Nature and Purposes of Research

Primary Research:

Primary research is new research, carried out to answer specific issues or questions. It can involve questionnaires, surveys or interviews with individuals or small and also groups.

What Did I Do?

I made a questionnaire for the people of my college asking them questions about what they thought of the brand of the product that I was advertising. I asked questions such as 'who do you think the advert is aimed at' and 'what time do you think the advert will be shown on national television'.

Example:

One example of this is the questionnaire that i produced for people to fill out asking them about the product that i was advertising. We did this to try and get an outside view of how our product would go down with the general public and see what the strengths were with it, but also try and identify and improve on the not so strong points.

Secondary Research:

Secondary research involves gathering data from existing data that ha already been produced. Example of this are things such as the internet, newspapers, television and company reports.

What Did I Do?

To get a good idea of what most Unilever products are like I done an independent presentation on on a website called Prezi which helped to explain what the company is about whilst also showing some of the products and how they are advertised.

Example:

I also chose a brand (Lynx) and explained everything  could find out about the product. This included things such as the target audience, advertising campaigns and how the product has the name and reputation that it still has even today. 

Quantitative Research:

Quantitative research is a formal systematic process where numerical data is gathered about the topic or subject. An example of this is looking into relationships between different variables.

What Did I Do?

Just as in my primary research, I used a questionnaire to gather statistics for my project.

Example:

I asked 10 people to fill out my survey and i got 5 replies back. In these relies, people stated whether or not after watching my television advert people would recommend it to others as well as using it for themselves.

Qualitative Research:

Qualitative research is used to gain understanding, reasons, opinions, motivations and beliefs. It gives an in-depth insight into problems and helps to provide ideas or hypothesis for potential research.

What Did I Do?

I had a focus group early on in the development of my product and i presented the brand to them and soon after explained to them how i chose to re-brand the product and how it would benefit the company. This gave me a chance to try not only try new things but also to view the good and bad points of the pitch. It gave constructive criticism which would help with my work in the long run.

BARB:

BARB is a media organisation also known as Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. It looks at audience ratings for different types of television shows. Its main purpose is o provide audience and television ratings in the UK.

IMDb:

IMDb is the world's most popular  source for movie and TV information and trailers. It offers a wide range of information of more than 110 million items including more than 2 million films, short films, TV and entertainment programs. It also has more than 4 million cast and crew members listed on the website to help the audience find exactly what they're looking for.

Media Research Engines:

Social Mention is a media research engine that collects user content across the the world and puts it into one large area of information. It allows people to locate what other people are saying about your  company, a new product or any topic across the internet. It's also connected to over 100 social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linked In and  Google.

Audience Market Research:

This research method is done for one purpose; To keep your audience satisfied.. Audience market research is a critical point in selling any kind product. This is due to the fact that if the customer doesn't feel satisfied your product, they obviously won't buy or recommend it. So it is important to know not only what the audience likes, but also what their views and opinions are. This is why i used Quantitative data in my research on my chose product. People just wildly guess that companies know what their customers want but we some of them might not have firm idea on the topic which is another example of why audience research is important.

With my product, I was what the public and  I started thinking about how it could affect my advert. For this I had a focus group. I pitched my idea and gave plenty of information such as 'who it was aimed at' My focus group gave both positive and negative criticism to help me improve on what i had already done. If I didn't pitch my idea to a focus group then i could've had the complete wrong idea about some of the key things that i may have needed for my advert.

Also I did this with the colour of the previous product that they released. If I didn't ask the public simple questions such as 'what colour I should make the bottle?' or 'What kind of bottle do you think would work well for this product?', when made the product it could have unsatisfied customers and therefore they wouldn't have purchase the product on that piece of information. That would have been a bad selling point as the first time that you see a product, it should look good and therefore appeal to the audience. To try and grab there attention it should also be eye-catching. The first time walk in the store it should grab their attention and feel attracted to the product.

Production Research:

In media production, you also need to research certain things to make sure that the production is as good as it can be. One of the things that needed to be researched in my production is the setting in which we were able to film. I used a location recce to determine if the setting chosen is suitable for shooting, including access to necessary facilities and areas. In this research you also need to have a timetable that you can stick to so you know how far along you are and how long you have left to complete the project. I used a production schedule to help with time management. It also showed us which props were needed at which time as well as what scene would be done on which day. In my research, my group and i had to make a final decision on the places that  we decided to film at. In order to do this professionally, we all individually had to fill out a location release and have it signed by a crew member and also the person in authority of the place we were filming (which only applies if you are on private property). In my production i also had to pre-visit different locations not only to check availability, but also if the location chosen was suitable. I used a location recce