Audience Research (Questionnaire & Justification)

Audience

Questionnaire
I kept the questionnaire simple and quick by the questions requiring a tick in a box answer next to the field which applied to the person, or in some cases a single word answer. This is because if the questionnaire required long pieces of writing or complex answers, the person answering is likely to find it boring and difficult, thus producing less accurate or rushed answers. This would affect the reliability of the results. Furthermore it would allow me to easily categorise the already provided fields. All the questions which I asked had a purpose to investigating my target audience. I created the questionnaire using Microsoft Word.

Justification of Questions I Produced:
Question 1: This questions was important to allow me to see which gender would be most interested in the idea for my media piece. After pinning down the gender, I can begin to consider what attracts and appeals to the certain gender which will allow me to reach the target audience.

Question 2: By discovering the age range which my idea is most likely to appeal to I can combine the findings with the gender and consider what would attract the forming target audience. Also the age range can be used to determine the maturity of the productions and the register used in both production pieces.

Question 3: This question directly asks whether the user watches any TV in the genre which my production will fall in to. By collecting the result of this question and comparing them with the other questions I will be able to see if any factors influence the popularity of Lifestyle TV (for example if more older people prefer Lifestyle than younger).This will allow me to see expectations that different people may have from Lifestyle TV. Also, the 'No' option allows for the next question to be answered reliably and accurately. If I had not of asked this question then the user of the questionnaire may think that they are required to fill out the next question, although they may not watch Lifestyle TV, and so provide me with inaccurate information. This could affect the way I address my target audience.

Question 4: By finding which age range and gender enjoys what type of Lifestyle television, I can develop on how to make my broadcast production appeal to the target audience. If my results showed that craft television appealed to woman and 90% of the males preferred fitness television I would know not to include any codes and conventions in my craft production that would appeal to males and from that genre of Lifestyle. This is because it may attract the wrong audience.

Question 5: This is an important question ,as my whole idea is based o the hobby of craft and craft making. Therefore the different gender/age ranges and so on which tick either box will allow be to see the majority of people my productions are likely to appeal to. From this I can them expand on how to attract the target audience.

Question 6: As an element of my idea, it is important to see which people this will appeal to. As this involves a different area of 'food' it may attract a different target audience, which I will also have to cater for. Therefore this questions allows me to see to who the appeal would reach.

Question 7: This question allows me to confirm or provide evidence against my belief that the idea will appeal to the demographic categories of B and below. It also allows me to find any links between the appeal of the idea of craft, those who would have a potential interest in the productions and those who have (had) experience in the craft profession. This can help me in pinning down my target audience.

Question 8: This direct questions allows me to see if the user of the questionnaire has an interest in Lifestyle magazines s a whole, before asking them what Lifestyle magazine areas they are interested in. The option of 'No' immediately shows me that there is no interest in Lifestyle print, which may influence who I target the production at.

Question 9: As well as this question allowing me to establish links between genders or age ranges interest in Lifestyle magazine genres, it will also allow me to see whether my print production focused on craft will appeal to the user of the questionnaire.This will help me in confirming my target audience for the print production and so showing me who my print production should be aiming to appeal to. The alternative options to 'Craft' allows me to see what Lifestyle print different age ranges and genres are interested in. This will help me in understanding the appeal between alternative genres and genders/age, thus showing me what my print production should not include.

Question 10: When comparing the results from this question and the next question I will be able to create a period of time which my programme will be suitable for broadcasting. This is because if someone was to watch 4.5 hours of TV and in the morning (next question) I will be able to construct a time frame which will meet the audiences needs. This also allows me to gain additional information on similarities of differences between genders or age ranges time spent watching TV.

Question 11: From the findings of this question I will be able to see what time of day to watch TV is popular among each age range and gender. When I have pinned down the target audience, the findings from this question will be useful in providing information for what time of day to broadcast my programme, satisfying the needs of the gender and age range. For example is would be useless to broadcast my production in the afternoon if it appealed to teenagers, because they are most likely to be in school or college.

Question 12: Allows me to establish and connections between gender, ages and interests with TV Channels. This will help me to decide which TV Channel my product is best suited to be broadcast on by considering the appeal to each of the previous factors.

Questionnaire Results
I gave my questionnaire out to 30 people, with 3 males and 3 females for each age range category. This is because it allowed me fairly see the gratifications of ages

Discussing the results
As well as the results confirming and showing me what my target audience is likely to be, I also learnt a lot from them about the certain groups and genders viewing habits.
From the results I can deduce that females are overwhelmingly more interested in 'Craft' programmes and magazines than males. This can be seen in that 10 out of 15 of females were interested in Craft programmes whereas no males said that they were interested. This confirms my expectation on the programme appealing more to females. Furthermore Craft magazines appealed to 9 out of 15 females and, again, appealed to no males. Tying in the the interest in Craft 12 out of the 15 females said that they enjoyed craft and craft making where only 1 male claimed to.
When looking at the female age range against  if the person enjoyed craft or craft making, it can be seen that the interest in craft is stronger in the older age ranges with 3 out of 3 of the females having an interest in crafts in the 40+ and 3-35 categories. This especially shows a contrast when looking at 15-20 where only 1 female was interested. From this information I can gather that my idea will appeal more to around 35 and older. However I could expand the age of the target audience to over 20's as 2 out of 3 females say they enjoy crafts.
In addition all 15 females in all of the age ranges said they enjoyed cooking and baking, whereas only 4 of the males did, providing more evidence for the primary audience being females. Although my idea doesn't focus heavily on baking, I plan to introduce some baking into the trailers. The statistics suggest that females from 15-40 and older will gain gratification from the baking element of my idea, and so broadens my target audiences age range.
The question of whether the person has experience with crafts or arts and design confirmed my expectation that the female genders who had experience also had an interest in crafts. This is because 5 out of the 6 females which said they had experience also said that they enjoyed crafts and craft making.Therefore, in terms of the 'Uses and Gratifications' theory the more experienced professionals may use the programme to gain inspiration and ideas, or get gratification from identifying with the interests of the presenter. However this ran in contrast when looking at males as the 3 out of 15 males which had experience disliked crafts but suggests that females are more likely to gain something from the media products, reinforcing females as the expected primary audience.
From the question of whether the person buys Lifestyle magazines or not, I found that only 5 out of 30 did not buy Lifestyle magazines; the females being the more popular consumers of Lifestyle print media (if only by 1). Younger age ranges (from 40 and below) appeared to buy more Lifestyle magazines than the older age range of 40+. This is interesting considering that younger generations are thought to be more technology based, rather than print. Going further into the consumption of Lifestyle print, my results show that no men purchase craft magazines, but are more interested in Fitness magazines (with 11 out of the 15 men purchasing Fitness genre magazines). Meanwhile 9 out of 15 females purchase Craft magazines, once again suggesting them as the primary audience. When looking at  the females age range against the purchase of Lifestyle magazines I can see a pattern. This is that the older the age range, the more consumption there is of Craft genre magazines (eliminating 40+), inferring that an age range of 21-30 is likely to be the audience of my print production.
Similarly, a pattern was evident in the time of day which TV is watched and the age range. This can be seen in the fact the most consumption of TV on a weekday for 15-20 year olds was in the evening, but as the age range got older, the highest consumption on weekdays was in earlier hours. An explanation for this pattern is that each age range has different roles in society. The younger age ranges of 15-20 and 21-25 has a role in college and university, examinations and work- therefore there is less time during the day to watch TV, but more in the evening  when college and university work is completed. The age ranges not exceeding 40+ are likely to have the role of professional work and jobs, therefore explaining the transition of the younger age ranges 'Evening' to 'Afternoon' and 'Midday' being the most popular. This is because these are times when workers have breaks or are finished for work. Tying in with this, the time of day for the most consumption of TV for 40+ ranges from 'Morning' to 'Afternoon' this may be because they can access a TV more often being retired, or left the workplace. The hours watched of TV on a weekday also runs in a similar pattern, depending on the age ranges interest and workload. From this information on times and when TV is watched I can see the times of day which an age range is more likely to watch TV. This will help when  I have pinned down the age range as to what time I should Broadcast my programme.
Lastly, from the 'Channel most watched' question I found that 'Channel 4' is popular among 8 out of 15 females and half of this for males. 'Channel 4' is most popular among the two older female age ranges, although each age range had the channel as a 'most watched' option. I also found that males preferred more serious institutions Channels (the BBC and ITV), and that younger age ranges (25 and below) preferred channels such as E4 and ITV2 which show reality and teen drama series. Also females which put 'Channel 4' as their most watched channel also said that they watched Lifestyle television, suggesting that 'Channel 4' would be an ideal channel to broadcast my programme on. Furthermore 4 out of the 8 females which prefer 'Channel 4' and watch Lifestyle programmes are also interested in craft. This confirms my idea that 'Channel 4' is the best channel for my programme to be broadcast on.

Evaluation of Questionnaire
Overall I found that creating the questionnaire and gathering the findings was useful in allowing me to make a decision on the target audience for the Print and Broadcast pieces. The questions allowed me to explore different areas which I needed to consider when justifying the selection of audience, time and channel to broadcast on. I also think that the layout of the questionnaire was suitable and clear for the user to understand. However when writing a summary of the findings I discovered many ways which I could have improved the questionnaire. I found that deciding the regularity of the magazine was difficult because I hadn't added any questions about how often the people filling out the questionnaire bought Lifestyle (or craft associated) magazines. In addition I had the same problem for what institution to produce my magazine with. Therefore I had to rely on research from existing Print media products to determine the regularity of my magazine. Furthermore, I realised after distributing the questionnaire and discussing the results that the age range pattern didn't exactly follow. This can been in there wasn't an option for anyone from the age of 36 to the age of 39 to tick. Although this wasn't a problem for the people which had completed the questionnaire, I should improve on this when creating other questionnaires. Also, I asked for feedback from 2 people, both of which showed me areas which I could improve on. One pointed out that the distribution for the questionnaire was a small number of people, and this may not be accurate enough to apply to all people of that age or gender. However she said that the question were suitable and she could see why I had chosen hem and how I may apply them to my project. The second noticed that the time spent watching TV on a weekday wasn't accurate enough. This is because the time range increased by half and hour each time (eg from 2-2.5 to 3- 3.5); there is no option for people who may watch 45 minutes or in between the half hourly slots. He said that to improve on this it may be easier to request the person filling out the questionnaire to write down the amount of TV that they watch.
In summary I found that my questionnaire was useful in justifying and helping me to decide on a target audience. However after feedback and evaluating the questionnaire I can see that I missed out on valuable information which may of allowed for a more reliable justification. Furthermore I could of added further questions which would have helped me to make a more informed decision on areas such as magazine regularity. It may be a better idea to distribute the questionnaire around the Internet, where more people can answer and from different places. Also, doing this would allow a easier way to distribute  and collect the questionnaire and results as well as using less paper and ink.

Final Justification of my Target Audience
From the Questionnaire results and existing products research I can deduce that the Primary audience for my product will be females. To support this crafts and design are stereotypically seen as more feminine hobbies than masculine. Therefore males may stay away from programmes that involve this content, whereas females are likely to be attracted to it. Also, the primary audience for 'Country Living' magazine and 'Kirstie's Homemade Home' TV programme (both of which I evaluated in my research) are females. 'Country Living' and 'Kirstie's Homemade Home' have similar ideas to my craft idea, suggesting that the audience will also be similar. In contrast to this, after studying alternative Lifestyle programmes I can see what audience my idea would not be expecting. For example Gok Wan: How To Look Good Naked has a different audience to what I expect mine to be due to the content of the programme pointing at different interests (in this case, fashion). Furthering this, my product will be aimed at 26 year olds and over. This is because my results showed that there was a higher interest rate in crafts from around this age. I decided that 21-25 year olds, although having the same interest as the 26-30 age range, would be less of a suitable target audience due to the time and channel that I believe my product will be better of broadcasting on. However, when considering my Print product, the age range for my audience will be 21-35. This is because interest in Craft Lifestyle magazines was more popular among these ages and so they are more likely to buy a copy. The interest in crafts compared to experience confirmed my initial idea that the demographic categories of B and below would watch my programme and have an interest in the accompanying Print production. This is because professionals in the craft or design industries may enjoy the programme and print production and are likely to be in the B category. In terms of 'Uses and Gratifications' professionals in the craft and design field may be able to use the programme to gain inspiration from the ideas. Similarly professionals may get gratification from the programme because they can identify with the presenters work and interests. Adding to this, the programme may provide a cheaper alternative to the more expensive means of decor. This means that the lower categories will be able to use the productions for ideas and inspiration on affording a different way of decorating. I haven't included the 'A' category in my target audience because those in the 'A' category are higher professionals which are likely to be busy and have a strict workload. For the topic of my programme a considerable amount of time may be needed to spend on the crafts, and so the 'A' category wouldn't have the time to spend doing so. Also, the 'A' category may prefer to flaunt their wealth and buy branded items instead of making them. The secondary audience could be husbands and children. This is because if the female in the family is watching my programme, then the husband or children may watch it too when spending time or in the same room as the her. Lastly the connotations that 'craft' conveys of individuality and uniqueness are likely to attract the psychographics of 'aspirers' and 'explorers', rather than those who have mainstream appeal. This also entices the notion of a niche audience.

Time, Institutions & Magazine Regularity
As previously discussed in Institutional Research: Broadcast, I decided Channel 4 was the best institution (and channel) for my production to be broadcast on. Aside from the institutional research where I justified my choice for Channel 4, the findings from the questionnaire confirm my selection. When looking at the time of day to broadcast the production, I think that the afternoon is the most suitable slot. This is because from the age of 26 and above afternoon is the most popular TV time which suits all of the above age ranges, therefore being a more suitable time of day to broadcast on.
Also previously discussed in Institutional Research: Print, Hearst Corporation is the best institution to produce my print production with. However, I did not include detail in my questionnaire to confirm this- exposing a flaw in the production of the questionnaire. However sufficient research into the institution and one of the Lifestyle magazines which it offers has influenced my decision in Hearst Corporation t be the best for my production. Furthermore research into existing Lifestyle print products allows me to deduce that the regularity of the magazine should be monthly. This is because from all 4 of the magazines which I have researched in to, none are published weekly or annually. 3 are published monthly, while 'Men's Fitness' is published 10 times a year. Considering that my production falls into the genre as the magazines which I have researched and is similar to 2 of them, I believe that the regularity of the production should be suited to the usual expectations.