Qualitative audience research

Focus groups
The main purpose of focus group research is to draw upon respondents attitudes, feelings,
beliefs, experiences and reactions in a way in which would not be feasible using other
methods, for example observation, one-to-one interviewing, or questionnaire surveys.
These attitudes, feelings and beliefs may be partially independent of a group or its social
setting, but are more likely to be revealed via the social gathering and the interaction which
being in a focus group entails. Compared to individual interviews, which aim to obtain
individual attitudes, beliefs and feelings, focus groups elicit a multiplicity of views and
emotional processes within a group context. Ethical considerations for focus groups are the
same as for most other methods of social research. For example, when selecting and
involving participants, researchers must ensure that full information about the purpose and
uses of participants contributions is given. Being honest and keeping participants informed
about the expectations of the group and topic, and not pressurising participants to speak is
good practice.
For my game it is very important that the focus groups are developed because there is a lot
of people in the room and when reviewing the game it gives the people more opportunity to
discuss and diagnose a situation.

Questionnaire

Questionnaires provide a relatively cheap, quick and efficient way of obtaining large
amounts of information from a large sample of people. Data can be collected relatively
quickly because the researcher would not need to be present when the questionnaires were
completed. This is useful for large populations when interviews would be impractical.
However, a problem with questionnaire is that respondents may lie due to social
desirability. Most people want to present a positive image of themselves and so may lie or
bend the truth to look good, e.g. pupils would exaggerate revision duration
For my questionnaire, it could be a very effective way to determine the audience because I
can identify the audience age and gender which could help on my game

Face to face

Face-to-face communication and in-person meetings can boost efficiency. Instead of

spending an entire day e-mailing back and forth, you can hash out all of the details of a
project in one go. These meeting can also boost creativity, as the overall energy will be
higher so you can brainstorm and solve a multitude of problems at one time.

Face-to-face communication can also be much more effective for those who may struggle
with written communication. Everyone has their own unique set of skills, and some people
are much more fluid and clear with verbal communication.

Face to face communication for my game will be very effective because people who are
creating the game will need to explain the different aspects on the computer but as well as
face to face because it is much easier if you are speaking to the person directly.

Interviews

There are many types of interviews that an organization can arrange. It depends on the
objectives of taking the interview. Some important types of interviews are stated below:

1. Personal interviews: Personal interviews include:

o Selection of the employees
 o Promotion of the employees
o Retirement and resignation of the employees
2. Evaluation interviews: The interviews, which take place annually to review the
progress of the interviewee, are called the evaluation interviews. Naturally, it is
occurring between superiors and subordinates. The main objective of this interview
is to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the employees.
3. Persuasive interviews: This type of interview is designed to sell someone a product
or an idea. When a sales representative talk with a target buyer, persuasion takes
the form of convincing the target that the product or idea meets a need.
4. Structured interviews: Structured interviews tend to follow formal procedures; the
interviewer follows a predetermined agenda or questions

Interview can be a great way to determine the audience because it can give me a insight on
the target audience and what kind of people will be buying the game. The use of the
interview will determine the different parts of the game and If the interview is informal it
can be a relaxed way to talk about the game with other creators.

Audience Profiling

Classification of audience
Audience Demographics The demographics is the characteristics of your target audience.
This includes factors such as;
Gender
Age
Martial Status
Income
Sexuality
Religion
Socio-economic status
Income
For this assignment, I have decided to relate a game trailer, which is called Grand theft Auto.
The trailer is a few years old but it is one of the most popular games to ever be played. The
trailer is GTA5, which is the most recent game. The target audience for the game will be
directed at the grand theft auto fans because they have been playing the franchise for years
so it is only realistic if I target it at them. The age range is 18+ because of the graphic
content in the video game but the trailer will be available for all ages despite the game
being graphic; the game trailer will only feature the non-graphic content so it can be
viewable for everyone.

Socio economic status

Socioeconomic status is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's
work experience and of an individual's or family's economic and social position in relation to
others, based on income, education, and occupation. When analyzing a family's SES, the
household income, earners' education, and occupation are examined, as well as combined
income, whereas for an individual's SES only their own attributes are assessed. However,
SES is more commonly used to depict an economic difference in society as a whole. Peoples
level of education has become an important indicator of their social status in contemporary
Western societies. Salary, job status, and even peoples choice of marriage partners are
increasingly based on level of education, rather than on more traditional status indicators
such as the social class of ones parents. An individuals level of education is also easily
ascertained; people can infer a strangers level of education simply by observing their
behaviors and tastes.

Psychographics

Psychographics is the study of personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, and

lifestyles. Psychographics are kind of like demographics. Psychographic information might
be your buyer's habits, hobbies, spending habits and values. Demographics explain who
your buyer is, while psychographics explain why they buy. Demographic information
includes gender, age, income, and marital status the dry facts.

You can only effectively reach your target audience when you understand both their
demographics and psychographics. The combination of both sets of data starts to form your
buyer persona a detailed picture of the people you work with now, and would like to work
with in the future.

This will really help me determine the demographics for the game and where people are
buying the game from because it will be very important if I know my audience and where
about they are and also what gender they are. This will really help the research and
advertising for the product.

Geo demographics

Geodemographic is the study of the population and its characteristics, divided according to
regions on a geographical basis. This involves application of clustering techniques to group
statistically similar neighbourhood and areas. The main source of data for this study is the
census. However, periodicity of census data being high, other sources like country court
judgements, property valuation and household council tax bands data are also used.
Demographics are one way of doing of this. This would include socio-economic scales, to
understand what kind of job and income that the audience would have. Geodemographic
would also be taken into account, as people living in crowded council estates would
probably watch different things than people who own their own house in an upmarket area.
Psychographics would also be helpful as it gives an insight into the viewing habits
Age

The age for my target audience is going to be quite specific however; there is a limit, which
is 18+. When young people appear in positive representations in newspapers, it is often
because they have done something out of the ordinary, such as an heroic act or an
impressive sporting achievement.

In comedy representations, like Vicky Pollard in Little Britain, young people are often shown
as lacking in education and of low social class. This is reflected in their clothes, the way they
speak and the language they use.

This representation suggests that this is generally considered the dominant representation
of young people in the media, enough to encourage a parody.

Gender

Media and gender refers to the relationship between media and gender and how
representations of the different genders created for and by mass media. Media can range
from newspapers, magazines, comic strips, novels, CDs and music videos. These
representations can influence the general public's perception of the different genders. It is
important to continue exploring interactions of media and gender to dismiss personal
choices, but to see the larger context, and potential consequences for ourselves and others.
Advertisements and pictures in magazines carry significant messages about cultural norms
and values, but also norms of gendered relations for both men and women.

The gender for my game will be both genders because if I target the game at one specific
gender if could not benefit my game and it can be sexism so I have decided that the game
will be targeted towards both genders.
Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation is the term used to describe what gender(s) someone is sexually and/or
romantically attracted to. We don't know for sure what causes a person's sexual orientation.
You can't tell a persons sexual orientation by the way they look or their job or hobbies.
Harassment can never be justified. However, if an organisation or employer can show it did
everything it could to prevent people who work for it from behaving like that, you will not
be able to make a claim for harassment against it, although you could make a claim against
the harasser.

Outside the workplace, if you are harassed or receive offensive treatment because of your
sexual orientation, this may be direct discrimination.

For my game the sexual orientation shouldnt offend anyone because it is open to anyone to
play the game and the trailer doesnt contain any graphic content.

Regional identity

Regional Identity refers to the partof the United Kingdom someone isfrom. It could refer to
a general areasuch a north or south, a countrysuch as English or Scottish orspecific
towns such as London orManchester. Other factors may also be related to identity
Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Religion, Class and Sexuality. These make the concept of a national
identity even more complicated.

This is also complicated by the idea of Regional Identity as well.

Regional Examples:

Scouse (Liverpool) identity

Geordie (Newcastle) identity

Essex boy/girl (Essex) Identity

Yorkshireman (Yorkshire) Identity

For my game I understand that I will have loads of different region identitys and languages
so I do need to make sure the game appeals to everyone.

Mainstream

The mainstream media will be deffinitely part of the game trailer because the game is so
popular it will be placed in magazines and adverts around the world so I do need to consider
the mainstream medias reaction when the game comes out because it could effect the
outcome of the game and how well it does, this is why I think having a trailer helps the build
up for the game.

The mainstream media will be apart of the game trailer because with newspapers and
advertising it will hit the mainstream media and I will be expecting a lot of articles about the
game and hopefully most of them are positive.
Alternative & niche
Within marketing this particular trail of thought leads to advertisements which are almost sretypical
and recognizable for example when a department which to market a new line of clothing or female
beauty products they will take a recognizable female icon and parade her in said apparel. Alternative
form the basis of an advert opposite to mainstream taking a more radical approach that will
eventually become mainstream once it has become universally adopted by the public. Niche is
designed to target a minority market focusing on obscure or less popular or well-advertised themes
this could be anything from mens clubs to operas. The disadvantages of these profiling methods are
that no single size encompasses all mentioned public interests.

For my game it is important that I involve everyone and attract them by the trailer because these
methods are designed to target a minority of the population and I want to do this.