Unit 3 LO1

Independen
t research

Contents:
By Cameron Khan-Hinton

Types of Research:
Quantitative research
Qualitative research

Methods of Research:

Primary research
Secondary research
Data gathering agencies
Self-gathering agencies

Purpose of Research:
Audience research
Market research
Production research

Quantitative Research
By Cameron Khan-Hinton

What is quantitative research? Quantitative research is

gathering large amounts of data from a group of people that
express their opinions from a numerical point of view.
Quantitative research is normally collected via questionnaires
or surveys and consists of a couple of close-ended questions,
This is one of the most simple forms of data collection and is
used for collecting a definitive fact from a person/group of
people to finding out their opinions in a numerical or
alphabetical way.
From a media stand point quantitative research is used find and
express opinions on films before there realised, this is used so
that the Producers and studios know what gender to market
their film at or what age rating it should have. Quantitative
research focuses on verifiable observation, what this means is
that it does not rely on theory or logic. For big companies this
can be the best way to get answers for their questions as its
simple and there are so many ways to do it, but the best way to
do it for the big productions companys would be have people
do it in the own comforts of their home on the internet. This
would provide you with non-rushed accurate answers that can
really improve the statistical evaluation of your research
answers.

By Cameron Khan-Hinton

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is about understanding the opinions and

feeling of people. It is used to gain an understanding of
opinions on a matter, it can help with coming up with a solution
or resolving problems not before seem by or thought about by
the person asking the questions.
Some of the most common forms of collecting qualitative data
are by using focus groups, interviews or observations. Using a
method like focus groups for example can be a very effective
way of collecting data as a face-to-face approach can give a
trustworthy sample and are more likely to receive better and
more in-depth answers.
What can qualitative research tell you? Qualitative research can
help when it comes to finding information on a product, its
answers questions like:

How pricing effects the consumers choices

Why they pick certain products other others
The influence of branding and package design
What effects people most when it comes to buying certain
products

For business these questions are very important as it helps to

make sure that what is being sold is suitable for their chosen
target audience because if it doesnt fit, it wont sell.
If you chose to use qualitative research there is a large
emphasis on natural surroundings, this is because they are not
test participates they need to have they own important views
as they would as a normal member of society. This means you
can get the best results you can get, if youre participants feel
more like their being research the results might be skewed as
they are not giving their views as a normal person.

By Cameron Khan-Hinton

Primary Research
Primary research is normally carried out to answers specific
questions via surveys or interviews. Primary data is collected by
the person/group asking the questions, if it is not directly
collected by them its not primary that would make it secondary
data which is not as reliable and not as pacific as primary. The
purpose of it is to collect data that has a direct correlation to
the questions you need answered. It is not as commonly used
but it can be more beneficial.
Some Benefits or primary research are that you can
Address pacific issues: since you are collecting the data
yourself any issue can be quickly and accurately changed. In
addition any outliers or useless data can be thrown away and
someone else can take its place to complete your quota if
needed.
Greater Control: when you are in control it makes changing or
correcting anything a lot easier, you can chose who is asked,
how many people and what about. With all this control you can
get more accurate and precise answers.
Efficient Spending of information: because you are only
researching what you need none of the information you collect
gets wasted, unlike with secondary research where someone
else might have half the information you need and the rest is
useless.
A negative of primary research is that it can be very expensive,
it tends to be more expensive because unlike secondary where
you can research it on the internet primary requires you to
come up with all the surveys/questions and everything else you
need then actually go to places and find you answers. Another
thing is that its time consuming, after you have spent time
getting everything ready you need to go out and spend a lot of
time in the streets finding people to answers your question
By Cameron Khan-Hinton

(which could take a while). Finally its not always feasible, for
some huge companys it would be impossible as there census
would be to huge for example if a big company like warner
brothers wanted to interview everyone who has watched their
films; this would be impossible and even if they did do it there
would be to much data to count let alone put on to into some
sort of graph.

Data Gathering agencies

A Data gathering agencys job is to maintain company pacific
data, they also collect data and operate data entry devices.
Agencies such as BARB AND RAJAR store most of the data that
they have collected in a data bank, which is openly available to
the public.
BARB: this company is a data-gathering agency that is mainly
focused on collecting viewer information for TV Companys,
they work with other companies like Kaner Media and RSMB to
get more accurate result when they are being collected.
RAJAR: RAJAR is a data-gathering agency that focuses on
collecting and recording data for radio stations, they gat their
data from every radio station in the UK by recording how may
views each station get which they then put onto tables.
One negative to the data collection agencys is that they cant
count secondary sue, this means that if one person turns on the
TV or radio the data collection agencies will count the at one
view by in reality they dont actually knowhow many people are
the device at once, it could be a whole family sitting in front of
the TV or one person in their car listening to the radio. This
means that the data collection agency can only technically
count averages.
A positive of using this is that all the data is quantitative
therefor making it easier to be interpreted and presented so it
can be used again as secondary research; also once again just

By Cameron Khan-Hinton

like secondary research all of this is completely free of charge.

This kind of data can also hep with identifying GeoDemographics because when it is collected it could show direct
correlations between where you live and what you watch.

Self-gathering Agencies

Self-gathering agencies are commonly used by video gaming

company to collect assets that they need them selves for
example photos, videos and audio. This kind of research helps
company avoid copyright issues further down the road. Selfgathering research is just the research that you have gathered
yourself by taking your own pictures/audio.
For big companies that use this form of research they have to
keep all evidence of things taken in a logbook and if any photos
are taken they must put the co-ordinates of where the pictures
where taken.
Some of the positive of self-gathering data is that it a very
reliable way of gathering assets needed, secondly it can save
you lots of money by helping you avoid a copyright strike.
Some negatives of Self-gathering data are that it can take a lot
of time to go out and collect all the assets. Another issue is that
because it is commonly used by gaming companies it can cost
them a lot of money if it ends up taking to much time and they
might need to borrow money from their publishing company.

By Cameron Khan-Hinton

Audience research
Audience research is researched based around communication
that is conducted on an audience to gather information about
different feelings to prevent any issues, e.g. behaviour,
preferences, interest, knowledge and attitudes.
Audience research is normally carried before the project is
finished because the producer will need to gain a better insight
of their target audience, knowing your target audience make
advertising to them a lot easier and if you do not carry out this
research it can become a huge waste of money as no one will
be interested in your product since it has been aimed at the
wrong people.
For this kind of research there are may different kinds of
categorys for people to fall into, for example: age, gender,
race, social class, Geo-Demographic, religion and may more. All
these categories make it very easy for producers to see where
their products fit into and make advertising a lot easier.
The result from these kinds of research method can be both
qualitative and quantities some they can be interpreted form
any statistical standpoint which makes it easier to show on a
graph or in parentages (depending on what you want to use).

By Cameron Khan-Hinton

No mater what if you want a successful media product you

need to conduct this research or your product will not catch on.
With all the competitive competition knowing your TA get
audience is know extremely important and is a critical piece of
research.

Market Research
The main point of market research is to see if a product will be
found acceptable within its chosen demographic, but it is also
good for telling you when the product is not doing well and it
can tell you the bad points about it. Essentially its all about
finding out positives and negatives of a product and relating
that to the market.
Market research is also very important in terms of
understanding the effectiveness of current and historical
marketing. This is also important in terms of advertising; the
point of it is that you should know the effectiveness of every
tagline, email, ad, pint-of-sale, campaign e.c.t. Knowing and
understanding this kind of information will give any company
(no matter what sector of business their in) a huge advantage,
and not to mention a greater leverage as well as a better
understanding of how the market is changing and how they
need to adapt in order to expand their TA and keep profits
coming in.
In my opinion the main purpose of market research is to gain a
better understanding of what the customs needs/ wants. If you
dont understand what people want then you cant sell products,
By Cameron Khan-Hinton

its important to know and understand how your TA thinks, you

need to know what they like. If you dont have basic knowledge
of your TA you cant make money thats why lots of companies
will spend money trying to find out things like behaviour
patens, common interest, spending hobbits e.c.t
Another important reason to conduct market research is that
its critical to gather an insight before staring anything new,
without this it would mean that you are going into any new
projects blind and most of the time you would be taking hug
risks. Luckily with a rise in social media gathering this insight
couldnt be easier or cheaper. With the social media rise it has
become so easy for companies to find out any information that
they need with no trouble, its a very effective form of research
and is very commonly used.
This kind of research is taken seriously by the producer because
when looked into in great detail it can give a very good incite
into what the market looks like, their main competitors and
what the competing products are. The producers are also
interested in the economical factors and potential venue

Product Research

Product research is important in the media industry because it

allows those involved to recognise both what is required and
how profitable a project may be.
Its all about both collecting and analysing both content and
information. This can be a very complicated type of research so
it needs to be comprehensive; the research involves finding
suitable equipment, facilities, good talent and a crew. This is

By Cameron Khan-Hinton

just one step of the process, next you need to make sure that it
is with in the budget that the producer has given you.

By Cameron Khan-Hinton