Task 5 – Methods of Research

It is very important to research before you start planning a new advertising campaign because it is helpful to a great extent because you are trying to find out who uses the product. Additionally, planning allows you to collect as much information as possible which will mean that your advertisement will be successful when it comes to selling the specific product. Furthermore , there are so many ways when it comes to conducting this research because some research are important because it has never been done which means that everything is safe and viewers will be comfortable when it comes to the advertisement.

Primary research

Primary research is any type of research that you go out and collect yourself. For example surveys, interviews, observation and ethnographic research. Also it is when researching an organisation conducts itself to find out the answer to specific questions. For example, when carrying out questionnaires, surveys and etc. The advantage of primary research is being able to explore the secondary research already performed by other researchers. Also, carrying out their own research allows the media organisation to address issues specific to their own situation

One advantages of primary research is greater control- not only does primary research enable the marketer to focus on specific issues, it enable the marketer to have a higher level of control over how the information is collected. This means a researcher can focus on his product only, which means that they can analyse it better. Primary research means you can focus on specific issues,  it also gives the researcher a high level of control over how the information is collected. This means a media company can focus on their product only will have a better information on which to base their analysis. There are some limitation for primary research because I felt like it was only focuses on one side of the people that’s responding to some questions I asked. During my interview the people I asked mostly said stuff like I wanted to hear not their general opinion. The process was time consuming when creating the questionnaire and interview, also checking availability of the interviews and I did not get enough information that I wanted. And when I was conducting the interview the people that I asked were not really honest in their response and the environment they were in influenced their response as they were not taking it seriously their friends were  around them when conducting their interviews.

secondary research 

Secondary research is uses outside information assembled by media sources. It is a form of research where the information already exists and can be used as a form of second hand research. It is usually published in pamphlets, newsletters, magazines, and newspaper. Media firms can get information from the government or trade publications .

There are advantages and disadvantages to secondary research. Some of the advantage of secondary research are that it is easy to do because of the already existing data. Most of the pre-existing sources are very accurate therefore it makes your research easier. However there is also some disadvantages of this type of research and they are a major disadvantage which is when you don’t know who did the research and how honest and accurate it is. Secondary research can be biased and inaccuracies cannot be checked 

Quantative Data collection 

Quantative data collection is number crunching and questionnaires are usually used in this. The advantage of it is that you can have a relatively large sample, a large quantity of data. It is relatively easy to administer. However the disadvantage of it is that it is hard to design a questionnaire that finds out exactly what you want and closed questions cannot be altered.

The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ measurable facts and information instead of the opinions because it is based on actual data. The 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, which incentive such as free gift will appeal to which target market.

The disadvantage of a quantitative research is that you cannot ask questions. You often get a yes or no when the true answer might be somewhere in the middle.

An disadvantage of qualitative research is that qualitative research does not ensure accuracy in the way quantitative research requires. Opinion and bias are far more like to distort your result. For example, when I asked a question in a small group of people. This does not represent the views of the entire population so it is difficult to analyse what the majority of an audience feels about a particular situation 

The four audience research are descriptive research, analytical research, predictive research and tracking researching.  Descriptive research describes your audience and their characteristics. For example, who are your current audiences, where do they live, how old are they?. The Analytical research seeks to understand how and why. For example, why did they buy every Ryan Gosling DVD but not the last one?. The predictive research considers what is situation. For example, what will happen if we change the names of our company?. And, tracking research, long term research that monitors changes taking place overtime, for example how has the pattern for subscription season ticket sales changed over the past three years.

The stage of audience research

·         The basic principle in the lifecycle

-the target audience are that you need to be able to know who your audience are and learn to understand your audience. You need to make sure you have prepared.  For example, someone who need to develop skills to quit smoking will likely need information about the effect of smoking on their health. In order to reach your audience most effectively, you need to know who they are, what exactly they need and what would help them pay attention and understand your message. I need to be able to plan my research, for example if I was going to give a speech to people about football  I need to make sure I plan what I am going to say about football so it wouldn’t turn into a shamble. Furthermore I need to make sure I do some research, so it will allow the audience to know that I know what I am talking about, also it will make me look professional. Additionally, I need to make sure I analyse what I researched on, making sure that what I researched is reliable and effective for my audience. And I need to use evidence in my advert and have something to back me up in my own advert. 

reference- blog 6 Methods of Research by Mr P. willamson 
Date: 3rd/ september/ 2013