in the cinema and what films are going to be released that are aimed at 16-25 year olds. You would find out which genre is the most popular around that time and also look at sales figures to see which films have sold the most, if the top 3 sellers are comedy films, a media company might produce a comedy film because they know it will be a success. They could also look at films of a similar genre but that are aimed at an older or younger audience so they know what not to include in their film. Media companies rely on this because it allows them to know how many films similar to their's are going to be in the cinema at the same time but also which type of film, which actors etc are selling the most tickets to their target audience.
Production Research:
Finding out how much it would cost to produce the film. Finding out things such as the costs of equipment needed, cast hire, location hire and if they can film there, staff, props, costumes and many other things. It is mainly costs that production research would help you find out but it can help you find out other things production related. One example is which skills would be required (e.g. editing) and finding out if you have personnel with those skills. Another example is researching when and where you will film and planning it out so that the filming runs smoothly. Media companies rely heavily on production research because without it, production could go very wrong, they might not have as much money as they need, they might not have certain people to do certain things and things such as filming schedules as well are very important when producing a film.
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Research
Qualitative Research - Qualitative research is one of the two main types of research (the other being quantitative) it goes into more detail than quantitative research. It's basically finding out how well things such as your TV programmes are doing but in the form of words instead of numbers which is the case with quantitative. It is mainly opinions and comparisons which helps media companies know what people like about it as well as what they could improve and also what programmes people think it's similar to. Qualititative research comes mainly from reviews and other things for people to express their opinions on such as forums. Qualitative research can also come from books and magazines and other things like that. Qualitative research is probably the biggest type of research in terms of decision making for media companies.
Quantitative Research - Quantitative research is the second main type of research. Quantitative research is research is more number and statistic based than qualitative research and can be done a lot by surveys and polls and similar things. Another way to get quantitative research is to use secondary research and visit websites such as BARB or cinema websites to find things out such as ratings and sales on film tickets. Things such as sales on products like DVD's and CD's are examples of quantitative research and it gives simple statistics and number rather than detailed information. Media companies use this type of research to find out how successful their films/tv programmes are doing by looking at the ratings/box office sales/dvd sales and see if they're in need of improvement or cancellation. Basically an example of quantitative research would be knowing how many people watch your program, but not knowing what kind of people watch your program.
Primary Research - Primary research is a method of research which is done to obtain to new information that hasn't already been done and can't be found elsewhere, research done by yourself. The main techniques to obtain primary research is things such as questionnaires where you ask people to fill out questions which help you find out the information. There are other methods too such as surveys, interviews, vox pops and focus groups which all help you find information about certain things. The main purposes of primary research is to help media companies find out more about their products. For example for a TV program, they could conduct a survey to find out something like what audience the program appeals to most e.g. women, men, children etc. They could use this information in future episodes of the TV show and make it so it appeals to a larger audience so they get more viewings on the show. They could also find out something like who the viewers favourite character is and include more of the character with the most votes to help them get more viewers. It's also more reliable than secondary research because it's done by yourself so you know it's not made up and the techniques of doing primary research ask the audience which makes it more accurate. The disadvantages of primary research are that it requires more time, you would have to take the time to ask questions/hand out questionnaires and you would have to find the right people to ask for what you want to find out as well. It is also quite expensive because questionnaires cost money to print, video equipment, hiring people to do research for you and more.
Secondary Research - Secondary research is research done by looking at what other people have done in the past. Finding out information from things such as books, magazines, websites, videos and more are all examples of secondary research. Primary research techniques such as surveys and interviews can also be used as secondary research if done by another person and the results are used in your own work. It can be used to find out more than you could with primary research because primary research can only be done by yourself and it's difficult to find a lot of things out whereas with secondary research you can read articles from all over the world to find out information and other people may find out information that you can't. If you were a media company you could also find out information about similar programmes to one or a few of the ones you broadcast to see how successful they are. The biggest flaw with secondary research is that it could easily be unreliable or false and because you've not done it yourself you won't know. Another advantage with secondary research is that it tends not to cost as much to do because you can just simply go on the internet or read a book whereas with primary research, if you're a media company, you'd have to pay someone within your company and questionnaires would cost you money to make as well as maybe video recording equipment for interviews and vox pops.
Audience Research - Audience research is basically doing research on the target audience for a certain TV program or film, e.g the target audience for something like Balamory would be young children so audience research would be doing research into young children, finding out what they like to see in a program and possibly looking at other programs with the same target audience to see what's included in them and what's not. It is also about finding out how many people within your target audience watch TV and how many people there are in the country of that age group as well as how interested they are in watching television, for example, if a program is aimed at adults, it would be stupid to put it on at 1PM on a weekday because most adults will be working so they would put it on later at night when most adults would be at home. This will help a lot of media companies because they know how to get more viewers within their target audience because they know what appeals to them and it helps them to know when to air a program so it will get the most viewers possible. The research could be done by doing surveys asking people if they watch the program and what age they are to find out the most popular age group that watch it and they can find out what appeals to their audience by watching other TV programs/films to see what they've included. It could also be done to expand the audience for a particular program/film.
Market Research - Market research is basically doing research into their target market such as if they release a product which is a games device, they would do some research into the games/games device market to find out what a product requires to be successful within that market. They also try to find out who the other competitors in that market are, for example Xbox's main competitors within the games market would be the PS3 because they are both from the same generation and similar in many ways. It is helpful to companies because they find out what other successful products have that make them successful as well as what is required to be successful in that market and will ultimately lead to their products being successful in their target market. Market research could be done simply by looking at other products within that market and looking at specific features which most of the products have in common. It could also be done by handing out surveys and asking something like what features should be included on a games device and seeing what the most popular answers are and seeing if it would fit in that market. It could also be done to research similar markets and potentially enter their product into more than one market.
Production Research - Production research would be done after audience and market research providing both went successfully. A media company may choose to release a media product within the target market that they've researched, aimed at the target audience they have researched. Production research would be researching things to help them make the product such as what technology, personnel, material etc they would need and then see what they have. It is also finding out what skills would be needed to make the product such as being able to use a certain computer program in order to create their product and what personnel they have with those skills, they would also find out if they need to hire someone else to use it if no one they have can. Production research can also be finding out suitable recording/production locations for their product. It can also be planning out time to work on the product and what will be done at what times and things like that to keep it organised. Overall it is basically just doing a lot of research into what they need to make a product and compare it to what they have and just other things they would need to research in order to make production run a lot more smoothly than it might do if the research hadn't been done.
Quantitative Research - Quantitative research is the second main type of research. Quantitative research is research is more number and statistic based than qualitative research and can be done a lot by surveys and polls and similar things. Another way to get quantitative research is to use secondary research and visit websites such as BARB or cinema websites to find things out such as ratings and sales on film tickets. Things such as sales on products like DVD's and CD's are examples of quantitative research and it gives simple statistics and number rather than detailed information. Media companies use this type of research to find out how successful their films/tv programmes are doing by looking at the ratings/box office sales/dvd sales and see if they're in need of improvement or cancellation. Basically an example of quantitative research would be knowing how many people watch your program, but not knowing what kind of people watch your program.
Primary Research - Primary research is a method of research which is done to obtain to new information that hasn't already been done and can't be found elsewhere, research done by yourself. The main techniques to obtain primary research is things such as questionnaires where you ask people to fill out questions which help you find out the information. There are other methods too such as surveys, interviews, vox pops and focus groups which all help you find information about certain things. The main purposes of primary research is to help media companies find out more about their products. For example for a TV program, they could conduct a survey to find out something like what audience the program appeals to most e.g. women, men, children etc. They could use this information in future episodes of the TV show and make it so it appeals to a larger audience so they get more viewings on the show. They could also find out something like who the viewers favourite character is and include more of the character with the most votes to help them get more viewers. It's also more reliable than secondary research because it's done by yourself so you know it's not made up and the techniques of doing primary research ask the audience which makes it more accurate. The disadvantages of primary research are that it requires more time, you would have to take the time to ask questions/hand out questionnaires and you would have to find the right people to ask for what you want to find out as well. It is also quite expensive because questionnaires cost money to print, video equipment, hiring people to do research for you and more.
Secondary Research - Secondary research is research done by looking at what other people have done in the past. Finding out information from things such as books, magazines, websites, videos and more are all examples of secondary research. Primary research techniques such as surveys and interviews can also be used as secondary research if done by another person and the results are used in your own work. It can be used to find out more than you could with primary research because primary research can only be done by yourself and it's difficult to find a lot of things out whereas with secondary research you can read articles from all over the world to find out information and other people may find out information that you can't. If you were a media company you could also find out information about similar programmes to one or a few of the ones you broadcast to see how successful they are. The biggest flaw with secondary research is that it could easily be unreliable or false and because you've not done it yourself you won't know. Another advantage with secondary research is that it tends not to cost as much to do because you can just simply go on the internet or read a book whereas with primary research, if you're a media company, you'd have to pay someone within your company and questionnaires would cost you money to make as well as maybe video recording equipment for interviews and vox pops.
Audience Research - Audience research is basically doing research on the target audience for a certain TV program or film, e.g the target audience for something like Balamory would be young children so audience research would be doing research into young children, finding out what they like to see in a program and possibly looking at other programs with the same target audience to see what's included in them and what's not. It is also about finding out how many people within your target audience watch TV and how many people there are in the country of that age group as well as how interested they are in watching television, for example, if a program is aimed at adults, it would be stupid to put it on at 1PM on a weekday because most adults will be working so they would put it on later at night when most adults would be at home. This will help a lot of media companies because they know how to get more viewers within their target audience because they know what appeals to them and it helps them to know when to air a program so it will get the most viewers possible. The research could be done by doing surveys asking people if they watch the program and what age they are to find out the most popular age group that watch it and they can find out what appeals to their audience by watching other TV programs/films to see what they've included. It could also be done to expand the audience for a particular program/film.
Market Research - Market research is basically doing research into their target market such as if they release a product which is a games device, they would do some research into the games/games device market to find out what a product requires to be successful within that market. They also try to find out who the other competitors in that market are, for example Xbox's main competitors within the games market would be the PS3 because they are both from the same generation and similar in many ways. It is helpful to companies because they find out what other successful products have that make them successful as well as what is required to be successful in that market and will ultimately lead to their products being successful in their target market. Market research could be done simply by looking at other products within that market and looking at specific features which most of the products have in common. It could also be done by handing out surveys and asking something like what features should be included on a games device and seeing what the most popular answers are and seeing if it would fit in that market. It could also be done to research similar markets and potentially enter their product into more than one market.
Production Research - Production research would be done after audience and market research providing both went successfully. A media company may choose to release a media product within the target market that they've researched, aimed at the target audience they have researched. Production research would be researching things to help them make the product such as what technology, personnel, material etc they would need and then see what they have. It is also finding out what skills would be needed to make the product such as being able to use a certain computer program in order to create their product and what personnel they have with those skills, they would also find out if they need to hire someone else to use it if no one they have can. Production research can also be finding out suitable recording/production locations for their product. It can also be planning out time to work on the product and what will be done at what times and things like that to keep it organised. Overall it is basically just doing a lot of research into what they need to make a product and compare it to what they have and just other things they would need to research in order to make production run a lot more smoothly than it might do if the research hadn't been done.
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