Audience research ideas

In lesson, we used the time to look effective audience research and how we can make the most of it to better our task for our coursework. There are two main ways which we looked at how to get audience feedback and they are both very effective given that they are conducted the right way. The two methods are Questionnaires and focus groups

Focus group: A small group of six to ten people led through open discussion by a skilled moderator. The group needs to be large enough to generate rich discussion but not so large that some participants are left out.

The focus group moderator seeks disclosure in an open and spontaneous format - the aim of a focus group is to collect a large amount of ideas and opinions from as many different people within the time given. The time aim for a discussion would be around fifteen minutes.
Focus groups are structured around a set of questions, the amount of questions vary but usually no more than ten questions per focus group. The discussion is not limited or set but in contrary, free-flowing. What usually happens is one persons comment in the group will stimulate and influence the thinking of others and they will then contribute their thoughts, however this can influence the thoughts of others so they change their original ideas. Some people in the groups then might find themselves changing their opinions during the group.

There are three types of focus group questions:
Engagement questions: Introduce participants to and make them feel comfortable with the topic of discussion.
Exploration questions: Get to the meat of the discussion.
Exit Question: Check to see if anything was missed in the discussion.

Questionnaire: You have to set out at the start that you are researching.
There must be a clear purpose behind each question. You may be aiming to:
Determine what's popular
Determine what pupils like about their artist and what appeals to them
Determine where they feel there is a gap in the market
Determine what values they feel are important in the genre.

There will be a maximum of eight questions and the questions will be a mixture of multiple choice, closed questions and also opportunities for comments.