It is important to conduct research before you start planning a new advertising campaign, as it is helpful to find out about the people that use the product. Planning makes sure that you have collected as much information as possible to ensure that your advertisement will be successful in selling the product. There are many different ways of conducting this research and it is important that some research is done that has never been done before, this makes sure that every aspect is covered and that the advertisement will attract the attention of many different people.
There are many different types of research and each one is used to help target a specific part of the planning progress. The first type of research is primary research, which usually has a specific purpose and it is normally original data that has not been copied from anywhere else. It is research that an organisation conducts or commissions itself to find out the answers to specific questions. Some examples of primary research are things such as questionnaires, surveys, Internet forums, and interviews or group research. Primary research has many advantages, for example you are able to explore the secondary research already performed by other researchers, carrying out their own research allows the media organisation to address issues specific to their own situation. Also it allows for 'further control', not only does it allow the marketer to focus on specific issues, it also allows the marketer to have a higher level of control over how the information is collected. This means that the marketer can focus on his/her product only, meaning that they can analyse it further. However there are some disadvantages to primary research, for example it may cost a lot and takes a lot of time. It is time consuming because researchers have to strata with no existing data, which means that all the research has to be done from start to finish. It may be very expensive because all the data has to independently collected without any help from previously existing data, which can cost a lot of money.
Secondary research is also another way of collecting data and conducting research. This is when the research is done by someone else and can be used alongside primary research. Secondary research uses outside information assembled by media sources, it is a form of research where the information already exists and can be sued as a form of second hand research. This type of information is usually published in things such as pamphlets, newsletters, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers. Media firms can also get information from the government, competitors or trade publications. Like primary research, there are also many advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages of secondary research are that it is easier to do, as the data already exists, most of this pre-existing data is fairly accurate which therefore makes research easier. However there are some disadvantages, for example the main concern is that you don't know who did the research before you, and how honest and accurate it is. Also, secondary data can be biased and the inaccuracies cannot be checked.
The next type of research is quantitative research, which is normally shown as a set of numbers, graphs, charts, and can be measured. The most common way of collecting quantitative data is through the use of questionnaires; quantitative data is 'number crunching'. Like the other types of research there are also many advantages and disadvantages to this type of research to. An example of some of the advantages is that you can have a relatively large sample (quantity) of data and that it is also fairly easy to administer. It also allows the researcher to measure and analyse data, also the researcher is more objective about the findings of the research. However there are some disadvantages, for example it is hard to design a questionnaire that finds out exactly what you want and also things such as closed questionnaires cannot be altered, meaning that some of the information may not have enough detail to be able to find what you are looking for. You cannot ask subsidiary questions, often it is either a 'yes' or 'no' answer when in actual fact the true answer may be somewhere in the middle. Also you cannot be sure that the person filling in the questionnaire fully understands the question or whether or not they are being honest, there is the question of whether or not they are just saying what they think you want to hear. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ measurable facts and information rather than opinions as it is based on actual data. Quantitative research can help to determine how many people are likely to buy a new product idea, which group of individuals will react best to which type of advert, and which incentive (e.g. free gift) will appeal to which target market.
Qualitative research is also another way of collecting important or necessary information; this type of research helps to find out how people feel, the response are usually personal and it can't really be measured. Some ways of collecting qualitative data is through focus groups or one-to-one interviews. Unlike quantitative data, qualitative data requires quality information, therefore subsidiary questions can be asked. There are, however, many disadvantages, for example the sample collected is usually relatively small and may not then be representative, it is also very time consuming. Furthermore, qualitative research does not ensure accuracy in the same way quantitative research does, opinion and bias are far more likely to distort the results. Also qualitative researchers ask questions to small groups of people which means that it is not representative of the whole population/target group. This makes it difficult to analyse what the majority of the audience feel about a particular subject.
There are different purposes for these types of research, audience research, market research, and production research. There are four types of audience research; Descriptive research, which describes your audience and their characteristics, Analytical research, which seeks to understand 'how' and 'why', Predictive research, which considers 'what if' situations, and finally Tracking research, which is long-term research that monitors changes taking place over time. There are five stages to audience research; 1. Target Audience, 2. Plan, 3. Research, 4. Analyse, and 5. Apply.
Before starting you must find out who your audience is, as knowing your audience is vital, you may have more than one distinct audience with different needs. To be able to define your target audience you must picture and ideal audience member, their occupation, gender, interests, technological interests etc. You can then think about categories for audience segmentation, the target audience could be a group of students in full-time education, retired people or people who travelled abroad for their holidays. The next stage is planning; this should be done before you start so that you have clear objectives for your research. You then must think about how you will collect the data, which is step 3. Research can be done by yourself or by a researching agency, you must consider time, resources or available expertise. You must then ask yourself if you want qualitative of quantitative data. Evidence from research can help make informed decisions.
Market research is the next type of research, successful companies are interested in what the market looks like, aware of who their competitors are and are driven by the potential revenue available. There are many questions that successful market researchers ask such as what other products are on the market? What are their sales figures compared to ours? and what can be done to improve our product?. Most companies have a number of marketing objectives, they generally want to retain current audiences and build loyalty, attract new audiences by 'stealing' customers from the opposition, find ways to persuade lapsed audiences return, spend limited marketing budgets to make the most effective advert possible, monitor how audiences feel about their products, identify competitors and understand their strengths and weaknesses, identify new opportunities and identify changes in the operating environment which may impact on the organisation.
Finally there is the production research stage, if the audience research goes well and the market analysis is favourable a media company might decide to launch a new product in that market, to do this they need production research. Production research is done so that material can be gathered to allow a company to develop new products and ensure the whole process will run smoothly. Production research involves investigating the technology and personnel available and planning production and post-production.
