1. Research is important to avoid errors when creating products, as research allows you to tailor the product to the audience and market. 2. There are three main types of research: audience research to understand the target customer, market research to analyze the relevant market, and production research to determine necessary materials and equipment. 3. Qualitative and quantitative research methods can be used, with qualitative involving open-ended questions to understand opinions and quantitative using closed questions and statistics.

1. Research Techniques
Hannah Harkus

2. Why do research?
This is because research is very important and If you do not
research into certain areas, errors will occur. These errors may
be because you did not research the audience and made a
product inappropriate, You may sell the product for too much
money or there may be an error in the actual product.
I found research particularly useful when creating recipe
cards. As I was creating recipe cards especially for vegetarians
I had to research into what they could and could not eat.
However this food was not the only topic I had to research
into. I also had to look into what I was writing, what colours
and images I was using too. This is so that I did not offend
anybody or make anybody feel left out or discriminated
against.

3. There are 3 main key areas in research. These
include audience research, market research and
production research. These are all very different
but equally important. Audience research is the
process of finding out who the product is going
to be for. Where as market research is finding
out which market the product will be for and
finally, the production research is finding out
which materials and equipment will be needed
and how they will be used in production.

4. What types of research are there?
There are two types of research which become
very useful during production. As like any other
thing, they both have strengths and weaknesses.
These are Qualitative and Quantitive research.

5. Quantative Research
Quantative research is all about the numbers. For
example this would be the perfect type of research
to use for ‘How many people watched Eastenders
on Friday’ or ‘How many albums has One Direction
sold’. Quantative research can work with numbers,
percentages and fractions. An advantage of this
type of research is that it is very useful when
wanting to find out figures however the questions
asked in this research technique must be closed
questions for a very straight forward answer.

6. Qualitative Research
Qualitative research is more about opinions and a
more personal research. Questions that could be
asked in this research technique would be ‘what
was your opinion on the latest Batman film’ or
‘What do you think to Simon Cowell being egged’.
Its more of a why question than a single one word
answer question. This is a good way to get opinions
and change things to make a product better.
However these will take a long time to look through
the answer and get an overall opinion from a group
of people.

7. What could you find out about your audience
and why would that be useful?
Collecting primary research will help somebody
find out about their audience by creating
questionnaires or having interviews. These
methods help to find information such as
interests and opinions. I think that these would
be the most useful technique when trying to
find information about an audience be cause it
is the best way to get a specific answer or
opinion.

8. What could you find out about the market for
your product and why would that be useful?
I would use secondary and primary research techniques
to find out information about my audience. Things such
as the internet allow us to see facts about particular
things. For example if I wanted to know about vegetarians
and see examples of their recipe cards I would use the
vegetarian society website which includes recipe cards
specialised for vegans or/and vegetarians. this would be
secondary research.
However if I was to do a questionnaire to have a group of
peoples opinions, this would be primary research. This
would also be a good way to find out about an audience
as you know that the answers you come back with will be
all truth.

9. What could you find out about the market for
your product and why would that be useful?
Finding out whether people are interested in
buying your product is very important as you
may produce it and sell none as nobody likes it.
For example if you were creating a film where
there is a similar tv show to it, you could look at
the BARB to see viewing figures to see what
people are interested in.

10. What is secondary research
Secondary research involves looking through the
work of other peoples, to find out information
on your subject. For example if I was to write an
article including figures, I would read somebody
else’s story to find those facts and figures.

11. What is primary research
Primary research is the process of finding out
your own information for yourself. For example
if I wanted to know how many people in a class
liked certain types of foods, I would do a
questionnaire or survey to find that information.

12. When creating a film research on your audience is a vital
thing. The audience needs to be looked at in great details
to see which age or gender it is going to be aimed at. A
good way to do this is by looking at the demographics.
These specialise in looking at age, gender, class, race of
an audience. For example if you were to make a film
about British teenage girls, you would have to ensure that
nobody is being discriminated against in the process.
People can take to a lot of offense in films which could
put the producers in a lot of trouble. It would also be
important the you look at the age which the film is going
to be aimed at because if children were to see
inappropriate scenes this could also get the producers
into a lot of trouble.