Criticalapproaches

Quantitative Research
The idea of doing Quantitative research is that it helps companies to understand how big the audience
for their product is. This can be really useful as they can achieve statistical information, this can be very
beneficial when designing and producing a product as they can learn about the demographic of their
audience. This type of research involves asking questions like how, when, where and how often. They do
this as they don’t know what to expect, this is why so many questions are asked to their readers. There
are two main companies that can complete this kind of research, these are; NRS (national readership
survey) and ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation). The NRS get paid by companies to carry out detailed
investigations or interviews to help gather information for certain products, this gives companies
knowledge on the amount of people interested in their product. They have a large and random sample of
people to conduct the interviews on, which can be a very effective way of gaining the information they
need. ABC is another company that is found very popular by large media corporations when they need
research carried out for a product. This company manages and upholds standards that determine how
the media industry data is prepared and reported.
I feel that this method is very effective and is a popular way of gaining statistical information about the
amount of people purchasing and reading their product which is used by many media publications all
over the world. This is a very simple process as all of the research is left down to the research companies
leaving the media publication free of this task. It helps companies to pinpoint their audience, so they
can develop and focus on other things in the magazine and are able to aim it towards these people that
they have researched. However this method does have it’s disadvantages as it can’t tell the company
what their readers enjoy and would like to see in the magazine it just tells them more statistical data,
giving them the numbers of how many people would purchase the magazine, meaning that qualitative
research would also need to be carried out. This method is also more costly than qualitative research
and may not necessarily need to be carried out. The numbers often change, therefore if it was conducted
with statistics it would have to be done frequently to help balance out the changing of numbers.
As you are starting a new media publication I feel that this stage in research is key as it would give you an
idea of how many people would be interested in buying the magazine and may also help when finding
out a rough number of the copies you would need to produce which can also help with the budgeting of
cost.

Qualitative Research
Qualitative research really helps media companies to research as it helps them to understand their
audience. This is a really useful type of research as it enables the media producers to target their
audience more specifically which can appeal to the readers more. The research gives the company
a clear idea and a bigger picture of who is reading their magazine and they do this by carrying out
interviews , focus groups, reviews and observations. With this type of research it becomes easier to
gain an improved understanding of the target market because of the types of questions that are
asked during the research process. The word ‘why’ is used frequently in the questions and this
reaches out to more people who have the knowledge in the event that they advertise new and
existing products. It is also cheaper to conduct as it’s a smaller survey and instead the research
focuses on a small sample of the population.
This type of research is also very useful, perhaps slightly more than quantitative as this tells you
specific details on the people instead of just the number of people that read. This allows the
company to target their magazine at these people as they know what they enjoy reading and also
what they would pay money to read. However it does have it’s disadvantages as it’s not a type of
research that focuses on statistical data and also because it’s only focusing on a small group as
assumptions cant be made outside the small sample.
As you are starting out as a new company I feel that carrying out this research is essential as it enables
you to understand your audience more, which can later help when deciding what articles and
advertising should be included. However this type of research isn’t as important as the
quantitative research as it doesn’t involve the figures and statistics. To find the information from
the audience you could set up face to face interviews or focus groups to get peoples honest
opinions, this can really help you to understand what to include in your magazine and what they
would enjoy reading.

Socio-economic status
Socio-economic status is a measure of an individuals or family’s economic and social
position. This is broken down into three categories; high SES, middle SES, and low
SES in order to describe the areas a family may fall into. It is all based around three
main groups; income, education and occupation. The NRS use 6 categories that
define the company’s readers that help to separate the audience into different groups
which can later help the company when producing the magazine as they can target
these people so they don’t put the cost too high or even raise the price in some cases
so that it’s appropriate for their target audience.
This is very beneficial as I feel that it helps the company to add to their knowledge of
their audience. It also helps when pricing and targeting as they will find from this
research what class they are and what type of price they would be willing to pay, also
it helps as they can include advertisements in the magazine that link in with their
class. A disadvantage of this style of research would be that it doesn’t give as much
information as other types of research, it also is very similar to the qualitative
research type as this finds more about the audience and could also find out the class
of the audience so this may be found as unnecessary in some cases.
I think as you are starting a new business this may help when you are first starting out as
you need a lot of information but as the success of the company grows I feel that this
research becomes less valuable as you can just use the qualitative research technique
instead.

Psychographics
Psychographics is the study of personality, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyles. The idea of this style of
research is that by understanding what type of person is buying the product and what they like or dislike then you
are more able to keep those people happy and they are also more likely to continue to purchase the product.
Because this area of research focuses on interests, activities and opinions, psychographic factors are also called
IAO variables. Psychographic studies of individuals or communities can be valuable in the fields of
marketing, demographics and opinions. This is really useful as you need to know all this information to truly
understand who’s is buying the magazine, when deciding what to include in the magazine this type of research
really helps as we get to see what the audience is actually going to be interested in reading. Psychographic data can
be gathered through personal interviews, focus group interviews or questionnaires, or purchased from research
companies in the form of list overlays for direct marketers or market profiles for general marketers. The different
groups that people are separated into are; the aspirer, reformer, explorer, succeeder, resigned, struggler and
mainstream.
An advantage of this type of research would be that it enables the company to gain even more research on their audience
which can benefit the company greatly as they would then know the personality of their readers which means they
can make some of the articles and advertisements more specific to them. A disadvantage of this style of research is
that it is very similar to other styles and also this just focuses only on their personality instead of other, more
factual things about their readers.
I feel that this type of research wouldn’t be as useful as some others as it just covers a lot of what the others already
cover. This could also be seen as unnecessary and only to be done if you don’t feel that you have enough
research, this may be seen as quite useful to some companies that have a more niche audience as they would need
to know more detail about their readers. I feel that for your magazine you should possibly look for someone with
the personality trait of ‘the aspirer’ or ‘the succeeder’. The aspirer trait means that if they see a model wearing
certain things or listening to music they will then want to aspire to be like them and may even feel the need to buy
the things they are advertising and listen to the music they are listening to. This is a very good personality to aim to
read your magazine as they will purchase it often as they will aspire to be better and be like the people in the
magazine in some cases.

Geodemographic
Geodemographic is the method that companies use that uses demographic information about their audience from
the national census. The main idea of this method of research is so that media industries can gather more
information about where their product is going, the believe that people living in the same areas will usually have
similar lifestyles and will usually buy the same sort of things. For example, families with young children will
usually all live in the same sort of area that’s close to schools and is safe, they will also buy the majority of the same
things as they will buy things for their children. This method helps companies to add to their information
regarding their audience and also helps when deciding which areas they feel should sell their product by looking at
the different areas that have good sales in this kind of product and can supply it in these areas. There are many
different types of characteristics that are taken into account in the geodemographic system construction are;
•
Household and family composition,
•
Cultural factors,
•
Age distribution,
•
Socioeconomic status,
•
Employment factors,
•
Household economic factors,
•
Regional factors,
•
Residential stability.
An advantage of this style of research would be that it informs the company of the places that they could get the most
sales, this benefits them as they will get more money from the different places they have supplied their
magazine/newspaper. This method also adds to the companies knowledge of the different people as they get an
idea of how much they would want to spend on their product and also helps to decide what they would want to
read e.g. a young person may want to read something less formal and more relaxed, however an older person may
feel that they prefer reading something more factual and formal. This method also has it’s disadvantages as it
doesn’t help and give as much information as other methods such as qualitive. This style of research isn't actually
very accurate as others as it just judges the people on where they live and assumes and stereotypes these people in
to different groups that they feel they would enjoy reading.
I don’t personally recommend this type of research as I feel that it is too unpredictable and un reliable as it just puts
different people in to groups purely based on where they live so I definitely think that this method is not very
trustworthy. I also feel that this especially wouldn’t be reliable for a new magazine as if you got it wrong, then you
would be less likely to have those people purchase the magazine/newspaper again.

Age
Media publications can also look at ‘age’ as a way of finding more information on their readers and
potential readers as they believe that people of a similar age often have similar likes and interests.
Age is found to be really important when classifying audiences as it can give companies a rough
idea of what people of a certain age would want to see in a magazine/newspaper. Companies are
able to make broad statements about the different age groups, these statements or stereotypes
might not necessarily be accurate and apply to everyone in that group, however they will most
likely apply to the majority. For example, people in their 20’s are far more likely to still live at
home or be renting a flat, rather than someone who is in their 30’s. Companies will usually have a
target age that they wish to aim for, this age changes with the different media product depending
on what the contents of the magazine/newspaper is. Looking at the age of the audience helps the
companies to achieve a better understanding of their audience and what they do, therefore it is a
useful method to use.
The advantages of this method of looking at the readers age can be extremely useful as it gives the
company an idea of what they should include as it tells them their age which they can then use to
figure out what people of that age would usually like to see and read. A disadvantage of using this
method would be that it is quite similar to ‘geodemographic’ as it can be very un reliable as they
aren't getting genuine facts about the people they are just assuming things about them from their
age. This can result in the companies knowledge not being very trust-worthy as they will just guess
things about their readers.
I would recommend this method of researching their readers age as it would be found useful when
starting up the company as you will need to have lots of information and knowledge on potential
readers so you can pick a more specific target audience and aim the contents of it at these people.
However I do also think that this would become less useful when you have had the company up
and running for a long time and already know your audience well, as most likely your audience
aren't actually going to change too much as when they get older they may change magazine and a
new generation will purchase the product instead.

Gender
Looking at the gender is a very common and simple way of classifying your audience and readers.
Looking at the gender helps companies to aim their product more towards a certain group of
people, it is also a lot simpler than other methods as there is only two different groups that people
are put into. This means there is no un-reliability as the company isn't guessing as much so
therefore there wont be as many faults with the magazine and it will be more accurate. Knowing
the readers gender can also help as the company then know what to put into the magazine in order
to make it more appealing to them, as men and women usually have many different likes and
dislikes in media products. For example, ‘Nuts’ magazine will have a mainly male influenced
audience, where as ‘Heat’ magazine will have a largely female readership.
An advantage of looking at gender when doing research for a media product is that it helps the
company to focus on one particular group of people and they can later see what ages they are and
other factors that may help when including different articles and advertisements. A disadvantage
of using gender as a way of researching is that it doesn’t give you any more detail other than the
fact that they are either male or female. This means that the company will have to do far more
research on top of this to gain all the information that they may need.
I would recommend this type of research for you as you are just starting a new company and really
need all the information you can get. However, this will only need to be done whilst you are
deciding on an audience and are first finding information on your chosen target audience, as after
this you will already know what gender the majority of your readers are. I also think that this will
help you to pinpoint a specific audience which helps when deciding on what to write about and
include in your media product.

Mainstream or Niche?
Mainstream – this is when the media product is aimed at a large audience and the media product has to be something
that the majority of this audience will be interested in and enjoy reading. People or ideas that are regarded as
‘mainstream’ are classed as ‘typical’ and ‘normal’, this is because they belong to the same group as most others of
their kind.
A benefit of this type of research is that that the company can base their product as something a lot of people will enjoy
and they don’t have to make their media product as specific. Mainstream also covers a larger group of people than
others, resulting in more sales as it will appeal to more people. A disadvantage of using a mainstream approach to
you media product would be that it wouldn’t appeal to the other niche audience which can be a large proportion of
people. You also aren't sticking to a specific theme for your magazine as you have to remember to chose something
that will appeal to everyone, meaning that you have to pick an open theme.

Niche – this is when the media company is targeting a much smaller audience that have very specific likes, dislikes and
interests. This means that the media product has to include topics that are very specific to these peoples interests
so it will engage them. Some media producers aim at niche audiences intentionally as they hope to capture a large
share of it and gain success at aiming at the smaller audience.
An advantage of this audience type is that if the company has picked a popular subject or theme for their media product
it can result in great success, even with the smaller audience. I also think that this is a lot more specific which can
be easier when deciding on what to include in the media product as there isn't such a wide scale of options to
include. However there are some disadvantages to this style as it can mean that the company have less success in
some cases if even the niche audience don’t enjoy this product. The style of your writing has to be very specific in
order to fit in with the niche audience, this can result in failure of the company If the theme isn't popular with the
audience.

I feel that this option of whether to make your magazine/newspaper suited to a mainstream or niche audience type is
extremely important as it is one of the main decisions you will need to make which can make or break your
companies success. I personally feel that a mainstream audience type would be better suited to your new company
as you may have a larger chance of breaking in to the industry as you will have a larger audience base, resulting in a

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