Task 6 - Methods Of Research - AS1

Why is research important?

Before planning a new advertising campaign it is important to conduct research. This is because in order to advertise a new product, you are going to need to know what the audience are in need of or what their desires are so then you are able to provide the correct information that will help them understand your business and draw in customers. Doing research will also help you understand the audience as well as them understanding you. The understanding of your audience will include: their age, their interests, their living area. These are important so you know how to conduct your advert.
There are 4 main categories, them being: Primary research, secondary research, quantitative data and qualitative data and three different purposes of why the research is carried out, them being: audience research, market research and production research.

Primary Research

Primary research examples are: carrying out questionnaires, surveys, internet forums and interviews/group research. Primary research is when you carry one or more of them examples to find out specific issues from your target audience and all your research is original data personally produced by the researcher. Researchers might use primary research to ensure they can trust the information that they are given and so they personally can interact with the audience and come to their own conclusions. An example of when to use primary research would be if you are trying to find out how what sort of music 15-18 year olds listen to using a questionnaire/survey.

Advantages:
- Greater control on how the information is collected.
- Focus' on specific issues.
- Being able to explore secondary research.\

Disadvantages:
- Expensive because the information has to be independently collected without an insight of any data prior to their research.
- Time consuming due to the fact that primary researchers start with no existing data so they have to find everything out from scratch.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is data originally found by someone else that is usually used alongside primary research. Secondary research is usually published in pamphlets, newsletters, trade publications, magazines and newspapers. People may choose to use secondary research when trying to educate other people whereas primary research is when you are trying to find out research for yourself. An example of when secondary research is used would be in magazines when you read about celebrity lives and all the 'rumours' that are said about them; rumours are secondary research.

Advantages:
- Easy because you are using pre-existing information.
- Cheap because you don't have to pay to carry out your own research.
- Quick.

Disadvantages:
- You aren't aware of who did the research and how honest/accurate it is.
- The research could possibly be biased
- Inaccuracies cannot be checked

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is research that contains numbers and measurements. Quantitative data is usually shown as a set of numbers, displayed as charts/graphs and it can also be measured. This method of research is usually used to find out basic information about their targeted audience i.e questions such as: 'how old are you?' or 'how often...?' and these questions often feature in questionnaires. Quantitative research is useful for when you are trying to discover the number side of your research and because it is based on real data (facts) rather than opinions.

Advantages 
-Large samples, Large quantity of data.
-Easy to administer

Disadvantages 
-Difficult to design a suitable questionnaire that reveals the desires of your audience.
-Mostly get asked closed questions (yes/no questions)
-Not knowing whether the participant understands the questionnaire.
-Not knowing whether the participant is being honest.
-Closed questions cannot be adapted.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research helps you find out how people feel. They use open questions so they can elaborate their answers which makes their responses personal to the participant and they can't be measured. It's important to know what your audience is thinking. Qualitative surveys are usually in focus groups or could be a one-to-one interview.

Advantages
-You can ask subsidiary questions, to get in touch with your audience.
-Find out personal information about your audience.

Disadvantages
-Small sample
-Time consuming
-Not representative
-Based on opinions rather than facts

Purposes 

Audience Research 

Audience research is when the purpose of the research is solely to find out more about your audience. There are four basic types of audience research and they are: descriptive research; describes your audience and their characteristics, i.e how old they are etc, analytical research: seeks to know what motivates your audience, why that motivates you and how it motivates you i.e 'Why did you buy the last Justin Bieber album but not his latest?', predictive research; considers 'what if' situations, i.e 'if we changed the name of our company, in what way would that affect us?'
tracking research; long term research that monitors changes taking place over time i.e 'how has the pattern for subscription season ticket sales changed over the past three years?'. Audience research is useful because in order to have a successful poll you need to have an understanding of your audience in one way or another, it also makes the participant feel as if you care about them rather than just your data.

Market Research

Market research is when you gather information about consumers needs and preferences for a product. Questions they may ask are: 'What other products are on the market?' or 'What can be done to improve out product?' etc. Research made by companies to understand what is needed in the market, that when you may use market research, that way you can learn about how to adjust your product to your audiences preferences and you can get rid of any competition within the same market. They are useful because it helps both the consumer and the provider, the consumer because they are getting what they want/need and the provider because they are selling it to them.

Production Research

Production research is used to gather material to allow a company to develop new products and ensure the whole process will run smoothly. In order to do this they investigate the technology and personnel available.  You may use production research if the audience research goes well and the market analysis is favourable a media company may decide to launch a new product within that market. They are useful because they allow companies to develop new products.

Task 5 - Regulation - AS1

Advertising needs to be regulated. Regulation takes place through two main bodies, the ASA and Ofcom. The ASA stands for advertising standard authority which was established back in 1962 by the advertising industry as a response to the complains about non-broadcast advertising. The ASA are responsible for 3 things, them being: the content of advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK, they ensure the advertising standard remain high by administering the Advertising Codes. The ASA are there in order to respond to public complaints of advertisements that may be misleading, harmful or offensive; they also conduct surveys of sensitive sectors. ASA cover all media advertisements. The second form of regulation for advertising is Ofcom and they are the commutations regulator which means they cover TV, radio sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. Ofcom duties are to ensure that the UK have a wide range of communicational services including high speed broadband, a variety of genres in association with high quality TV and radio programmes to appeal to a range of tastes and interests, they deal with offensive/harmful content and make sure that people who watch TV and listen to the radio are protected from this content, they protect people from discrimination in TV and radio programmes and from having their privacy invaded i.e when peoples faces are blurred in a documentary. Ofcom respond to complaints by reviewing it against the criteria (code of conduct) to ensure the complaint is valid. Any adverts that breach these codes will have to be amended or withdrawn and the advertiser will not be allowed to use this approach again. An example of codes for TV advertising would be environmental claims, they need to be up to date and not false information this also leads into another code which would be misleading the audience and prohibited advertising.

          An example of particularly controversial advertisement would be the Maria Stopes abortion advert. The advert was deemed inappropriate because the audience interpreted the video as a promotion for abortion which is a sensitive subject for many viewers. As a result of this there were 1.088 complaints which was then dealt with by the ASA who then thought it was clear that the advertisers were promoting their post-conception service and offering advice on their hotline. It was ruled that the advert was neither advocating one course of action over another. However, in addition to the complaints there were over 3,600 other objections received some prior to the broadcast and some via petitions. As a result the complaints were not upheld.  

          An example of a recent that has been removed from the air would be the 'Beach Body Ready' advert. This advert was deemed unsuitable because it gives off the impression that in order to have a 'beach body' you have to look like like the model in the advert and this made women feel uncomfortable with their bodies and due to the concerns over its weight loss claim. There were over 360 complaints mostly because it was said that the advert objectified women. The ASA met with the company to discuss its health concerns and decided that the advert would be down within 3 days. The advert is shown below:

Task 4 - Analysing A Television Advertisement In Detail - AS1

Apple Music Advertisement

The apple music advertisement is in the style of famous faces due to it using celebrity endorsement and featuring faces such as Taraji P Henson, Mary J Blige and Kerry Washington. Due to the nature of this advert being a music advertisement i would say the target audience would be teenagers and young adults as they are the people that often interact with music the most in this generation; also, they are the people that are most likely to know the people in the advert because cinemas target audience is, although more broad, still for the younger generation more than the older generation. In an emotional sense, this advert triggers excitement because you see the people in the advert having fun, laughing, listening to music; as if the music is bringing them together which makes the audience want to purchase the app because you can listen to anything at anytime with anyone and have a good time. This advert uses a brand identity and this would be 'Apple'. Throughout the advert it shows various Apple products such as the Macbook,iPhone and Dr Dre Beats which encourages the audience to buy some of their other products too; you won't find a Samsung in this advert because it is specifically for Apple. There aren't any persuasive devices used in this advert.

There aren't any special effects in this advert however, in relation to the camera work the director has used he uses a lot of long and wide shots. He uses long and medium shots as well, only close ups on the actual product to focus specifically on what they're trying to sell and its associates because usually apple music is complimentary to the apple iPhone so therefore they would be selling more than 1 product within 1 advert.

Initially the advert begins in the form of an eye line match because the camera is showing what she is looking at which is the Apple Macbook. Straight cuts are used throughout the entire advert, the sound computer graphics have been used to enhance the music in the background that all of the women are dancing to. There is bright lightening throughout the advert due to the natural source of light used.