Primary Research

Primary Research

After formulating our initial idea and having identified the song we started researching who is our target audience and how they might interpret the song. We researched using various methods, such as questionnaires, large focus groups and online surveys.

We decided to get a first hand view of what different age groups thought of the song with a view to establishing who was our main target audience. Also, we wanted to see what associations our target audience had with the song, and what type of music they would personally listen to if given the choice.

We decided to use quota sampling of the age groups: between 12 and 60. This was to try to find out exactly what each sub group thought of the song, and what ideas they had. This then allowed us to discover any trends in the data we collected to do with age, occupation, and gender, which we could use to add specific details that may be tailored towards the market audience such as the age of the singer we would use. This would ensure the target audience would be able to relate to the video making the band more accessible to them.

The main criteria we asked were;

-Age?

-Gender?

-What did you think of the song?

-Would you choose to listen to this song?

-What were your first thoughts that came to mind associated with the song? (locations, events, type of people)

-What is your preferred genre?

52% of candidates were female

48% of candidates were male

We then split our candidates into separate age categories so our date could be grouped into similar thoughts and ideas.

12-25: 42 people - 20 male, 22 female

25-45: 40 people - 21 male, 19 female

45-60: 39 people - 17 males, 22 female

When we asked the question, Would you listen to this song out of choice?, this is the dats we obtained.

The pie charts above show that the main audience for this song is 12-25 year olds with 91% of males choosing to listen to the song out of choice compared with 75% of females choosing to listen to the song out of choice. We did not find this a surprise as the song is quite contemporary and falls under the indie/rock genre which has increased in popularity over the last 10 years or so. Therefore this age range has had significant exposure to this type of music not only through the radio but also through other media forms such as popular television and adverts. This exposure makes the audience used to this type of music and therefore they tend to enjoy the music.

As well as this, the majority of 25-45 year olds also said they would choose to listen to the song out of their own choice Although the majority of this group admitted to enjoying the genre, it was not as much as the younger age group. This is probably due to the limited style of music they prefer, whereas younger generations have a more broad music taste. This is probably due to listening to the charts more than the older sample. We believe that this older age group still have a substantial interest in this style of music as the band have been around for around 15 years.

We then asked the question, "What are the thoughts that come into your mind associated with the song?" The results below were:

We took all of these ideas on board, and incorporated the more popular ideas, and cross-examined them with the age groups who enjoyed the song, so that the finished video could reflect what they wanted to see and hear! as these were the people who would, in effect, watch our video if it was released.

When we asked the question, ''what is your favourite type of music?'' the pie chart shows the results we obtained from our questionnaire.

Clearly from these results the indie genre dominates the chart, with pop and R 'n' B also having a large share of the market. Due to these results, we decided to base our video around common elements found in indie videos, which fitted well with the genre and style of the song.