Quantitative and qualitative research methods are described. Quantitative research uses numerical data and statistical analysis to understand topics like popularity and frequency. Qualitative research explores people's thoughts and feelings through focus groups and interviews to provide detailed ideas and concepts. Understanding the target audience is also discussed as important for effectiveness, defining value, and determining appropriate marketing. Audience profiling helps companies identify who needs their product. Geodemographics and psychographics classify people by neighborhood and personality characteristics. Gender and age stereotypes in media are noted as factors to consider for a target audience.

1. Critical Approaches

2. Quantitative Research
• Quantitative research is one of two main types of research where the data produced is
always numerical and if it is is not analyzed using statistical methods it is not quantitative
research. This type of research should be used when you want to know how many or how
often about a certain topic. The idea of quantitative research is to profile a target
audience by finding out which topic is voted the most in focus groups, what is the most
popular answers in questionnaires etc. There are many advantages to quantitative
research but also a fair few drawbacks to go with it. A major pro to quantitative research
is that you can collect results at a fast speed. You could write own a 10 question
questionnaire and you could have results back in 5 minutes off multiple people. On the
other hand it would take serious time to read through multiple articles and websites to
collect data. You can also analyze this data fairly quickly and create a target audience.
This type of research is reliable and this repeatable information that quantitative surveys
can provide, will give you confidence when doing this again in the future. There are also a
few cons with this type of research. Firstly there is a limited ability to explore answers
because of the fact you will most probably only have up to 4 choices on a question and
also people who respond to these questions may give answers that don’t apply to the
audience as a whole which could then lead to a potential bias in the study.

3. Qualitative Research
• Qualitative research is essentially about finding out what people think and feel
about a certain topic and provide results that are extremely detailed and can offer
a variety of ideas and concepts from a variety of different people. To conduct a
typical qualitative research you will find a focus group which is basically a small
select group of people who have very similar characteristics. An alternative is to
use 1 on 1s with in depth interviews to get a specific person’s thoughts on a topic
and you would do this multiple times to create a variety of answers and opinions.
There are many advantages and drawbacks of this type of research. In terms of
pros it allows you to explore in more depth and detail than other types of market
research due to focus groups and in-depth interviews. Another advantage is that it
is very flexible in terms of locating people and timing as you don’t need to
interview a large number of people at one given time. On the flip side to this and a
con of this type of research is that you can’t add up how many of your audience
answer one way or another because the answers are not generalized, which also
means you can’t really broaden audience beyond your small select group of
people you had to start with.

4. What is an audience?
• An audience is essentially an individual or a group of people who read or take in a
piece of media text. Examples of this are television viewers, radio listeners and
magazine readers. If audiences didn’t exist there would be no such thing as media.
This is because businesses create and produce media to make profit and therefore
rely on their audience to do this. Digital technology however has led to an
uncertainty over how we define an audience because people think a large group
of people reading the same text at the same time is outdated and audiences are
now fragmented because of this. An example of a fragmented audience would be
in newspapers and magazines as some people will now just solely view the online
version instead of the standard print you can find in newsagents. Obviously the
media company is trying to generate a bigger audience but measuring a
fragmented audience can be tricky and confusing. There are two main types of
audience which come in the form of mass and niche. Mass audience which is often
termed as broadcast audience, are those who consume mainstream or popular
texts such as soaps or sitcoms. It is essentially media and communication that
targets a very large group of people. Examples of this are shows such as Top Gear
and Friends, as well as magazines like heat and newspapers like the guardian. A
niche audience is much smaller but very influential. A niche audience is a small,
select group of people with a very unique interest. Examples of niche publications
include All out cricket and Racecar.

5. Why is an audience important?
• There are many reasons as to why it is important to understand your target
audience. First of all it’s the key to effectiveness as unfortunately it's not enough
to just know your target audience. It is all about building a relationship that is
strong, loyal and long lasting. By doing this you can understand them as real
people and get to know them better so they can also improve your product by
giving you advice and constructive criticism. For example in the film industry is it
important that you recognize your target audience early in pre-production so that
you have a clear idea and plan what genre of movie you want to produce. If there
is a lingering doubt over what film you are going to produce, it is most likely the
final outcome will be nothing like you want it to be. It also enables you to define
your value proposition. This can be seen to define what your business does,
uniquely. If you find this difficult to do it means you don’t understand your
audience. When you understand them it’s easy because you know what you want,
therefore you can package it to them.

6. What is an audience profile?
Companies need to know who their audience is before they can start marketing
and promoting their product. They can waste a lot of time and effort trying to
market to the wrong people. For example, if a company is selling treatment for
receding hair lines, they do not want to send marketing materials to college
students. Audience profiling is important for a few reasons. First of all companies
need to have goal in mind when they are selling a product. they need to have a
consumer in mind who needs the product. Audience profiling can help to
determine the goal of the product by determining who the product should be
marketed to. Audience profiling should be completed during product
development to make sure the product will fit a certain audience. Also the main
reason why audience profiling is important is because it will help you with
marketing. It will help determine which marketing campaigns will be successful,
who to market to, and how to market to that audience. For example when writing
an article, authors need to know who their readers are so they can use language
that there audience will be able to understand. This is why audience profiling is so
important for companies.

7. Geodemographics
• Geodemographics is essentially classifying people by their neighborhood
according to the characteristics of that area. This is important for media producers
when they are producing a product for a regional audience. Like in any target
audience, it is vitally important that the producers know who their product is
aimed at. Geodemographics can certainly help. An example of this would be if an
area has been classified as a bunch of people who have low income due to a
tedious job and have had bad education will have different products targeted at
them then a high class area. The time of the day that shows are broadcasted will
also be affected by this as people with a full time job for example won’t be back
home until late in the evening. Therefore show that are targeted at non-working
class people can afford to put their show in the day, whereas higher class
programmes are forced to put their shows on late at night to maximize their
viewing potential.

8. Psychographics
• Psychographics is basically where the scale uses categories of personalities and
puts people into categories regarding and lifestyle. The psychographics table is set
up as resigned, who are the people who seek survival and are very interested in
the past and traditions. Strugglers seek escape and not not have very many skills in
terms of what they are good at. Mainstreamers look for security and to be
domestic and sentimental for money brands including family brands. Aspirers seek
status in terms of what they own and tend to be very materialistic. Succeeders are
very confident people in terms of their work business and social life who seek
control and have strong goals. Explorers have plenty of energy and want to try
new things all the time and finally reformers seek enlightenment in terms of
personal growth and knowledgment. An example of this is marketing
departments. They use psychographic studies quite often to determine a fixed
marketing plan. They are often combined with demographics, such as age and
gender, to gain a more detailed view of the sample.

9. Gender
• For a long time now the representation of the female has been a major concern.
Research proves that there are far fewer females than males in pretty much every
form of mainstream media and the ones that do appear are portrayed in very
stereotypical ways. From every form of media from advertising to newspaper and
magazines, women are usually found in a home carrying out chores such as
cooking and cleaning and are also found in depressing adverts where they can’t
protect themselves. This however doesn’t mean that men are not stereotyped.
Men are usually found in aggression and violence adverts and are often associated
with independence. Even though the portrayal of the men and women is shocking,
when it comes to children it is far worse. For example adverts aimed at girls focus
on dolls, jewellery etc. On the other hand sports and cars are used in adverts for
boys. This constant reinforcement of polarized gender messages has
fundamentally anti social effects.
http://www.etfo.ca/Resources/ForTeachers/Documents/Gender%20Issues%20in
%20The%20Media.aspx

10. Age
• Age is another factor in picking a target audience. For example if you are trying to
promote a rent a car company, you are not going to aim it at people 16 and under
because they are under age to drive an authorized vehicle. Therefore they are
going to aim this at 17+ for people who are legal and have the right to drive.
Whether they can or not is a different matter totally. On the flip side to this it is
highly unlikely that a person aged 10+ are going to interested in looking at a Lego
product. It is vital that you understand clearly who you are aiming your product at,
as it will help forecast which demographic has the keenest interest in your
industry and make your product more successful in the future.
• However some media companies won’t target their brand at a specific audience
and could just generalize from say 5+. Age isn't a critical demographic for certain
products but most of the time it is most certainly vital to understand what your
brand is targeted at.