Why do companies need to spend so much money on research?
- So it is done well
- They need to pay the right people to do the job
- Media products are expensive to produce
- They need to make sure it will attract the right audience
- They need to make sure an audience will react in the right way
- To ensure the product can be completed in the required time and within budget
Primary Research- Primary research is research you go about doing yourself. It can involve physically collecting data through interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, postal surveys, phone surveys, customer interviews, technology views or observations.
Pros
- Reliable as the research has been done yourself
- The methods allow for a lot information to be collected in a short amount of time
- New first hand information
Cons
- Might only get a small demographic of people
- People who don't want to take part, Limited response
- Expensive, requires money, time and human resources
Secondary Research- Collecting information based upon research that other people have done. This can involve reading statistics online, looking at history or finding information in books/online. This information is publicly/readily available
Internal Secondary Sources:
- Financial Statements
- Company reports
- Files
- Letters
- Customers
- Phone Calls with information already discovered
External Secondary Sources:
- Trade associations
- Reference materials
- Internet
- Government publications
- Newspapers
Pros
- Secondary research is usually cheap to obtain
- Quick to obtain (through the internet)
- Takes little effort or preparation to get
Cons
- Outdated or irrelevant
- Information cannot be verified by you so it might not be reliable
- Information might not be exactly what you are looking for
Quantitive Research- When numerical data is applied to a piece of research. It would use statistics and percentages to examine relationships or trends about certain topics or brands. Some examples of Quantitive research can be:
- Box office figures
- Programme Ratings
- Scores given on websites
- Readership figures
- Number of hits/Website traffic
- Sales
For Example:
Box Office Figures for the Spiderman Films http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=spiderman.htm
Casey Neistat's Subscriber Count on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/caseyneistat/featured
Maze Runner Scorch Trials IMDb rating http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4046784/
Statistics for my blog
Number of reviews for a camera on amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BYOY9AS/ref=s9_ri_gw_g421_i2_r?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=A53FAT65PKMDCGGM70YG&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=eb75bbc8-ec67-4cc7-b8ee-ed953890db75&pf_rd_i=desktop&th=1
Pros of Quantitive
- Good for people who made/own the product as they can use their numbers for personal use
- Can help when showing the popularity of something
- Gives a visually accurate representation
Cons
- Just a number- Won't tell you the whole story. Just because a film has high viewing figures or a big box office doesn't mean it was good it just means a lot of people went to see it
- Numbers change e.g. when numbers are adjusted to compensate for something else or when they rounded
Qualitative Research- Qualitative research is used to uncover trends in thoughts, attitudes, behaviour and opinions. It is based upon peoples response to a product.
- Film Reviews
- Game reviews
- Music Reviews
- Can be from a number of sources:
- Websites
- Newspapers
- Forums
- Done through peoples responses/discussion
Pros
- Get a wide variety of opinions from various sources
- Allows you to find out opinions from different demographics
Cons
- Opinion based rather than fact- just because people have an opinion doesn't make it true
- Might not be valid information because people aren't giving facts which could affect the results
Market Research- Market research is looking at information in trends of consumer activities and needs. It can be gathered by looking at things such as buyer behaviour or the popularity of brands. Market research can be completed through:
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Focus Groups
- Internet research of other products or peoples opinions
Examples:
Pro
- Allows people to give their opinion
- Allows for a large demographic of people to give an opinion
- Can help in how you might make a product as people might tell you something that will allow you to change the idea for the better
Con
- People aren't always so enthusiastic to help when people are completing market research
- People might give answers that are lacking in detail which can make it harder for you to get a clear result
- Some people could have give incorrect information due to the fact that they too have little time and are just trying to get through the questionnaire as quickly as possible.
Production Research- Part of market research where specific characteristics of a good or service that will satisfy a specific need are identified. The person researching has to look at the production process in order to make their own product in the best way possible e.g. someone shooting an advert looking at how other adverts are made.
Examples:
Pros
- Allows you to plan ahead of time how you are going to make a product
- Gives you a time frames
- Allows you to know if something is viable
- Gives you the ability to do everything professionally as it is planned ahead and thought out beforehand
Con
- Just because something seems viable in the production phase once it gets to the marketing and selling phase it might be useful or go off the way the producers think it will
- Something can change that might make production difficult
- The production of the product might not be viable just because it looks so on paper
Audience Research- Studies the characteristics of a specific target audience including demographic, Listening/Viewing/Reading habits, programme preferences/taste and overall to find out the size of an audience for various different outlets.
Pros
- You get the audiences actual feedback so therefore you are able to change things on actual information rather than things you think you know
- It allows the audience to actually give their feedback rather than just having to keep their opinions to themselves or stopping there from being any actual channels of communication
Cons
- Sometimes audiences can be so divided it can be hard to get a clear idea of what it is they exactly want or what the best solution would be to solve any problems
- Everyone has different listening/viewing/reading habits
- Audiences might have more than one habit so it might be hard to get information for just one that doesn't conflict with the others
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