Lo3 - Types of research

What production stage does the research stage take place 

• pre-production. 

• Pre-production consists of primary research, such as: looking up existing products relating to the media product you'd like to create. This allows you to find a gap in the market and understand your competitors, researching products similar to the one you'd like to create also allows to you understand the conventions in which would typically be in this type of media product as they should all typically share recognisable conventions. You can also discover what demographic would typically be interested in your product via audience research such as handing out prototypes and early drafts in public and requesting feedback. 

What are the two types of collective research?

• Primary - Research you conduct yourself.

• Secondary - Looking at existing research. 

Audience research

Research your target audience to discover which demographic will stereotypically be appealed towards your product the most.

The purpose of this enables you to effectively target your audience, the more you know about your audience the more you can target them, helping bring in profit and revenue. 

Market research

Still includes the consumers. However, market research is based on how and where the product will be available e.g. in what stores that exist within todays market.
How will your product fit into the genre of the store?
How will my product be different / stand out?
How will you tackle competitors such as PAMCo, RAJAR, MIDIA.

Product research

The production team now carry out research into the product itself, this I done by:

1. Collecting source material (this depends on the media product)
2. Establish how visible the project is. Will it be a success? Is it worth making
3. Find locations. 

PRIMARY RESEARCH.  (Research you conduct yourself.)

• Interviews.

Advantages 

- May get more detailed feedback due to there not being a limit on what the audience can say back you.

- You get various ideas and opinions. 

- Can ask probing questions (can get as much information out of them as you want by asking multiple questions) - creating qualitative data. 

- use feedback to improve designs / the product (whatever you showed them)

Disadvantages

- May be hard trying to find members of the public in which are willing to do an interview

- If someone disagrees to being filmed or recorded you may not be able to have your focus group session documented, meaning you may forget ideas, finding an alternative may be time consuming and possibly even affect the launch date. Therefore you must be clear about how the session will be documented.
- Time consuming to arrange.
- Ethical issues such as impairment, must be assessable and fair for everyone. 

- Answers being biased - needs to consist of people who are not connected to you in anyway or aren't afraid to agree with your idea just for the sake and money of it. Creating invalid data. 

• Questionnaires / surveys.

Could be on a visualisation digram or a prototype (can be done at any point of production) 

Advantages

- Audience have the chance to express their opinions freely (not just yes and no questions), giving an   insight into the characteristics of your audience, this is called qualitative data. You can use this feedback to cater your product to your audience / make it suitable for the demographic you're targeting.

- Cost effective (cheap and easy to make)

Disadvantages

- If you receive multiple different detailed answers and requests within the feedback of your questionnaires / surveys you will not have enough time to analyse it all / it will be very time consuming. 

SECONDARY RESEARCH  (Looking at existing research. )

• Internet research.

The website has to be applicable to the brief, information has to be from an official website e.g. .org / .ac /.gov, as this guarantees you correct information.

Advantages 

- Not very time consuming as the research has already been done, it's easy to look up and find existing sources of information. However you have to make sure that the website / source is valid (.org / .ac / .gov). Is it still relevant, up to date and valid?

Disadvantages

- Not all sources consist of correct or valid information. Its important that you check the sources that you are using to ensure that they are up to date.

• Focus group 

A focus group is where you arrange a group of people to give you verbal and written feedback on your prod, this group of people should consist of people that are within your target audience, based on age, gender and lifestyle. 

You would need to arrange a time, day and location for them to give you feedback. Focus groups are usually filmed or recorded. Ideas can be physically denoted and explained. 

Advantages 

- May get more detailed feedback due to there not being a limit on what the audience can say back you.

- You get various ideas and opinions. 

- Can ask probing questions (can get as much information out of them as you want by asking multiple questions) - creating qualitative data. 

- use feedback to improve designs / the product (whatever you showed them)

Disadvantages

- May be hard trying to find members of the public in which are willing to do an interview

- If someone disagrees to being filmed or recorded you may not be able to have your focus group session documented, meaning you may forget ideas, finding an alternative may be time consuming and possibly even affect the launch date. Therefore you must be clear about how the session will be documented.
- Time consuming to arrange.
- Ethical issues such as impairment, must be assessable and fair for everyone.

- Answers being biased - needs to consist of people who are not connected to you in anyway or aren't afraid to agree with your idea just for the sake and money of it. Creating invalid data. 

• Journals

Written by a person / organisation.
Research based (facts and figures)

Advantages

- Using somebody else's research / documentation - not very time consuming.
- They can be widely accessible (within the last ten years)
- authors are typically professionals or experts. Ensuring us that the information is correct and valid.

Disadvantages.

- Biased information as it is one specific persons opinions, therefore it is crucial that you look at more than one source of information. Such as a newspaper or magazine.

How is an interview similar to a focus group?

• you physically speak to the target audience during both research methods. 
• They're both pre-arranged. 
• You have to ask questions. 

What differences do they have? 

• You're only speaking to one person within an interview, whereas a focus group consist of a group.
• An interview is more formal.