How Media Producers Define Audiences for Their Product
Quantitive vs Qualitative
Quantitive = numerical/value - Quantitaive is an amount or value of something, always a number. For example: Sales either physical or digital distributions such as Origin or Steam as alot of games are sold digitally these days so they need to check a lot of different sites for their sales along with how many people are playing or buying certain games rather than just shops. Youtubers also promote certain games to get them sold more just by playing them and uploading the footage to their youtube channels. Ratings that are given by critics, review sites such as IGN or user ratings like on steam or metacritic where the game, film or show can be rated good/bad, 1-5, 1-10, 1-100 or by percent. Circulation is also a factor here as circulation shows how many shops or sites are selling certain games and if they offer special deals on them for bonus content or discounts. How popular they are on sites is a main thing as if it is more popular then it will have more players and more people will buy it. Figures will help show how popular a game is, on steam you can look at how many people are playing the top few games that are currently popular. A lot of games go on sale and that will help them sell if they aren’t selling that much or people don’t want to pay that much for them, this really helps out the developers and gives more people a chance to play different games.
Qualitative = non numerical - Qualitative is non-valued so numbers do
not matter and words are more important. For example: Reviews which anyone can make and can help others see the good and bad points in different media to see if it’s good or not. News Coverage which usually either shows how popular a game/film is or shows that it is very controversial and causing a lot of complaints as some people believe that videogames are connected to violence. Advertising Campaigns are something that big companies use to promote their games as they have a lot of money to do so. They usually put up big billboards or signs around gaming conventions or sometimes around capital cities across the world. Discussions are good as they let people talk about the film or game or show and voice their opinions on it and say what they liked about it or disliked. People might also talk about making mods or other things that will help to improve a game however a film would just require a sequel.
The correlation between quantitative and qualitative are that they both are about the public and media reviewing/being on the receiving end of the entertainment industry and what is produced.
Types and methods of research:
There are two types of research, these are called primary
and secondary.
Primary research is new research, which answers certain questions.
It can involve questionnaires, surveys or interviews with
individuals or small groups.
Some Primary research is;
Participating in internet forums is what a lot of people do to talk about different games and their
experiences with them. They are used by most people, usually to report problems with certain games
or to post their videos to try and promote themselves. You can find out a lot about games on their companies forums.
Observation is used a lot in researching as people such as testers like to look at things and
try to find errors that may have to be fixed. There are many testers these days so usually bugs and errors are fixed.
Data gathering agencies are useful for researching how many sales games are making, how many people are playing certain games and how many of these people are currently playing games
Secondary research uses information previously researched for other things and is available to the public, it is mainly about researching things on a computer
Some secondary research is: Books can be used to research many different things and are still used a today for researching however it’s not that popular anymore.
The Internet is used all the time for
research these days as there are so many sites with so many different
things on them, most of the time they are true but sometimes you
might be given false information as some sites can be edited by anyone
CD/DVD ROM discs are sometimes used to store data or retrieve data that has been stored on there, some research is done from discs but not that much.
Ratings are a good source of research as reading other people’s
reviews usually tells you a lot about something and if it’s good or bad
Purposes of Research:
Audience Research - Audience research is researching
what kind of people are into what things.
Some Audience Research:
Profiling is to help you see what your target audience is, based on that you should know what kind of game or film etc to make.
Demographics are important as if you continue to make things
that your customers don’t like then you won’t have many sales however
if you give people what they ask for then you should succeed hopefully.
Consumer attitudes are a problem sometimes as people these days can get offended easily so you may
need to end up censoring your product incase you get sued or something else bad
Market Research - Market Research is what age
certain things are marketed to.
Some examples of market research: Product Market is important as you need to make sure to show your products in the right places, for example: if you want to promote a new
game then you should try to promote it at a gaming convention.
Competitor Analysis is a big thing for your company to keep an eye on your competitors so you can outdo them.
Advertising Placement is a thing to make sure you get right as if you advertise in the right places then you will get more people to want your product.
Production research - production research is analysing the information for a product of the media.
Some examples of Production research: Content is a main selling point for your product as in there isn't enough content or the content isn't that good then less people will pay for it.
Finance is the thing that lets you create a product as without the money then you can’t make anything.
Locations can be part of a product and finding the right ones can be difficult and cost money but when you get the right place then it should be worth it.
Survey Answers
Most people had not played the game that the survey was about which was the problem with this question.
More people enjoy the game than not which isn't a surprise as it is very popular on both PC and PS4.
A lot of people are unsure about whether the price is worth it or not although it does seem very reasonable.
A majority of people like doing 'cool tricks' which is a big part of the game
Most people didn't know of the previous game which isn't surprising as it is rather old and not played much anymore.
The vast majority of people play on PC and PS4 however one plays it on mac or linux for some reason.
Many people had different ranks all over the place and it all depends how good you are.
The things that people said could be improved are 'more levels and customization for cars', 'make dlc free like the main game' and 'balanced matches'.
This is more of a quantitative thing as it is a survey and people are doing it/reviewing/answering questions about a game etc. The people who didn't play the game also seemed to answer some questions so they must of seen some gameplay of it and enjoyed it.
Conclusion
The conclusion of my research says that my methods were successful because I was able to ask the right questions to the right people. Not many people have played the game which was the only issue I had with the survey, aside from that I believe I asked all the right questions. The conclusion really is that people who play the game are good at it and/or enjoy the game quite a bit.
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