A2 media Question 3

1. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE
FEEDBACK?
CHARLOTTE DALE – A2 MEDIA EVALUATION

2. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
 Market research is a crucial part of developing any product whether it be a media product or
not. It consists of carrying out both primary and secondary research on the market which your
product will be entering into and collecting feedback from potential consumers to get their
ideas and opinions to help shape the product.
 I decided to carry out my market research in the early stages of the planning process. This
was because I valued other peoples opinions and wanted to incorporate the thoughts and
feelings of other people as much as possible into my music video. Conducting research early
meant that I didn’t have an exact proposal for the music video, making it easily amendable
based on the data collected.
 The methods of market research I chose were a questionnaire and a focus group for my
primary research, and the online YouGov tool to build an audience profile as my secondary
research.

3. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
 I chose to conduct a questionnaire on a large sample of my potential audience as it allowed me to ask
specific questions relating to my music video. One of the questions in particular being - ’Do you support
music videos with themes, issues, or political standpoints?’ At this point I had an idea that I wanted my
music video to portray the issue of self-image amongst teenagers however I didn’t know whether such a
taboo topic would appeal to an audience. The result showed that 58% of those surveyed did support
music videos with themes, issues or standpoints and therefore this encouraged me to follow my initial
ideas.
 To further this I also asked ‘On a scale of 1-10 how important do you think the issue of self-image and
pressures on young people is?’ I wanted to find out exactly how significant people thought the issue was
and the final average was 8.1 out of 10. This was the result I was hoping for and displayed the issue
holds high value to the potential audience, making it less of a risk to display such a theme.
 Therefore, from the audience feedback collected in my questionnaire I was able to reinforce my initial
ideas with evidence that there was a demand in the market for it. I learnt that while in previous decades
addressing taboo subjects in music videos was a rarity, audiences now support media that aims to
portray a message or theme and music videos are a great platform to spread such messages.

4. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
 I also conducted a focus group with a handful of my target market to get opinions on my final music
video proposal. As discussed within the questionnaire, I found out that the majority of participants
supported music videos that highlighted taboo themes or issues and all thought that raising awareness
of self-image is a good idea in the online age where pressures to look ‘perfect’ can be seen anywhere.
 However, a valuable piece of feedback I received was that all of my participants were in agreement that
my artists should be branded as relatable and real rather than an ‘ideal’ commonly found in pop artists
such as Beyoncé. From this I learnt that in previous decades where Star Theory – the idea that artists are
constructed to be the ‘ideal’ product and to make money - was very much applicable to the music
industry, now audiences are attracted more to authentic artists who aren’t perfect and have human
qualities. As my theme is all about not being perfect and not giving in to the expectations of society’s
ideal, I now agree with my focus group that it is crucial the artist is marketed so the target audience can
relate to them.

5. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
 The final piece of market research I conducted was secondary research to build up an audience profile.
For this I used the online tool YouGov where I was specifically able to search the term ‘Beyoncé’ to
collect large amounts of data including demographics, lifestyle, consumption of media and the brands of
a typical Beyoncé fan.
 For demographics I learnt that the stereotype is a female, aged 18-29 who lives an urban lifestyle. In
terms of lifestyle and personality, their interests include social media, shopping and celebrities and they
are kind and open-minded who value image and materialism. Finally in terms of consumption of media
they spend 46-50 hours per week online and their favorite shows and movies are chick flicks or comedy.
 This audience data supported my music video proposal as the themes and issues I planned to convey
through my video are faced primarily by the age bracket described as Beyoncé's main audience.
Similarly, I aimed to have a focus in my music video on online pressures, linking with the fact that much
of the media consumption for this target audience is online. After conducting this research I wanted to
learn more about the audience who valued materialism and studied Young and Rubicams audience
model to do this.

6. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
 Following the production of my music video I ’sampled’ the finished products on participants from my
target audience to gage reactions and get feedback. The impact of this was it gave me an opportunity to
find out peoples opinions on the products which during the production process I didn’t have.
 The reaction to all of my products (music video, digipak and magazine advert) was positive with most of
the participants agreeing that the music video successfully portrayed the character as insecure and
struggling with self-image, something which every one related to. They also agreed that the products
worked together cohesively and would be easy for the audience to recognize as advertising the same
artist – an aim when planning the design of the products.
 Finally the audience feedback was particularly useful as it gave me a chance to edit my products before
submitting. For example, one member of the focus group highlighted an inconsistency in the filters
included in my music video which I hadn’t previously noticed. Therefore, a second opinion is crucial in
identifying and editing any mistakes.