Audience Research through Planning

For me audience research was a large part in making both large and small decisions. I think it is really important because it gives an unbiased, general opinion. I always tried to get feedback from as many participants as possible in order to increase the ecological validity of my findings. I used a variety of ways to gather feedback, mostly including questionnaires and simply asking people.

I think that questionnaires were really effective in comparing ideas from a large number of people. For example I did this when researching different music genres and whom they appeal to. By gaining quantitative and qualitative information I could both easily compare feedback and also get more specific, individual opinions. With this information I had the evidence needed to determine my artist’s target audience. I also found that most people did not like overly sexualised music videos, with Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda specified several times (it had recently come out at the time of the questionnaire). This gave me a really clear idea of what my target audience wanted from a video. After determining Palmer’s target audience, I began mostly seeking feedback from participants fitting this description. This ensured that my audience feedback was relevant.

A questionnaire was also useful when I was gaining inspiration for my digipak. Out of a variety of album covers, I asked participants to identify their favourite. This showed me that Pixie Lott’s album was the most aesthetically successful, and this layout would be suitable for Palmer’s album. I also used this process to find that audiences really liked the Riesling font.
I also used a questionnaire to find which photos from my digipak photoshoots were preferred. By gathering only qualitative data it was easy to see which images were the most well received. From these findings I chose which images to use for each of the aspects to my digipak and magazine advert. I also asked the target audience to vote for their preferred edit of my digipak’s back cover.
Another method I used to gain information about my target audience was the YouGov site. I could use this to identify their likes, dislikes and other music tastes. I found this really helpful as the site had information from far more participant than I would be able to ask myself.