Purposes Of Research (Audience Research)

Purposes of research

Audience Research

Audience research is detailed research that is carried out by an individual/company to find out in depth information on a specific audience. The idea of audience research is to help the individual carrying it out get a better understanding of their audience. When carrying out audience research you will need to find out the demographic of your audience. For example  what sex they are what their keen interests are etc. It is important to find out this information so you can suit your media product to your consumers. 

A way in which research like this can be carried out is through Focus groups, questionnaires, one on one interviews etc. When carrying out audience research it you can choose to group certain people together by using ethnicity or age. This will help you understand what type of people are going to buy your specific media product and who is going to be interested. When you know roughly who your target audience will be you can further your audience research to then find out how you could make improvements to your product. It is key to know your target audience so you can continue to update your media products to suit them and keep them engaged.

Audience research helps with getting to know consumer behaviour and consumer attitudes, it brings audience awareness to the fact that there may be a new potential product being released onto the market. When all of the audience profiling is complete you will have a large variety of audience profiles that help with the product. Knowing the demographics and geodemographics is important with any audience research. If you know the geodemographics of where someone lives this means you can target a specific price range at them and link it with your media product.

This graph is a good example of audience research, It shows what the media product is (the radio) it also shows how many people are interested in the product and their reasons for being interested.

Audience Data - Audience data is the obtainment of information from numerous different individuals, this information can be obtained from UK households. Audience data can help organisation understand what there position is with there product. It will provide information on whether a certain product (media product) is popular or high up in the market.

Audience profiling - Audience profiling is very similar to demographics and audience attitude, audience profiling is slightly more personal and in depth research into your consumer. When doing an audience profile it gives you the opportunity to build a strong base of information on each individual audience member. This process is long process as you find out everything from age,sex,sexual orientation to location you live, background info, job role etc. An audience profile is essential and will ensure you know everything there is to know about the audience you are targeting your product at.

This is a prime example of what a detailed audience profile will look like. I obtained this image from google images.

Demographics - Demographics are how a group of people may be categorised. If you know the demographics of your audience this means you know things like their age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class and occupation etc. Demographics is a very useful thing to have full knowledge of when promoting your product to your audience. 

Demographic pie and bar chart on gender

Demographic pie and bar chart on age

Consumer attitudes - Consumer attitudes are the way an individual behaves towards your product, you must know your consumers attitude for example, what they like, what they are interested in etc. If you do not know what your audience like they you can not improve on your product. Some individuals may have a negative outlook and attitude towards your product. For example older people may dislike your product where as younger people will enjoy your product. By finding out  consumer attitudes you will also get the chance to have an understanding of what people are right for your product and who behaves nicely towards the new media product in the market.

Consumer attitude pie chart

Consumer behaviour - Consumer behaviour is how an individual views your product and other products as well. It is what separates them from buying your product or buying one that is similar. If you understand your audiences behaviour you will know how to get there attention and what type of techniques will make them buy your product. The reason a business has to have a good understudying of consumer behaviour is so they know what will influence there audience to take interest in their product.

Audience awareness - This is when you ensure your target audience is aware that a new media product is being brought onto the market