Task 1 notes Hello my names eddie, in my presentation I will be telling you how the media define an audience.

. There are many ways; one way is quantitative research. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What is it? Quantitative research is explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that is analysed using mathematically based methods for example statistics. It includes surveys and questionnaires to help companies improve their products and services by enabling them to make informed decisions. They ask questions like how, when, where, and how often. Who does it? The NRS and ABC are the two main companies in the UK that use quantitative research. The NRS provides the print media industry with estimated readership and circulation figures, ABC provides the media with figures on audience numbers. The print media could use quantitative research when they have produced a product for example a magazine and need to know the size of the audience for it. There are advantages and disadvantages of using quantitative research; Advantages: It is easier to compile the data collected onto a chart or graph, this is because of the numbers that are made available. The research can be conducted on a large scale and it provides you with a lot more information. Disadvantages: Quantitative research can be costly for example it is mainly done on a large scale and this may not be necessary for the type of research that needs to be done. Numbers change frequently, so research that is collected on a statistical level needs to be conducted much more often to help balance out the consistent changing of numbers. Why is it useful? Quantitative research is useful because it helps you understand your potential audience by providing you with hard facts and statistics on peoples opinions. It also helps you determine the size of your audience for a certain product. What is it? Qualitative research is exploring issues, understanding phenomena and answering questions. It is also about investigating the reasons why audiences consume a particular product. Questionnaires can be created to establish audience preferences, opinions, tastes and desires, or to measure the success of a media text or product.

Focus groups, face to face interviews and questionnaires are among the many methods that are used to gather information when using qualitative research, Qualitative research helps you largely with understanding your audience, it will help you find out who your audience is, what they are like, what they dont want, where they live and how much they earn. Advantages of Qualitative research are: it allows you to gain a better understanding of the target market because the types of questions that are asked during the research process begin with the word why. Why is a much more powerful word than when, how much, and what. Another advantage is that most research is focused on a sample of the population meaning it is low cost because large surveys are not required to be taken. Other advantages are it Provides depth and detail, Creates openness, Simulates people's individual experiences, Attempts to avoid pre-judgements for example if used alongside quantitative data collection, it can explain why a particular response was given. Disadvantages are: it is less easy to generalise: because fewer people are generally studied it is not possible to generalise results to that of the population. It is Difficult to make comparisons: for example, people may give widely differing responses that are highly subjective. Skills of the researcher: particularly in the case of conducting interviews, focus groups and observation. How do those methods work? The method focus group works by a small group of people that will come together and focus on a specific product or topic. Focus groups aim at a discussion instead of on individual responses. Discussions are relatively inexpensive and are a great way of collecting data, also quite stimulating for the respondents and potentially generate more flexible responses. The method of using a questionnaire works by producing a set of questions on a certain topic or a specific product that will be put together to create a questionnaire. The method of face to face interviews works by a purposeful discussion between two or more people that can help gather valid and reliable data that is relevant to your research objectives. They allow personal communication and make it possible to gather more information for your study What does this mean? Socio-economic status is a type of research method used by industries in order to find the right economic class for their target audience. The dividing of classes was created to help an individual or family understand and establish their position regarding their income, education and occupation. SES is mainly broken up into three categories that divide society, working, middle and upper class.

Why is it useful to know? When a individual or family is being analysed by SES it can tell you the household income, earners education and occupation, from that you can identify different types of people with different types of lifestyles. It also shows who will be able to buy your product. Who does this kind of research? The NRS does this kind of research to define readers of magazines and newspapers in the UK, they use six categories to do this; upper middle class, middle class, lower middle class, skilled working class, working class and those at the lowest levels of subsistence. What does this mean? Psychographics involves classifying people according to their values, beliefs, opinions and interests, to create a detailed customer profile, by collecting data through a questionnaire. Market research firms, and advertising agencies are constantly creating new categories, which will best help target possible consumers of their products. One example of a life style classification model, is that developed by the advertising agency, called Cross Cultural Consumer Characterization (4Cs for short). These are broken into 7 different categories: Resigned, struggler, mainstream, aspirer, succeeder , explorer and reformer. Psychographics can tell you about an audience what type of person is buying your product and what you need to do to keep those people happy and content. It helps you learn more about a persons lifestyle, behaviours and habits using demographic information. This is to help identify what type of person is buying your product. Psychographic research will help you find out what spending patterns someone has, buying behaviour and what you can do to encourage them to buy more. Gathering psychographic data is useful because it aids marketing and helps you identify a perfect customer amongst the huge potential audience. It is also useful because it helps you understand why they are your customer. What does it mean? Geodemographics means to classify people by neighbourhood or other small areas according to the characteristics of those areas, this is based on the principal that residents living near each other are likely to have similar demographic, socio-economic and lifestyle characteristics. These classifications are attached to individuals by their home address, and more commonly just the postcode. What can It tell you about an audience? Geodemographics can tell you if an area is full of young professionals, retired couples or young families. It can also tell you if the area is full of rich or poor people. What geodemographics can tell you about an audience are; Who are my customers? Where do they live? and How can I best reach them? The main source of data for this study is the census. In the field of marketing, geodemographics can be of huge importance in segmentation. Following this the frequency and preference of each group can be determined. Geodemographics allows you to identify high preference areas and then can be

targeted for marketing and sale. Also it can show a suitable location for new outlets. It is also useful as it shows spatial and mathematical patterns in how people live and shop to help marketers make suggestions about consumer behaviour. print media companies could use this type of research to help them distinguish a certain area to where they could advertise their product, that has the most suitable audience for their product. What does this mean? A media company need to have the age and gender decided before then can define their target audience. Knowing what appeals to certain age groups and what doesn't is very important when defining an audience this is because most media products have a target age. For example if a media company was trying to find a target audience for a magazine on bob the builder you would go for a target audience of 1 to 8 year olds because it is a children's animated tv programme and would not appeal to an older audience. Deciding on whether to target one or both genders can greatly impact your audience. Products that are distinctively aimed at one gender will mainly deter the other way. This is because Men and women have different media habits and consume different content. For example, if you were broadcasting a television show, you would want to know if you should place your commercials on Lifetime or sky sports. It is useful to know because you can distinguish a genders interests and values to help you make a product more appealing to them. A magazine or newspaper company would use this kind of research to help them determine what content within their product is going to appeal to what gender. Mainstream/ mainstream media is current and popular forms of media consumed by the majority of society such as Hollywood blockbusters, chart music and popular magazines such as vogue and men's health. The benefit of designing a mainstream product is that you have a wider audience range creating a larger income therefore profit. The niche market is for a more specific target audience and is aimed at people who have a particular interest and style for example independent films, independent clothing brands and magazines purposes aimed at people with certain interests or hobbies for example a particular sport magazine i.e. tennis or horse riding. The benefits of targeting a niche audience means there is less competition from other companies producing a similar product to yours.