Market Research: Internet search for commercial research companies

The picture above is the sheet of paper that we had to fill in, keeping a record of commercial organisations that I found out about and listed on the paper. There are three boxes on this sheet, the first box is labelled "Names of organisations", the next box is labelled "Contact details" and the last box is labelled "Services offered".

BARB - The first company name I put down was a company called BARB. This companies name stands for Broadcasters Audience Research Board and is mostly used for viewing figures, reviewing TV shows and providing people with viewing data. The site gives you statistics (Quantitative research) and the percentage of a TV programme is already worked out on their website; no one would need to convert the people watching the programme into a percentage. This makes it easier and faster for the viewer of the website to get the information they need and move onto the next bit of information they need. This is useful because it saves time and also useful because you can just search for the programme you want easily as well.

RAJAR - The second company name I wrote down was RAJAR. This companies name stands for Radio Joint Audience Research. The company is mostly used for designing, operating and aligning a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the UK. RAJAR covers all radio stations in the UK and gives you statistics such as how many people listen to a certain radio station per day, the percentage of the reach on each radio station.


NRS - The third company name I wrote down was NRS. This companies name stands for National Readership Survey. The company is used for audience research for print and digital advertising trading in Britain. The survey covers 250 (or over) of Britain's major magazines and news brands; showing the nature and size of the audiences they attract.


Mintel -

Research Techniques

Primary Research

Primary research is when you go out and get the information yourself. This means that if you ask

someone a question and they answer, it would be primary because you've gotten the answers yourself.

Primary research is the most reliable but can also be unreliable as well because you don't know if that

person answering your question is lying or not. The reason primary research is used is so that you can

back the fact that you've gone out and gone to the effort of getting the research yourself rather than

going onto the internet and searching for it (This is Secondary research). Another reason that Primary

research is used is so you can ask different people the same questions and get different opinions.

One advantage of using Primary research is that you can get your answers first hand and record them

on a phone or professional video recorder.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is when you're using text based research such as books, the internet and is basically

the research you gather from someone else at any point. If you're borrowing someone's work for

examples on your own work, then it's secondary research. One reason that secondary research if used is

to back up your own evidence not only with your work, but someone else's work as well. One

advantage of secondary research is that you can gain easy access. Books, the internet, etc. It's very easy

to get ahold of the secondary research that you need in todays society. Another advantage of secondary

research is that it doesn't cost much money or could possibly not cost any at all. A disadvantage of

secondary research is that the work may be low quality. Another disadvantage is that the information

that you gather might not be complete and may have important bits missing that you need.

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is a method of collecting numerical data and putting it into research. Some

examples are  bar charts/pie charts, surveys, statistics etc. A reason that quantitative research is used

is to show statistics in a presentation/your research (95% of the public agreed that Gillette was the best

razor yet). An advantage of using quantitative research is that the researcher can gain more in depth

data of numerical research. Another advantage of qualitative research is that this type of research looks

into context and how it effects people. A disadvantage to quantitative research is that it is very time

consuming and could take weeks, months and even years. Another disadvantage of this method of

research is that the researcher interprets the gathered research according to their own biased views.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative is word based research. One of the many methods of collecting word based research is

by social media; this helps you get thousands of responses. Another method for Qualitative is

Interviews and books. A reason qualitative research is used is to get an idea of the wider context of

things if not a whole context of things. An advantage of of qualitative research is that it proves depth

and details; recognising and recording attitudes, behaviours and feelings. Another advantage of

qualitative research is that it tries to avoid pre-judgements and if used with quantitative research it will

attempt to try and explain why a certain response was given. A disadvantage of qualitative research is

usually fewer people tend to use this method of researching and normally go with primary research and

secondary research because gathering qualitative research is time consuming. Another disadvantage is

that it's difficult to make systematic comparisons (e.g. if people were to give very different responses

that are highly subjective). 

Audience Research

Audience research is a method of research that is any communication that is conducted on a specific

audience segment to gather the right information; in this case it would be research on knowledge,

behaviours, interests etc. One method of gathering audience research is a website called BARB

(Broadcasters' Audience Research Board). BARB is a website that you can get viewing figures on.

Another way of gathering audience research is by using surveys which you can gather opinions with

and information. An advantage of audience research is that the researcher can get views from a higher

audience. Another advantage is that the information the researcher would get would be easy to evaluate

on most parts. A disadvantage of audience research is not all audiences may reply or participate.

Another disadvantage is sometimes editing the research can be time consuming and may take hours,

days, weeks and possibly even a year.

Market Research

Market research is any organised effort to gather information about target markets or customers. One

way of gathering market research is yet again surveys. If a TV programme has a higher viewing

audience, it simply means that it has a higher viewing audience. It doesn't mean that the programme is

better than another programme.  Other ways of gathering audience research is through interviews,

books etc. An advantage of market research is agility of the researcher (e.g. companies using an internal

marketing research department to obtain built in agility to modify research during the investigation

/research time).  Another advantage is that if you're paying someone, you can request a customisation

(e.g. you want only secondary research using questionnaires, you pay someone to do it for you to save

time, they get what you want/need). A disadvantage of market research is the recourses, market

research firms may have access to proprietary software, research pools and expert analysis not available

within the company. Another disadvantage geographical limitations, for example, you might not be able

to travel to the country or place you need the information from and so then the researcher will have to

find another solution. 

Panorama - Last Chance Academy

In this episode of Panorama, it covers a school; Baverstock Academy. Not just any ordinary school but one for kids that misbehave and act disobedient. The school gives those students a programme that is called "Leap". What this program does is allows the students that are misbehaving to learn in a seperate environment to the students that are being obedient and not misbehaving. There's many reasons why the these students that are in leap whether it be because they have something bothering them/a bad past or whether it be just because they dislike school and can't be bothered with it.

In this particular episode, we analysed it and picked out certain things like voice overs, different camera shots, interviews etc and stated on paper what the shorter version of the subject was (e.g. Interviews - Students saying why they were there and teachers saying what they needed to do in order to get these students five GCSE's).

The points below are the things that I picked out from the video of the documentary:

-Observation shots: Seeing teachers and students in action, for example teachers and students arguing and students not listening to the teacher and talking when the teacher is conducting a lesson.

-Voice Over: Female voice explaining where the school is and what the program "Leap" is for. The reason there is a Female voice is because kids are often related to children and will therefor get across that its a caring and subject that shouldn't be dismissed. If it was a Male voice over then it would feel different and wouldn't have the same effect.

-Different Camera Shots: The shots in this documentary were used for effect and to show the surroundings and the people in it. The camera shots consist of many birds eye views, close ups, mid shots, long ranged shots, and over the shoulder shots.

-Genre Of Programme: The genre of a programme is important because of your target audience and what type of people you're aiming the programme at. In this case, it would be a documentary because it is following the students, teachers and school in how they are taught and treated within the school.

-Statistics: 1000 kids in Britain in 20013 were off stated Ofsted. This is useful in the documentary because it tells the viewer how many kids were off before the program; not getting a chance at school and just being dismayed.

-Facts and figures: Facts about the school such as where the school is based. Figures are used by using the Ofsted.

-Drones: Where they get the over head view shots by putting a camera on a toy aeroplane and driving around using a remote control.

Audience Announcing

This is a front cover of a Heat magazine and Straight away I can tell that the target audience would be females (Possibly males as well but unlikely). The reason I think this is because this particular magazine likes to cover gossip stories and will most likely do anything to get one, another reason I think this magazine is aimed at females is because women like reading about celebrities and whether or not that a certain celebrity is breaking up with their partner or if they're having an affair or not. But although women do like this, it isn't all women just like some men like to read this sort of magazine and some won't. 

I suspect that the target audiences age group is around 25 to 45 years of age. I think this because you won't see 15 year olds reading this sort of thing when they're busy with other things. You also wouldn't see 55 year olds reading this either. Another reason that I think this age group would read this magazine is because it's constantly full of drama and someone would want to read about other's drama so that their mind is taken off their own drama for a while; so it acts as a substitute and is a distraction to the person.

As for the NRS (National Readership Survey) Social Grade, the class that would read this, is most likely class D and E. The reason for my decision with these two social grades is because class A, B, C1 and C2 wouldn't be reading this. They would most likely be reading The Sun newspaper or The Times newspaper. The reason I think these two classes would read this is because i suspect, yet again, that the two classes are interested in gossip and drama to take their minds of their own. However, they could also read it for information on their favourite celebrities and see what they're up to or what the latest trend in clothing is (Hence why I think mostly females would read this rather than males). 

On this issue of Heat magazine, they've tried to sucker/draw their target audience in with big yellow and red writing saying "BAD SKIN DAYS" in capital lettering in the bottom right of the magazine. In the middle of the magazine at the top, there's another title that will entice women to read the magazine as it's titled "WOW!" in pink, white and black colour and then following the "WOW!" in the same place, only in pink and white this time, is lower cased lettering saying "Beks gets a back, sack and crack waxed!". 

At the bottom left of the magazine in capital white letters saying "WHO'S TRYING TO BAN ALL" and then in dark blue almost purple capital letters saying "SKINNY" and yet again in white capital letters saying "CELEBRITIES?". 

Advertisement Analysis 1 Sheet

On this sheet, we had to pick an advert to analyse and write about in as much detail as we could. There were four boxes we had to fill. The first one was "Name/title of media production" and in the same box is "Types of media product". The second box is labelled "Target Audience" and in that section I stated the target audiences gender, age and class (Working class, lower class etc.). In the third box, it was labelled "Description of advertisement". I filled this box with shots that I'd kept my eyes out for such as close ups, mid shots, larger mid shots and more. The fourth box is labelled "What does this analysis tell you about the relationship between the advertisement and the media production?" to which I described the relationship by comparing the taste of the chocolate to the drums e.g. when the drums kick in the taste of the chocolate does when you're eating a piece.

This sheet will help me later in the course by making me think about what age, gender, class I want my video/documentary to be when I create mine. It will also help me by helping me decide how I get my point across and the relationship of the product/video. I'll keep the sheet safe by keeping it in a folder along with my other sheets I fill out so that I can later come back to them for references and for anything I need help with.

Perceptions of Audience sheet

On this sheet we had to find out the stereotypical audiences of eight companies. These companies were The Sun Newspaper, The Times Newspaper, Nuts magazine, Radio Times magazine, Channel 4 News, Big Brother, Radio 1 and Radio 4. When someone says stereotypical audiences, I as a media student, look at how old the target audiences are for each one, what gender they would be/which gender the product is aimed at, where they'd be based (e.g. The Sun newspaper is based in London and will then attract mostly people from London but other places as well) and what their class would be; for example The Times newspaper would be aimed at the upper class or working class. It's not something people from Manchester or Hyde would take interest in for the simple fact that it's quite serious newspaper.

For each company we researched what their target audience was/is and what gender they were aiming the product at. One company I researched was Nuts magazine and that was quite clearly aimed at males in their fifteens onwards but there could have also been some females that looked/read the magazine as well as males. However, the stereotypical audiences of Nuts magazine would be males because of course, the magazine has a lot of female body parts and some bikes with females on it.