Soap Opera Genre - Primary Research Results Sean Wayne Unit G324

1. Primary Research Results
Name: Sean Wayne
Candidate Number: 1254
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135

2. Q1: What gender do you think the majority of people
that watch Soap Operas are?
6%
94%
Q1: What gender do you think the majority
of people that watch soap operas are?
Male Female
The majority of the people that filled in
this questionnaire thought that it was
mostly females that were interested in
soap operas. This connotes that when
designing the trailer and poster for our
soap opera we will have to ensure there
are plenty of topics and storylines that
will appeal primarily to the female
audience. Even though the majority of the
soap opera audience are thought to be
female, there are still a small number of
males that are interested in soap operas,
meaning that we will have to ensure that
there are still some aspects of the trailer
and poster that would appeal to a male
audience.

3. Q2: What class of person would you say likes soap
operas?
6%
44%
50%
Q2: What class of person would you say likes
soap operas?
Upper class Middle class Lower class
50% that filled in this questionnaire
thought lower class people like soap
operas more that the upper and middle
class, which means that I need to ensure
that there are plenty of relatable
storylines and characters for this
demographic. However a large portion
(43.75%) of the people that carried out
this survey also though that middle class
people show an interest in soap operas.
As the they are both very close I will have
to ensure that there is a balance of
people from the two classes in the soap
opera to ensure that everyone that is
watching the show has someone they can
relate to.

4. Q3: What time would you expect a soap opera to be
shown?
12%
75%
13%
Q3: What time would you expect a soap opera
to be shown?
9:00 - 12:00 12:01 - 15:00 15:01 - 18:00 18:01 - 21:00 21:01 - 00:00
75% of the people that filled in this
questionnaire thought that Soap operas
should be shown in the evening (18:01 –
21:00) rather than any other time of the
day. This is before the water shed which
means that we will have to ensure that all
of the content shown in the soap opera is
suitable for television at this time.

5. Q4: Would you expect people from a variety of ethnic
backgrounds to be in a soap opera?
87%
13%
Q4: Would you expect people from a variety of
different ethnic backgrounds to be in the soap
opera?
Yes No
The 87.5% of the people that filled in this
questionnaire think that many people
from a variety of ethnic backgrounds need
to be shown within the soap opera. As
well as giving more people from different
ethnicities something in the soap that
they might be able to relate to, this can
also be used to create different storylines
that may not be able to be created if
everyone in the soap comes from the
same ethic background, such as cultures
clashing.

6. Q5: Which of these plot devices would you expect to be
covered in a soap opera?
16%
13%
11%
13%10%
16%
12%
9%
Q5: Which of these plot devices would you
expect to be covered in a soap opera?
Adultery Marriage/Divorce Drug Abuse Murder
Kidnapping Family Feuds Accidents Bullying
87.5% of the people that filled in this
questionnaire thought that adultery and
family frauds where the main plot devises
that they would expect from a soap
opera. This means that these two plots
will have to be implemented within the
soap opera as two of the main narrative
strands. However as denoted on the pie
chart, people selected all of the plot
devices almost equally, meaning that we
should try and include as many of these
plots as sub stories in our soap opera as
possible.

7. Q6: What setting would you most expect a soap opera
to be set in?
12%
62%
13%
13%
Q6: What setting would you most expect a soap
opera to be set in?
Highly Urban Area Smaller Urban Areas Suburbs Rural Areas
62.50% of the people that filled in this
questionnaire thought that the most
appropriate place for a soap opera to be
set in would be small urban areas such as
towns. This would mean that we will have
to base our soap opera in a town, and
that we will have to film our trailer in a
town or street.

8. Q7: What marketing strategies would encourage you to
watch a soap opera?
The people that filled in this
questionnaire came up with a variety of
different marketing strategies that would
encourage them to watch a soap opera.
The most common suggestions given
were, Social Media Adverts, Trailers and
TV adverts. This means when creating the
poster for my soap opera, I need to
include different social media logos and
reverences to the trailer in order to
encourage potential audiences to look at
the soaps social media and trailer.

9. Q8: What do you think would be suitable name for a
soap opera?
67%
27%
6%
Q8: What do you think would be
suitable name for a soap opera?
Langley Vale Castle Combe Port Issac
The 66.67% of the people that filled in
this questionnaire thought that Langley
Vale was the best name for the soap
opera out of the 3 choices given. This
connotes that we should make the name
of our soap opera Langley Vale.

10. Q9: Has a soap opera’s trailer ever encouraged you to
watch that soap opera?
56.25% of the people that filled in this
questionnaire said that they had not been
encouraged to watch soap operas from a
trailer. However 43.75% of the people
said they had been encouraged to watch a
soap as a result of watching the trailer .
The majority of the people that said yes
said that it was the EastEnders trailer that
encouraged them to watch the soap, with
one person saying Hollyoaks. This means
that we should watch EastEnders trailers
(and Hollyoaks) in order to see what
aspects of those trailers we can ‘repeat’
(Steve Neale – 1980) in our own trailer
that would encourage people to watch
our soap opera.
44%
56%
Q9: Has a soap opera's trailer ever
encouraged you to watch a soap opera?
Yes No

11. Q10: What would you say the majority of soap operas
are lacking?
The people that filled in this
questionnaire came up with a variety of
different way the majority of soap operas
are lacking. The most common criticisms
were a lack of issues relating to younger
audiences, a lack of depth in storyline and
a lack of realism when it is needed. When
creating our soap we need to ensure that
we fix these criticisms in order to make
our soap more appealing. There are other
criticisms such as not enough for the male
gender and more interesting camera
techniques that we will be able to
improve on in order to increase the
interest in our soap even further.

12. Evidence of someone filling in the survey

13. Conclusion
In conclusion, I have gotten a variety of results that will be able to help me to
improve my ideas for my magazine, trailer and poster. I will need to base the
majority of these on attracting the female audience as females show the most
interest in soaps, however it is also important to include aspects that would
appeal to the male demographic in order to encourage men to tray watching
a soap opera. I will have to advertise the soap in a variety of different ways
(such as Social Media) in order to give the sense of viral marketing,
encouraging more people to watch the soap. I will also need to include a
variety of storyline with different plots in order keep the audiences interest in
the soap, resulting in them watching the soap regularly.