Research By Andrew Knott

The Purpose of Research Within a Business The purpose of research within a business is simple, it is to provide the company with an idea or an image of what their target market wants or already has, this could be either finding out what type of chocolate their audience wants in terms of dark, milk or white, this would help the company decide on what type of chocolate would make the most money and in tern would also be worth more to make in the eyes of the company, or it could be finding out what chocolate is already on that market and is selling well or what isn’t on the market yet, this would also give the company an idea of what chocolate to make because if there is an absence of one type of chocolate in their local market they could mass produce it, and chances are it would sell. Market research is important because it helps businesses make crucial decisions that could make or break the business, these decisions are made after the market research to minimalize the risks of “going in blind”.

Methods of Research Primary Research – Research that is conducted by yourself or your company, this is the most reliable form of research because you gathered it yourself and therefore there was no one in the middle to tamper with your research. Examples of primary research are: Surveys, This form of research is good because it is quick and easy to set up a survey, also it is easy to get it into the public. However, they usually only gather yes or no answers making the survey fairly vague. An example of this could be asking people what they prefer white chocolate, Milk Chocolate or Dark chocolate. Polls, These gather a fast percentage of something, generally an opinion or an answer to question, this is easy and reliable most of the time, unfortunately people answer polls with predefined answers making it hard for them to express their own opinions or get their actual view to you. An example of polls would be the Scottish referendum poll that was in place recently, this allowed them to find out how many people wanted to be independent and how many didn’t Focus groups, these are a group of people that get together to judge a product, this allows you to get reliable information with a large amount of different opinions, however, this does not get you everyone's opinions and will often not get you a perfect idea of your entire audience. An example of this would be a group of people discussing which genre of game they enjoy the most E.G. FPS, RPG or SciFI Secondary research – This is research that you didn’t conduct yourself, this research is unreliable most of the time because there is someone that could of tampered with it. Examples of secondary research: Wikipedia: This is a website hosts a very expansive library of information, however it also allows the general public to edit their pages making it very unreliable. This could be used to research anything you need to know about the product you are developing. Data collection agencies: This is a company that specializes in getting research for your company, these places can be very reliable but will cost a lot of money to do anything, but they will allow you to concentrate your efforts elsewhere while they work. These websites could be used to find things like the amount of people are watching a certain TV program at what time. Books: Books are the most reliable sources of information because they cannot be tampered with unless the are reprinted and changed, however they can also be outdated making the information in them useless. This can be used to find most things you need to know, chances are, if you need it, someone has made a book about it.

Types of Research Quantitative: this is research that consists of mainly numbers and figures. Examples of quantitative research: Polls, Polls are a way of getting large amounts of people’s views on a certain subject, this information will be collected in the form of a percentage, an example of this would finding out how many different people watch different shows at what times. Tally charts, These are a chart that contains line like objects that counts the amount of votes towards or against one question, this could be useful if you only have one question that you want the publics vote on. Viewer counts, this the amount of people viewed a program or a movie at any given time, and example of this would be Qualitative: This consists of mostly opinions from the public or facts from a focus group. Examples of these are: Focus Groups, these are a group of people that get together to judge a product, this allows you to get reliable information with a large amount of different opinions, however, this does not get you everyone's opinions and will often not get you a perfect idea of your entire audience. An example of this would be a group of people discussing which genre of game they enjoy the most E.G. FPS, RPG or SciFI Surveys, This form of research is good because it is quick and easy to set up a survey, also it is easy to get it into the public. However, they usually only gather yes or no answers making the survey fairly vague. An example of this could be asking people what they prefer white chocolate, Milk Chocolate or Dark chocolate. Wikipedia, This is a website hosts a very expansive library of information, however it also allows the general public to edit their pages making it very unreliable. This could be used to research anything you need to know about the product you are developing.

Data Gathering Agencies The role of a data gathering agency is one of two things, it could be to gather research on demand for companies for a price, or it could be to gather data constantly on a certain subject E.G. B.A.R.B. Examples of data gathering agencies are: BARB, this company collects viewer counts for most TV shows that air on most channels, they do this by recording the amount of signals appear at the time of the show, this allows them to collect a relatively accurate viewer count for that show. SPY Agencies, This agency is an on demand agency, they are approached by companies to do some research on any given area, these companies then pay them on the completion date for the data gathered. In the Media industry these companies play a key part in small and large businesses because they help smaller companies, that can’t afford the time or money of hiring their own research staff, get their research. They also help larger companies that don’t want to have to waste time on research and just want to get on with their production, they do this by taking some work off of that company.

Purpose of Research Audience profiling: building an audience profile, is going out into the public and asking people that relate to your subject, or you could get a focus group, and record their responses to your questions that relate to your product, this allows you to create a database of the results making it more effective when you want to determine what your audience wants from you. Demographics, The different characteristics of a certain part of the population. Geodemographic, This is how the demographics of society change and differ in different places. Demographic profiles are useful because they help you decide what field is the best to start in, this also helps to decide what to make and what audience you should dive into.

Purpose of Research Psychographics, This is the focus on peoples opinions or interests. This is what people like, for example their favorite video game, or food. Using both psycho and demographical looks on your audience will help you make your own product because it gets everything you need to know where to start, it gets you for instance, their interests in the local area like video games, but it also gets you their favorite video game genre and game thus far, helping you decide what to do.

Purpose of research Market research is different to audience research due to the fact that you are no longer researching your audience but you are researching the market and your competitors. Learning from market research is helpful because it will give you an incite into your competitors, this is good because you will be able to one-up your competition making your product better and more appealing to your audience. In the Media industry it is useful to know this information to not only make something the same as your competition, but to make it better than everything that is currently on the market, this make your product more successful in the audiences eyes.

Purpose of research Production research is useful because it helps you find out what and who you might need to make your product this is useful to know because you don’t want to be finding out you need something mid way through and not having it. A company will want to know what their competitors have to work with because it will help you one-up them making your product more interesting or more complex, making it more appealing to your audience. If you are making a movie, and your competitors have a more know actor/actress this will give them an edge on the product because people are more inclined to watch a movie if they know the actor, this information will let you make a crucial decision whether or not to find a more popular actor/actress than your opposition making your movie more likely to succeed.