Task 1 - Audience Research.
- Mylo Sayles
- Sep 5, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 10, 2023
UNIT 9/10
For this task/unit we were put in groups and given the task of researching our target audience in order to eventually go on to create promotional material for the North Lindsey College drama department's production of 'Our Day Out' by Willy Russell.
What is audience research?
Audience research is used for establishing things such as the size, composition and characteristics of a group of people who could be potential customers. The idea is to get as much information as possible from people to be able to promote a product effectively with the right material.
In order to understand the preferences, behaviours, attitudes, and demographics of a given group of people, audience research must take place and be a priority. Audience research is a crucial process for many industries including marketing, advertising, media, entertainment, and academia, in order to better create messages, products, services and more to the requirements and preferences of the target audience.
Audience research must be done every time something is being created for an audience to see - even if for example you did similar audience research for the same topic some time ago. It is important to know that audience preferences change over time as people and society changes over time.
What is it important to do when engaging with an audience?
When engaging with an audience it is important to keep them interested and give them a reason to look or listen. An example could be if you are creating a poster you must make it eye catching and interesting based on the target audience research. It is important to do the research first before engaging with the audience for the best outcome and to capture the most attention.
It is extremely important as well, linking back to my previous point on the above question, to know your audience before engaging with them.
What are the benefits of effective audience research?
Effective audience research can make or break if people will end up buying or watching something. For example, if somebody wanted to promote or create a product, however did no research on their target audience, the money or the attention or whatever they are looking for from an audience will most likely be very limited and the product will not do as well as it could have with the right audience research.
You must know who you are creating media for before you create it, otherwise you are just stepping straight into darkness as you do not know what you will need to create in order to grab the attention of the right people.
What is its purpose and where is used?
Audience research is used a lot more than many people realise. It is a guarantee that when you go into a shop, almost every product and brand on the shelves has done their target audience research in order to promote and market their product in the best way possible to catch the right attention from the right people. It is essential groundwork to be able to start creating anything for an audience to see - as mentioned above.
Types Of Research We Used.
The different primary research techniques we went on to use were: A Questionnaire, Vox Pops and Focus Groups (in the style of a podcast). If you want to find out more about what we gathered from completing this research you can click below!
Questionnaire.
A questionnaire is a set of written questions with a choice of answers. Questionnaires are used to gather information based on other people's answers and opinions.
Some examples of questionnaires you may have answered in the past are things such as customer satisfaction questionnaires, customer service feedback questionnaires, online social networking surveys and more. Questionnaires can often include an array of different types of questions in them such as polls/multiple choice questions or questions where you are able to write in your own answer. It is often best when creating a questionnaire to include both of these to get the best and most detailed possible outcome - even on the multiple choice questions it is a good idea to include an 'other' option and then give the person answering an opportunity to answer in their own way otherwise you can risk leaving people and options out and in turn getting less results from the survey or questionnaire.
Vox Pops.
Vox pops - meaning 'voice of the people' - is a short audio or video interview made up of clips from members of the public. They investigate the public's opinion towards particular topics.
Vox Pops are a common way of surveying or gathering opinions and thoughts from the public, in fact you may often see them on the news or on TV as they can sometimes be very useful depending on if there are people around that would be willing to answer some questions or have a chat.
Sometimes though, vox pops can be very 'hit and miss' due to the fact that a lot of people would not want to give up their time to talk and there are many people who dislike being filmed or recorded.
Underneath is a useful video that explains vox pops and helped me to understand them better.
Below are also some example videos that also helped us.
Focus Groups.
A focus group is a gathering of deliberately selected people who participate in a planned discussion that is intended to elicit consumer perceptions about a particular topic or area of interest in an environment that is non-threatening and receptive. Focus groups are a common form of communication when discussing or planning a topic or idea.
Below is a great video that helped me with my research on focus groups and how to best make our focus group effective when we do it.
Common examples of a focus group could be a podcast or meetings- just where a group of select people come together to chat about a topic in hopes for the best result and the most information.
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