The Nature and Purpose of Research in the Creative Media Industry

There are 4 different types of research that are used within the media industry. Primary, secondary, qualitative, and quantitative. Primary research supplies first hand information for the researcher. An example of this would be a questionnaire. When I was carrying our target audience research for an advert I produced last year, I used questionnaires to gather information about the audiences hobbies, lifestyles, and product usage among other things. Because I drew the questionnaires up myself, and acquired the answers from people of my choosing, this is primary research. Secondary research is research that has been carried out by someone else, but can be used to suit the researchers needs. An example of secondary research is when I was researching for my cider advert, I went online to find out what other cider products are on the shelves. This research had already been carried out by someone, and had been put on the Internet as a list. This made it easier for me to find out a large amount of other cider products in one go, but, because it's secondary research is not as reliable as it would have been if I had gone to the supermarket to look for cider products myself. Qualitative research iincludes face to face interviews and focus groups along with other techniques, and is used to collect in depth information about target audiences. Qualitative research provides reasoning for audiences thoughts and feelings. This is helpful when marketing a new product as it gives the producers a good idea of how the audience feels and thinks, and is a good quality for a research method to have in the media industry as companies don’t have the time or money to guess what their customers are going to respond to. It’s better to be able to rely on good, first hand, research, iinstead of acquiring second hand data from research done by someone else or asking simple yes or no questions, using qualitative research gives subjects the chance to talk about what they like/want and why. This saves a lot of time and money by taking out the guess work. Quantitative research is based more around numbers. You can carry out quantitative research with questionnaires, and focus groups too, but you would take away another type of information. For example, when I was carrying out the audience research questionnaires for my cider advert, I took away from it that 40% of the people I asked like drinking fruit cider as well as traditional apple cider. Another example of qualitative research is often shown during television adverts. The text at the bottom of the screen will state that 'X amount of Y amount agreed' or something along these lines.

marketingdonut.co.uk What is QualitativeResearch? (Online) Available at: http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/market-research/questionnaires-surveys-and-focus-groups/what-is-qualitative-research- (Accessed 5th December 2014)

Audience Research Explain, and Example (audience data, audience profiling, demographics, geodemographics, consumer behaviour, consumer attitudes, audience awareness); 

Like I have touched on before, audience research is often used so that there is no guess work involved when designing a product. Misjudged information costs time, and money when it comes to designing products. Audience data is anything that a researcher finds out about an audience. Audience data can consist of questionnaire findings, survey findings TV ratings etc.
TV ratings are important within the media industry for collecting audience data, and consumer behaviour, they help to determine which television programmes or channels are the most popular amongst audiences. This, in turn, can encourage advertisers to pay for slots on the channel. The more popular the channel, the more money advertisers are willing to spend. For example, ITV is likely to charge an extremely large amount for an ad spot during the final of Britain's Got Talent. According to www.theguardian.com, the shows finale brought in nearly 12 million viewers this year. This is an increase from last year, and means that next year, the channel is likely to bump up their advertising prices because advertisers know that their products will be seen by at least half of the viewers. The more people that see the adverts, the more money the product makes, the more money the advertisers can spend on air time. A lot of channels rely on advertising for funds. Channels like ITV and Channel 4 are ‘commercial broadcasters’ The success of a lot of television channels rely on ratings to stay afloat. There are two companies in the UK that deal specifically with ratings, one for television and the other for radio. These companies are BARB (Broadcast Audience Research Board) and RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd) BARB works to provide viewing figures for broadcasters and advertising companies and is owned by a host of channels including BBC and Channel 5, using a panel of 5100 example homes, helping to determine who is watching, what, when, on which screen and how the content reached the screen e.g. wifi or satellite. This representation includes adverts as well as programmes and is monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The company then hands over the data to its clients, who are then able to determine which of their programmes and advertising campaigns have been popular. BARB also offers a questionnaire that can be filled out to give the company an even better example of who's watching what.

RAJAR does much the same but deals with radio ratings instead of television. The company was set up in the 90’s to take audience measurements for its joint owner, the BBC and also some other commercial stations. It is important to know about consumer attitudes, and behaviours when marketing a product, The thoughts, and feelings of a target audience are valuable to any company. There are a lot of different methods that can be used to find out about the target audiences behaviours and attitudes, including questionnaires, surveys, and panels. All of these methods require the consumer to divulge some of their personal habits, and preferences, or day-to-day routines. The information that is required from from the subjects varies depending on the aim of the product. An example of using research to disclose more information about consumer behaviours and attitudes is to distribute questionnaires out to the target audience with carefully selected questions that will help get a better insight into the audiences lives. An example of this is the questionnaire I drew up when researching my target audience for my cider advert. I wanted to find out what the target audiences attitude towards fruit cider, and cider adverts was. I also wanted to know what other brands they are likely to use, and what they liked to do in their free time. Asking what they would expect to see in a cider advert, and whether they drink fruit cider or not gave me an understanding of the kind of attitudes my target audience had towards cider, and the cider industry. Asking the subjects what hobbies they have, and what they are likely to buy during a weekly shop helped me to build an idea of the kind of behaviours my target audience undertake on a daily basis. All of this information was important for me to create an advert that I knew the target audience would respond to.
Audience profiling puts together the characteristics of a typical audience member for any specific brand, product, company etc. Because all audience members are going to have a slightly different view advertisers use Demographics such as age, gender, and lifestyle to create an average audience member to target their product at. It would be impossible to target every single audience member specifically, so having a 'one size fits all' profile to aim towards saves a lot of time. This profile will be made up of findings from audience research the company, or advertiser has carried out using averages, or majorities. For example, if 80% of a panel that carries out a survey says that they would respond more to humour in an advert, it would be wise for the advertiser to include humour as it means that they will be able to engage with that 80% of the audience, instead of reaching only 20% or less. Psycho graphics is another form of audience profiling. Companies, and advertisers use social grades, and Young and Rubicam's 4Cs to help put their audience into categories. When defining an audience, social grade is one of the most important things to take into account. There are 6 social grades, A, B, C1, C2, D, and E. Each of these grades represent a class of society. Grade A consists of the upper middle class. These people are professionals in the field they are in, and often work managerial or higher jobs. Grade B is made up of the middle class. These people work in administration, professional, and managerial. The middle class are unlikely to work in a job higher that managerial. Grade C1 are the lower middle class. They work in lower managerial, or supervisory jobs, but can also be administrative or professional. Grade C2 is skilled working class. These people are mostly skilled, or highly skilled trade workers who do manual work for a living. Grade D contains the lower working class. These people are often unskilled or semi-skilled tradespeople. Finally, Grade E casual workers, or lowest grade. These people will either work casually on and off or will be in unemployment. Pensioners and people on benefits are included in this grade.

According to Young and Rubicam, there are 7 types of consumers in the world. Explorers, aspirers, succeeders, reformers, strugglers, the mainstream, and the resigned. These 7 categories hold 7 different sets of belief.  
Explorers have a need for discovery and revelation, they enjoy  challenge, and are often young at heart even if they don’t appear young on the outside. Explorers are often the first to try new things, they enjoy new sensations, experiences, and ideas. They are willing to try something different.
Succeeders are self-assured and extremely focused on their short, and long term goals. Often formulated, organised, and in control, succeeders are regularly put into positions of responsibility. They seek reward and stature, and will only settle for the best, which is what they feel they deserve. They live a full throttle lifestyle so like to relax now and then.
Aspirers are more driven by what others do, think, and say and often don’t follow any values of their own. They can be seen as materialistic, and care a lot about how they come across through image, persona, fashion etc. Aspirers are attracted to attractiveness.

Mainstream people can be very stuck in their ways, opting for a more domestic, routined, samey samey lifestyle. They are the largest group of the 7 categories. They are comfortable with security and often puts ‘we’ in front of ‘me’

Reformers don’t like being told what to do or think. They trust their own judgement and live independent lifestyles. Reformers are often seen as intellectual and are the least materialistic of all the categories. They like authenticity, and are known to be edgy, but won’t buy or try something just because it’s new or popular. They are looking for enlightenment in what they do.
The resigned consist mostly of elderly people whose values are unchanged, and have built up over many years. The resigned revel in nostalgia and traditions. They seek safety, and familiarity.

Strugglers are often viewed by everyone else as victims, with no aims or goals, wasting their life and failing to make any luck for themselves. They are often unwilling to go out of their way to achieve something and spend a lot of their time and money on alcohol, junk food, cigarettes and other unhealthy habits. Stugglers find it hard to stay organised or motivated and seek escape from their everyday lives. If an advertising company knows that they are targeting Females, aged 50+ who fit into the social grade B, and are reformers, the company can easily make sure that the include things in their advert that this type of person will respond to. For example. I am aiming my advert at Males between 30, and 50, who are primarily reformers, and succeeders, located in Somerset. and the surrounding areas. I know that in order to reach my target audience I need to take a traditional, authentic approach, mention that the apples are from the area, and tell the audience of how rewarding the taste of authentically pressed, real Somerset cider is. This will cover my target audience, as it mentions traditional values that reformers will respond to, but also mentions that the cider has a refreshing, and rewarding taste, this will interest succeeders, and noting that the apples are grown, and pressed in Somerset will ensure that I will be addressing the right location for my target audience.

digitalspy.co.uk TV Ratings FAQ (Online) Available at: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/information/a9722/tv-ratings-faq.html#~oTkQihVJ6WEpbU (Accessed 5th December 2014)

thegardian.com Britains Talent Final Watched By 12 Million, Biggest Show of 2015 to Date (Online) Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/01/britains-got-talent-final-watched-by-12-million (Accessed 2nd June 2015)

barb.co.uk Frequently Asked Questions (Online) Available at: http://www.barb.co.uk/resources/barb-facts/faq (Accessed 8th December 2014)

barb.co.uk How We Do What We Do (Online) Available at: http://www.barb.co.uk/resources/barb-facts/how-we-do-what-we-do (Accessed 8th December 2014)

rajar.co.uk The Organisation (Online) Available at: http://www.rajar.co.uk/content.php?page=about_organisation (Accessed 8th December 2014)  

Market Research Explain, and Example (product market, advertising placement, advertising effects); Market research helps advertisers, and companies to stay aware of the competition. There are a lot of brands that offer the same thing, and trying to be the brand with the edge can be hard work. An example of this kind of competition is between Apple, and Samsung. These are 2 very big companies that target a very large audience. These companies are in competition with each other for the most sales. A more personal example is the competition between my client for the cider advert, and other cider brands such as Thatchers, and Bulmers. I had to research these brands to find out how they market their products, how much they charge, on average, per bottle, and what their unique selling point was, amongst other things. Advertisers, and companies will carry out these competitor analyses to pick out the strengths, and weaknesses of their competitors which, in turn, can expose opportunities, and threats. When I was researching the competitors for my brand, I found that Thatchers was my biggest competitor. They seemed to be targeting the same audience as my client, and had the same unique selling point. This was flagged as a threat to my client. While audience research is mostly primary, market research is usually secondary. Visiting a competitors website will sometimes allow you to see who that company trades with, how they distribute their product, and some companies will publish their figures for the quarter on their website. Supermarkets will have their figures declared on the news. This means that it is easy to keep up with how rival companies are doing. When i visited the Thatchers Cider website I found that they have a page that reveals their trade distribution. On this page the public are able to see the whole range of cider that the company has to offer, contact details for their sales teams, a phone number for technical services, and a number for delivery enquiries. Although this doesn't reveal too much important information about the sales of the company, having contacts available is useful. When I was carrying out my market research, I watched different adverts from a few different companies. This meant I was able to see what the other companies approaches were when advertising their product. I was then able to home in on the companies that were targeting the same audience as me to see how they advertise their product to that specific audience. This was useful to me because it meant I was able to use these adverts as inspiration for my own ideas, and advert. It also meant I was able to find out where there were opportunities to come up with something new, that nobody else was doing.
Part of researching a company is finding out what it is that they are charging for their products/services. In my case, it was easy for me to do this by visiting supermarket websites. Once a company knows what their rivals are charging, they can use it to their advantage. If the company charges less for their product, they can boast the difference in price between them, and their rivals, or, if the rival companies are charging less, it's an opportunity to mention the quality of the brand that they are selling. An example of this is in my cider advert, the supermarkets charge around the same amount per bottle, but have a much better offer when it comes to multi buying. Because of this, I would have to bring attention to the quality of the product, rather than the price. Overall market research is used to make stay ahead of the competition by staying in the know about what it is that they are charging, how they are advertising, and who they are trading with.
thatcherscider.co.uk Thatchers Cider Trade Distribution (Online) Available at http://www.thatcherscider.co.uk/trade.ashx (Accessed 9th June 2015)

Production Research Explain, and Example (content, viability, placement media, finance, costs, technological resources, personnel, locations)
There are a lot of things that advertising companies need to know when it comes to production, from budget, to locations. Being organised, and well informed means that the production will run a lot smoother. Production research will be mostly primary. Actions such as location recces, finance, and viability research are all primary. Location recces need to be carried out before starting any production. Finding the perfect place to film for a production is very important, and the more that is known about a location before filming, the better. Location recces can be used for ensuring the location is safe to film in, mapping out the logistics of where cameras, and actors will be placed during filming, and evaluating what time of day would be best for filming. When I was carrying out the location recce for my clients advert, I took multiple pictures of the different places we were hoping to film. This meant that the whole team could look through the pictures, and I could be reminded of the space that I had already seen. This made it easier for me, and the rest of the group, to plan where we were going to place the cameras, and where the best light was for filming.
Location recces are also a large part of establishing the viability of the production. Production companies need to know that the project is doable before they start production. Viability covers finance, location, technical resources, and personnel, and anything else that is integral to the production. Although I didn't have to worry about finance for my project, professional production companies must research how, and where they are going to get the money to pay for the production. The company must forecast their earnings from the production in order to set a budget, and then acquire the money to actually make the production. Again, because this was a college project, I didn't have to worry about locating personnel for this project as I was put into a group with other classmates, and job roles were given to people within the group, but a professional company would have to research potential cast , and crew. This research might be carried out by talking to contacts in the industry that have worked with certain people before. This would be classed as secondary research as it is information being passed on from someone else's experience with that person. This person, to person information is called word of mouth, and is often the best, and easiest way to ensure good quality cast, and crew for a production. Other ways of finding cast and crew is to distribute and advert stating what the production company is looking for, and asking people to get into contact with them. This kind of advert will be posted in media magazines, or on the production companies website etc. This would be classed as primary research, as the production company is setting out to find out the information themselves.
The safety of everybody involved in a production is critical, to avoid any incidents, there is always a risk assessment carried out before filming starts. Risk assessments cover anything that could happen to any of the cast, and crew, as well as all of the equipment. For my production I carried out a risk assessment that covered generic elements such as slips, trips, and falls, as well as more specific issues including falling apples, filming near a road, and industrial machinery. Making sure that everyone is aware of the health and safety issues, and precautions will help make sure that nobody is hurt. Risk assessments are primary research because every production is different, and every day within every production is also different. A risk assessment carried out by someone else from a different day, or production would not be accurate.