The Princes Trust Research Handbook

Contents

Types of Research

Methods of Research

Purpose of Research

Bibliography

Quantitative Research
Quantitative research is a more accurate form of research, in quantitative
research you use statistics and numbers in order to understand more about what
you want to research. An example of quantitative research would be if you made
a survey asking how old the reader is. The possible answers could be 0-10, 1120, 21-30 etc. With the answers the person conducting the research could create
a graph with the answers in order to show trends. You can conduct the surveys in
multiple ways, you could use the internet, phone, focus groups or even in person.
The pros are that the results are more accurate than qualitative research, in
addition to this personal bias can be avoided by the researcher if they word the
questions correctly, also you can turn the results that you get in the research into
a graph which could prove to be very useful for understanding your information,
and it makes it easier to pitch your idea to potential sources of income. However,
the cons are that they have limited ability to probe answers, the answers can be
potentially biased because it could be answered by the same target audience. An
example of quantitative research would be if an artist did a multiple choice
survey asking what genre of video they would prefer and them using the results
of the survey in order to determine the genre of video.

Qualitative Research
Qualitative research is answers in the form of words, it is normally used in order
to gain a better understanding of underlying reasons, opinions and motivations.
Qualitative research can help the researcher to gain some insight into a problem
and help develop their idea, they can then use the qualitative research in order
to then produce quantitative research. The pros are that qualitative research has
no limitations on what answers can be given by the audience, qualitative
research depends on human experience which is more valuable to researchers
than qualitative data. However, the cons of qualitative research are that the
answers are sometimes more difficult to comprehend. Qualitative data is
sometimes not completely accepted, as some answers may be biased, it can also
be very costly to get qualitative research done. In addition to this it is much
harder to generalise the results that you are given because all of the answers are
completely different, and it is also hard to quantify who in your audience has
answered one way or another. An example would be if an artist conducted a
survey asking what aspects of other music videos that they (the audience) like.
They would then edit their music video to what the audience preferred.

Secondary Research
Secondary research is also known as desk research involves the summary of
research which has been conducted by others, you can find secondary research
in many different places, and the most common places to find secondary
research would be: The internet, in books and magazines and also in
newspapers. With secondary research you are able to get the information quickly
as it is very easily accessible, however it can be wrong to make decisions
completely based of secondary research as you dont know how reliable it is as a
source.

Primary Research
Primary research is when you go out into the field and conduct your own
research in order to collect your own data. Primary research can be conducting in
many ways, you could create surveys, interviews and observations in order to
create data. Primary research can sometimes take a long time in order to collect
enough data, however you know that the data is reliable and you can also ask
the exact questions that you want to know the answer to. Good researchers will
use both secondary and primary research when they are analysing their results.

Data Gathering Agencies

Data gathering agencies are companies which businesses are able to hire in
order to conduct their research for them. An example of a data gathering agency
would be BARB who have a panel with 5100 homes partaking in it, they are able
to see what the homes are watching on their TV at any given time, and they then
report this to companies who want to know this information. This is good for film
companies who have not got access to this kind of information themselves.
Another example would be RAJAR who measure audience in radio.

Self-Generated
This is research where it is provided on your own merits, this means that you are
looking back on productions which you have already created, which can include a
music piece, photograph or film. From this you are able to learn from your
mistakes which is why it is self-generated research; you have literally generated
the research yourself. If you look at my work, I have used surveys in order to
create self-generated research and at the end of my productions I analyse how
successful that it was and what is needed in order to improve next time.
Audience Research
This is when a company measures an audience viewing anything in media, e.g. a
TV show or radio station. Audience research exists so that researchers are able
to gather information about their interests, attitudes and behaviours. Sometimes
audience researchers also try to find out about the audience members: race,
education, family income and age, this is known as audience classification, with
this you are able to find your targets socio-economic group. Audience research is
used so that a producer can get a better insight into a target audience. You can
also find out your target audiences media preferences by invoking a reaction
from them when you show them certain kinds of media or you could conduct a
survey and ask what they think about a medium. This works similarly to product
preferences, as you can conduct a survey in order to find out what products that
the interviewee prefers to others. You can also monitor the buying patterns of
your audience and understand what they are willing to spend their money on.

Market Research
Market research is when a company needs to gather information about target
markets or customers for example, if a business wanted to find out the age of
the audience of Demi Lovato, they could conduct research in order to find out
the age of her audience and then adjust the music video appropriately. Market
research will be able to give you an edge over other competitors which is vital in
the music industry as artists are always battling against one another in order to
get to the top of the charts. The purpose of market research is so that youre
able to know if there is a demand for your production and if youre going to sell
it. If you conduct good market research also, you will be able to find out where
best to advertise your music video, is for example, if most of the people that
answered your survey said that they spend most of their time on the medium
YouTube then you would advertise your music video through VEVO on YouTube.
You can also see how effective that advertising would be.

Production Research

Production research is the research that producers will need to undertake in

order to understand what they will need in order to produce their music video.
You need to understand the following before you begin to film your music video:

Staff
Cast
Location
Equipment
Risk Assessment
Marketing
Props
Advertising
Copyright

Production research also allows you to see the cost of all of the equipment that
you are purchasing and how available it all is, because some equipment may be
out for loan when you need it therefore you need to pre-plan around this.
Through production research you can also see where you want your medium to
be placed, for example, for a music video you would want it to be placed onto
YouTube.

Bibliography
http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/market-research/what-isquantitative-researchhttp://www.simplypsychology.org/qualitative-quantitative.html
http://www.bl.uk/business-and-ip-centre/articles/qualitative-and-quantitativeresearch-for-small-business
http://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-qualitativeresearch-and-quantitative-research/
http://www.knowthis.com/data-collection-low-cost-secondary-research/what-issecondary-research
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/business/marketing/marketresearchre
v3.shtml
http://study.com/academy/lesson/primary-secondary-research-definitiondifferences-methods.html
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/559/

http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/food-standards-agency/market-research-andconsumer-protection/primary-and-secondary-research.html#axzz41k7IxplZ
http://www.slideshare.net/09SC1/data-gathering-agencies
http://www.rajar.co.uk/content.php?page=about_organisation
https://mediafort.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/understanding-the-nature-andpurposes-of-research-in-the-creative-media-industries-techniques/#more-1421
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pierre_Chandon/publication/233777718_Do_
Intentions_Really_Predict_Behavior_SelfGenerated_Validity_Effects_in_Survey_Research/links/09e4150b63c2081a6e0000
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http://www.slideshare.net/AnnieRose95/audience-research-22808080
http://www.watchingdance.org/research/audience_research/
http://www.barb.co.uk/
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https://www.mrs.org.uk/
https://www.gov.uk/market-research-business
http://www.slideshare.net/marleylong/audience-27055236
http://marketandproductionresearch.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/market-andproduction-research.html
https://kingb94.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/the-purpose-of-audience-researchmarket-research-and-production-research/