Audience Research is the process of collecting data and information from a group (most often the target audience) about a certain subject. Through audience research, we can find out information such as demographics (gender, age, background etc.), interests, requirements and preferences. With that information, we can better appeal to the audience when it comes to advertising, merchandise, and the actual design and outcome of the product itself.
When engaging with an audience, it is important to engage with purpose. It is somewhat of a "wasted effort" to create engagement with the audience without the intention to make the audience feel connected to the product. The content being relatable makes it authentic and trustworthy for the audience because of its familiarity. Forging a relatable connection also makes the audience more likely to share it because of its cultural relevance or, depending on the message, it may be something that an audience member feels someone they know needs to see and learn or gain something from. It is also very important to be clear and easy to perceive. With the product you are creating, it is essential to have a message and a clear structure. The audience shouldn't have to work to gain enlightenment from the product and if they do they should be encouraged to want to rather than the product being cryptic and expecting the audience to search for a message because they're "supposed to". They should be encouraged by direct address within the product, they should participate outside (and sometimes inside) of the product itself in ways that specifically cater to them. Creating a social media page for the product is the most common way to promote and engage with the audience outside of a product nowadays, with comment sections and the easy ways you can respond to questions and polls online while scrolling through. However, this won't apply to all audiences or all sections of the audience. The whole audience must be at least accounted for. Outside of social media, there is, for example, behind-the-scenes content on DVD copies, panels where the people involved with the production can be asked questions and for their opinion or takeaway of the product or even television or newspaper appearances where they can be interviewed by audience members or selected enjoyers of the production.
There are three types of Audience Research that my group carried out. Those three were vox pops, focus groups and a questionnaire.
Questionnaires are typically structured as a form of questions, handed to people either digitally or physically. They are useful for getting specific information on client interests, preferences, requirements etc. They are easy to widely distribute and can be done in the audience's own time and for that, they are often very effective. They do however come with cons such as the set questions discouraging a wider range of thoughts from the person being interviewed and because of the formality and the usual lack of face-to-face communication, it can limit creativity with the answers the audience gives.
Vox Pops, also known as the voice of the people, are interviews usually carried out in public. Usually, one would approach a member of the public, ask them a set of questions that will first inform them if they are a member of their target audience, and then follow up with questions that will provide the producers with information on what kind of things the target audience is looking for in the product. This is also useful for getting specific information but because people are physically talking to answer the questions, you often get a broader response which can oftentimes be very useful and possibly less limiting than a questionnaire. Some people will give resourceful responses because they prefer to talk face to face with someone about something they're passionate about, however, it isn't uncommon for people being approached on the street to give rushed and weak responses because they themselves are in a rush or are uncomfortable with such a random encounter. This is very similar to focus groups because of their face-to-face interaction and ability to gain a wider response, however, in ways they are quite different.
A focus group, in a podcast style, is a meeting between the interviewer(s) and a specifically selected group of people. The group aims to gain knowledge on what attracts some of the most, least, or averagely dedicated people within a certain genre, theme, etc., to them. These don't necessarily have to be formal but can be. It would depend on what kind of audience you are trying to gain information from. Although there are oftentimes set questions, they, similarly to vox pops, are oftentimes answered with a broader response as they feel more inclined to when face to face and physically speaking about something they are passionate about. Broad answers may even lead to more possible questions. When put with other people, it can also lead to conversations and interactions between them which will also give you insight. It is also a very efficient way of getting answers as research has been done to specifically pick these people with a high chance that they will provide useful answers. However, you could argue that they are inefficient because to collect opinions on people with different levels of interest, you would have to set up multiple interviews, which takes a lot of effort and time to set up, without a hundred per cent certainty that you will get the answers you need. On top of how long it can take to get set up, it can also take a long time to find the people willing to participate. Similarly to vox pops, you are somewhat limited to the range of audience you can interview if you aren't willing to travel. This leaves both focus groups and vox pops at quite a large disadvantage to Questionnaires which can be distributed through mail or digitally.
I feel that it is pretty much essential to use all 3 of these to some extent because together they give you information on people already within the audience and people outside of the audience that could potentially be brought into the audience with the right measures taken.
However, I feel personally that the most useful method out of the 3 is most likely the focus group method. While there are many frustrating limits when doing this method, the benefits arguably outweigh the negatives. Being able to select your subjects gives you the best, most specific insight you could possibly ask for when it comes to finding out what the preferences and requirements are for the different levels of dedication within the target audience.
To learn more about peoples viewpoints related to advertising and creative influences, we carried out a vox pop interview with an art student. We can gain a lot from art students because they are frequently thought of as creative people who have a liking for artistic and theatrical acts. This strategy produced both beneficial outcomes and difficulties that I will take into account when doing future research.
The fact that we were able to get straightforward responses from the art student during our vox pop interview was one of its significant advantages. They responded to our questions in a clear and simple manner, which is really helpful for making good decisions in the development of products, particularly those involving advertising. The art student was clearly rushed during the interview, which made things difficult. Their time limits reduced the scope of our conversation. Some of their contradictory answers may be explained by the same lack of time that led to some rushed responses.
We had a focus group interview with two musical theatre students, which was extremely valuable for our research project. These people offered an opportunity to explore their preferences, expectations, and experiences in the field of theatrical performance because they made up a significant portion of our target audience.
Interviewing musical theatre students was an effective choice because it gave us the chance to speak with people who exactly fit the profile of our target market. They were the perfect subjects for our study due to their love of theatre and participation in the performing arts community. Their first-hand knowledge of entertaining the audience that we hope to attract was very useful information. They gained a unique perspective from their performances, allowing them to provide realistic and sincere insights into what appeals to our target audience. It became clear during the interview that the people we interviewed, who got along well and had common interests, could express their ideas in a thorough way. They provided depth to their answers with their detailed comments.
It's important to recognise the limitations of this strategy, though. Although the opinions of musical theatre students were very helpful, they might not represent the views of people outside of our target audience. We may need to add opinions from those not involved in theatre to our research in order to gain a more complete understanding. By doing this, we can make sure that our efforts are inclusive and tailored to a larger group of potential customers. When our research group interview was compared with the earlier vox pop interviews, it was clear that the latter offered a more thorough and specialised perspective on the expectations and needs of our target audience. We greatly improved our understanding of what appeals to this demographic thanks to the insights provided by musical theatre students, who have firsthand experience in the theatre industry. The vox pop interviews by themselves were unable to provide this level of specificity and depth.
The third research method we used was a questionnaire which was very different to the other methods and also very effective. The amount of reach and varying opinions we gained information on using this research method were valuable.
This question in the questionnaire shows that a large majority of people do not attend theatre or concert performances. This information is very useful because it shows the amount of people we will need to convince to attend the performance using our promotional work.
Another question highlighted that a large majority of people find promotional posters useful. When the previously mentioned question is taken into consideration, this information is very important to know because it shows that promotional posters are a definite way to attract the audience that doesn't attend performances.
Another question we asked was what aspects of a performance are most important. With the results that we received, we can decide what to implement into the promotional design to attract the target audience. For example, it would be best for us to include passionate actors, lighting and costumes on our poster because they were some of the most answered options.
In terms of research methods, questionnaires, vox pop interviews, and focus groups each have particular benefits and drawbacks. The scalability and uniformity of questionnaires make it possible to collect data from a wide range of people while getting concise answers. They might, however, fall short in terms of quality when it comes to the given insights and personal interactions compared to interviews. Vox pop interviews record spontaneous opinions and a range of viewpoints, but they may introduce a negative sample bias, reducing their representativeness. Focus group interviews, on the other hand, may suffer from moderator influence, but they also offer descriptive insights, look into interests and attitudes, and highlight group dynamics.
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