Product Reach
Media companies often expect mas media products have a large audience reach. This means that the product is more likely to be successful and will make profit through sale numbers. However, the main reason that these companies conduct research to find out how many people consume within a given reach.
Organizations sch as BARB and RAJAR carry this out for companies in the TV and radio industry. Whereas the NRS collects CIRCULATION and READERSHIP data for publishing and print companies.
CIRCULATION: The number of people who purchase a print product.
READERSHIP: The number of people who read a print product as part of second-hand consumption.
Audience Research
This allows media companies to identify a gap in the market and create a product from this information. Audience feedback is also used to develop an understanding of needs of mainstream and niche audiences.
Social media is often used to gain this feedback as it is cost effective and usually has a high response rate as it is easy to complete.
Competitors
Research is conducted by media producers to find out what audiences think about the products and brands owned by competitors. BBC and ITV are constantly using online technologies to conduct focus groups about what viewers think about major storylines they have produced.
Primary: Primary research is methods that are conducted by yourself. For example, making and releasing a questionnaire. The methods used depends on what the media producers want to find out. Examples are:
-Questionnaires, series of opened and closed questions on paper.
Advantage= Easier to use for older generations and for anyone without online technology.
Disadvantage= Could be lost and cost money to print a lot of questionnaires.
-Focus group, A group of people assembled take part in discussion about a product before its launch
Advantage= Open discussion where you can build ideas.
Disadvantage= People's opinions may affect others and could be nerve wracking for some.
- Interviews, Used in journalism and media reporting. They are a vital part of market research.
Advantage= Ask exactly what you need to know. A more direct opinion.
Disadvantage= Can be time consuming and needs to be scheduled.
-Online survey, Questionnaires via internet.
Advantage= Quick and easy to share and can be done at home for no extra cost.
Disadvantage= Logging in and sending can be difficult for older demographic. Can be unreliable.
Secondary: Secondary research is methods using information that has already been released. For example, using the internet to find out information. Use theorists' ideas can help us make informed ideas.
-Internet Research: search engines are used to gather data, personal opinions, news articles, and academic research on a particular topic.
Advantage= Easy to access/find, everyone can access it for free.
Disadvantage= High chance of finding false information. Anyone can write on the internet.
-Books and Journals: Textbooks and digital editions of these provide a way of gaining information.
Advantage= Validated and reliable (multiple checks are done on the information).
Disadvantage= Books can be expensive and time consuming. They can be biased.
-Magazines and Newspapers: Articles have been written by professional journalists who have used primary research methods to create data for a topic.
Advantage= Easily accessible and have been around for a long time.
Disadvantage= Biased by the writer.
-Television: Documentaries, news and factual advice programmes can provide large amounts of information needed for research.
Advantage= Not difficult to gain information. Live information.
Disadvantage= Not everyone can access TV. Information isn't always reliable (dramatizations)
SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS: What are advantages?
WEAKNESSES: What are the weaknesses?
OPPORTUNITIES: How can they be improved?
THREATS: What could happen because of this?
Secondary: Magazines
S: Easy to find fashion magazines with the same age demographic and get an idea of the ideal layout.
W: Some magazines don't effectively target that audience.
O: Check sales of magazines that specifically target that audience.
T: Accused of copying/idea stealing.
Primary: Survey
S: Wide range of opinions for a short survey. Don't cost anything.
W: Might not get them back.
O: Opened ended questions.
T: Competing with other surveys to get people to partake in them.
PEST ANALYSIS
POLITICAL -Environ, legislation home/abroad, regulatory bodies, Trading policies, War & conflict.
ECONOMIC - Home/abroad economy, eco trends, interest/exchange rates,
SOCIAL- Lifestyle trend, demographic, events & influencers, fashion & role models, brand image, media views, Consumer attitudes.
TECHNOLOGICAL - Technology development, research funding, intellectual property issues, innovation potential,
Why do we need audience research? Marketing possibilities, Trends for product development.
Marketing Possibilities:
In the industry the most successful products will often have spin offs and sequels. However, this is based on audience feedback.
An example of a product that has a series of spinoffs and sequels is: Resident Evil
Assassins' creed involves the video games fans in the production process using the community tab to see what the audience think about features of the game and allows the developers to see the publics opinion. It also created a community that are involved in the game and wants to see more from the franchise, creating a climate for sequels and spinoffs.
Trends for product development:
It is important for media companies to interpret data that is presented to them about the ways the audiences consume products in order to make decisions about a product.
Technological convergence: The coming together of information and communication technologies in order to create new ways of producing and distributing products and services for media audiences.
The Daily Mail has the highest number of UK readers using mobile phones as most of their readership is based on mobile compared to print. This is because the daily mail has a younger audience that grew up with technological convergence and TDM does gossip news stories.
The Metro has the lowest number of UK readers as most of their readership is based in print. This suggests that the metro has an older target audience due to older ages not growing up with technological convergence and not being digital natives.
Quantitative and Qualitive
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 a product.
EXAMPLE (BARB): The Prime Minster’s announcement of a new national lockdown on January 4th is watched by 14.3 million people on BBC1, followed by 11.1 million tuning in for the subsequent BBC News Special. This is an example of qualitative data as it is in written form.
Quantitative Data: Data that can be measured numerically. Things that can be measured precisely, such as number of people who listen to a radio station or purchased a product online.
EXAMPLE (BARB): This is quantitative data as it displays all its information in numerical values that are measured exactly and can be compared.
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