The Nature and Purposes of research

Primary research/self-generated research

PRIMARY RESEARCH:

The definition of primary research is the research found by you and this can be conducted in many ways. One way that you are able to collect data is through questionnaires. By asking open and closed questions, these can give a person a collection of information which they can then conduct into a graph. Graphs can only be created through 'closed' questions. Questionnaires/online surveys can be found mostly on the internet as it is a way to expand the collection of answers and are also easy to access.

Interviews can also be a good way to collect primary research and could be most effective as the person you are asking are present and are face-to-face. Closed and open questions can be asked as well as any questions that the interviewee might have. Another way of collecting primary research could be through focus groups/audience panels. This is where a group of people either with knowledge of a certain subject, or a group of random people, sit down and listen to another person give their ideas on either their own creation or another person's creation. This gives the opportunity for improvement on any ideas that are given.

When it  was time for my project the types of primary research I used were questionnaires and an online survey.


SECONDARY RESEARCH:

Another type of research would be secondary research which is conducting research that is originally from another source. Ways at which this can be done is through searching on the Internet (Google), searching through archive files, in books, reading articles / magazines, watching TV or looking up videos on video sharing websites (YouTube).

Websites like  IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes were used for facts and figures. If a person wanted to find information on how many people watch BBC/ITV programmes or listen to KissFM/Radio 1 then the websites they would use would be BARB and RAJAR.


QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

When you ask closed questions in a survey for example, you can gather quantitative data which is research based on numbers and statistics. This type of research is good to look at quickly as it can be displayed in graphs. Industry research includes box office takings and reviews that are based on X out of X, eg. 4 out of 5 stars. My advertising questionnaire included closed questions.


QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

You can also ask open questions in order to get more detailed responses, this results in qualitative data. This can include opinions and people's individual views. I asked open questions in my advertising questionnaire to find out WHY a person liked or disliked my advert. In the media industry, qualitative research can include critics reviews and responses from test screenings.


PRODUCTION RESEARCH:

Production research is vital when it comes to marketing and distributing, as the methods used must match as closely to the film as possible, so that the public are not disappointed when they go and see the film. Also the distributors must decide weather the film needs loads of marketing spent on it. Again this can conclude if a film makes profit or not. For example, if a film was portraying a Horror genre and the film was actually a Comedy, then it can get bad reviews as Horror fans are disappointed, and Comedy fans won't watch it as they think the film is a Horror, in both ways the film loses profit.

Production Research could also apply to pre-production when a producer and director goes scouting locations for a film. When it comes to the marketing and distribution plan, production research is needed so that, as said before, the film is not portrayed in the wrong way from what it was meant to be. Researching on other films that have failed or succeeded in the box office is a great example of production research, and is what we used in our own project when finding facts and figures.


AUDIENCE AND MARKET RESEARCH:

Market research is typically carried out through the use of quantitative research, this is due to the fact that it is more beneficial for the researcher to gather a large range of responses rather than fewer but more in-depth. Market research is vital in ensuring that the right audience is received and the final product can be seen and viewed by the people it was intended to, whether this be: Age ranges, comedic audiences or a more serious audience.

One good method of seeing what your audience is like is through the method of audience profiling where you group your audience into certain categories such as race, occupation, education etc. Also look at demographics and see what grade your audience will be in, this varies from A grade workers who are in higher management right the way down to grade E which is the unemployed and students etc.

An example of this is when I re branded Lynx for the Unilever project and we had to do market research to see what audience we need to target as well as the demographic side.