Types of Research

It is important to carry out research before starting to plan a new advertising campaign, as it will make your advert successful and appealing to audiences. Research should be taken out to ensure that the product is completed on time, and that it is produced within the budget. There are three categories of research that should be taken out to enable a successful advertisement; these three categories are audience, market, and production. 

First of all, market research should be taken out so that a company is aware of the other products they have to compete with; this lets them know what is successful and what is not so successful and they can adjust their product accordingly. This also helps a company know how big this type of product is in the market already and how many people are currently using products like theirs so they know if it is worth creating. Also, a company will be able to see the pros and cons of similar products and will be able to make their product better according to this information. Market research also allows for people to have their say; the audience can get across their views and tell a company what their preferences are. This is helpful as the company needs to know who their audience is and what their audience like/dislike; sales will, obviously, be higher if people like the product. Even if a person dislikes any product ideas that you have, this is still useful information as you can then be aware of what to not do, and what things people are not interested in. A drawback of market research is that if a company has a final product idea and asks questions to make their product better, they have the dilemma of some people not liking the general product therefore their feedback would be irrelevant and time wasting. Also, another drawback would be that, market research by itself may not be enough to find out the correct information on how to make your product better. A company would need to do audience research to know who the audiences are and how they could fit the product around them. 

Audience research should also be taken out to make sure that the advertisement appeals to the right people. For example, if a company were trying to sell heavy machinery they wouldn’t make an advertisement suitable for children, as children would not be looking out to buy this sort of product. They would make an informative advert showing the product in use, showing its functions and how good it is. They would also research where their audience is located as they would not sell tractors to those that live in, for example, London; on the other hand, people in the country would probably purchase a tractor, so the advertisement would be broadcast in these areas, and aimed at these group of people. What people do for a living would also be a key factor to know as people who work as a doctor, for example, probably wouldn’t want to purchase geography books they have seen on an advert; on the other hand, a person that is a geography teacher would be likely to acknowledge the advert more and feel the need to purchase a book from that company. Finally, what a person watches and when they watch it is an important factor as it will help a company know when to put out an advertisement and when to put it on. If a person watches Top Gear, on Dave, then it wouldn’t be suitable to put on an advert for Barbie dolls afterwards, as it does not appeal to that market; it would be more suitable to put it on the Disney channel after a programme such as Hannah Montana as children, mainly girls, will be watching. A drawback of audience research is that a lot of people will not answer questions as it is time consuming and they have tasks to complete in their day. Also, if people do stop to answer questions, they may not be truthful 100% as they may be rushing. 

Production research will also need to be taken out; you need to create a storyboard so that you know what you are doing when it comes round to it rather that making it up as you go along. As you create your storyboard, you need to keep in mind all the research you have done, and create it in a way that suits what people want from an advertisement. In doing so, you will be more organised and the process of filming the advert will run more smoothly. This is a chance for people to become creative and give ideas about what the advert should be about and how it should look; people can share their ideas and help each other create an appropriate advert which appeals to the correct audience. A drawback of production research would be that it consumes a lot of time and storyboarding is a hard, long process. A lot of areas of the advert have to be thought about in advance and written out on a paper document: the setting, the clothing, different shot types, script, sound (non-diegetic and diegetic), actors, and much more. Also, some ideas people come up with may not be achievable as the company may have limits to what they can do e.g. not be able to find an appropriate setting, have access to professional equipment, have good editing software, have money for props etc.  

Four main methods of research are primary, secondary, quantitative, and qualitative. In the next few paragraphs, I will explain what each of these methods are:

Primary research is when you go out and gather your own information. You do not get it from another source, but you actually go out and collect your own data. The benefit to this is that the data collected will be accurate as it is your own; if you were to take information from a source online, on the other hand, it may not be correct as the publisher may have changed information or data may have been lost/typed up incorrectly. Also, the data you collect will be relevant to what you want, answering all the queries that you may have had. This saves you looking all over the internet for various questions you may have had, which will then mean you will have to look at different sources which is not consistent data and may lead you to get incorrect results. A drawback of this is that you have to go out yourself and ask various people questions or find out data which will be very time-consuming. Also, if you ask passers-by questions, you will not be selecting a range of people as the people will be all living in the same areas leading almost the same lives. 

Secondary research is data that someone else has recorded, and you are using it to work from. This saves a lot of time as you do not need to go out and record the data yourself. Also, if you collect data from various sources, you can get the data from a wide area of people rather than from a small group if you were to do it yourself. Finally, the data that you are using has been collected by people taking out the task you would have done, which means that it is their original data so it would not be wrong. On the other hand, the person may have had the correct data although, upon uploading the data, they may have typed up the wrong information or put in false data by accident; this will result in your research being full of useless information, wasting time as you would have to do it again. Also, like I said in the above paragraph, the person may have not answered all the questions you want answers to, so you may have to look elsewhere for information or do it yourself. 

Quantitative research is data that is collected in number format, e.g. “how old are you?” This is a fast question for people to fill out, as all they will have to do is write a number or, usually, tick a box with a range of numbers e.g. 1-5 ☐ 6-10 ☐ 11-15 ☐ 16+ ☑. Also, this data is simple to set out in a table e.g. bar chart, tally chart, scatter graph etc. This allows people to view the data easily and quickly, as it can be displayed on one graph/table. A drawback to quantitative research is that it can be time consuming as you have to draw out tables/graphs and manually fill out the data you have collected. You may try to rush this process, which could lead into you accidentally inputting incorrect data. It is easy to make a mistake, both on a paper based document, or computer based document. 

Qualitative research aims to understand how people think and about their feelings. A benefit to this is that you can find out how people genuinely feel and they should be telling the truth about this as they are the only ones that know this information and then cannot get it wrong. A drawback to this, though, is that they may not be telling the truth as they may not want to say how they feel. They may also not want to answer a certain question as they may feel it is too personal. Finally, a drawback to this is that, the data you collect from qualitative research cannot be presented in a table and you can get various different answers; this may become confusing and time consuming when looking at data you have collected and comparing information.

OFCOM and ASA

OFCOM, which stands for the Office of Communications, is the communications regulator; they deal with what, in the media, should be shown and what should not be shown. They are there to make sure that people in the UK get the best from communication services (radio, television, broadband etc.) and protect them from being scammed from this certain media. They claim that their main legal duties are to ensure that the UK receives a range of services such as high speed broadband, high quality television and radio channels. They also make sure that the content being displayed is safe to watch and is not harmful or offensive material that people may have an issue with.

OFCOM allow you to send in complaints about anything you find offensive or wish to comment on, and you can do this by going onto the website and selecting from a list of ‘Television & Radio - Phones, Internet & Pay TV – Postal Services’. From there, you can then select from a number of various subcategories in which you feel your complaint most relates to. You will then be directed to a page where you can fill out a form explaining. OFCOM will review your form and decide whether they feel that your complaint is legitimate and if they feel something should be done; they will then make their decision and act at the right time, in the right way. They will sum up other people’s opinions and the outcome if they decided to make changes, and then carry on from there accordingly.

The ASA, which stands for Advertising Standards Authority, is the independent regulator of advertising across all media produced in the UK. They deal with complaints and are always checking the media to take action against misleading, harmful, or offensive advertisements. They try to ensure that all advertisements are legal, honest, and truthful to the public. Their aim is to successfully regulate advertisements in all media; they will do this by making a success of regulating online advertisements, effectively responding to issues shown to be affected by advertisements, placing more emphasis on preventing harm from advertisements, and keeping up to date with what consumers, businesses and society want. The types of advertising that they cover are magazine/newspapers, radio/TV commercials, shopping channels, advertising on the internet, commercial email advertising, posters, leaflets/brochures, cinema commercials, direct mail, ads on CD ROMs/DVD/video, and sales promotions.

Upon checking whether ASA cover what your complaint is about, you can go onto their website and navigate to the page ‘make a complaint’. You can then complain online, write to them via email, or phone them up. They will then take you through the steps in which you can tell them what your complaint is. They will then review your complaint and, like OFCOM, will decide whether they feel that it is legitimate and if something needs to be changed. They will then deal with your complaint accordingly. If they feel that your complaint is valid and others agree, they will inform other parties about the case and take the case from there.

This is an advert that caused controversy and the ASA received 316 complaints about it. It is the John Lewis 2010 advert, which shows a little boy hanging up a Christmas stocking on dog’s house in the garden, although he walks away and leaves the dog in the cold whilst it is snowing. Many people complained saying that is shows irresponsible pet ownership. Viewers complained that the advert suggested it was acceptable to leave an animal out in the cold. At the end of the advert, as the child is seen walking off leaving the dog, a slogan appears saying ‘for those who care about showing they care’. Many people hit back at this, stating that the advert doesn’t show that they care by leaving the dog outside instead of letting him in.

The ASA, on the other hand, disagreed to these complaints as they felt that the advertisement did not encourage people to be cruel to their animals or neglect them. The complaints were not upheld, and the advertisement continued to be aired. On the other hand, if the ASA did agree with these complaints, action could have been taken and the advert could have been removed.

This next advert, which is no longer on TV or online, gained OFCOM 350 complaints from viewers deeming that it glamorised gun culture. It is a Land Rover commercial in which a woman is seen firing a gun as she is chasing a man that had left her house. The man then enters a Land Rover, and the woman takes aim. She then aims upwards and fires (like that of a person that starts a race) and the man smiles and drives off. The advertisement is in the top 10 most complained about adverts of all time. OFCOM state that “the glamorisation and normalisation of guns, even indirectly, is simply offensive to many people”. Land Rover hit back, stating “this advert was created to reinforce the association with sport that the model inspires.”

OFCOM decided to ban the advert and it is no longer aired nor can be found online. They agree with the complaints that it glamorises gun culture and sends out the wrong message to the viewers. They feel that the advertisement has breached guideline rules on harm and offence, thus resulting in not being played again. This advert would be played throughout the day near Christmas time, which means that children will be watching and they may be influenced. Land Rover have since apologised saying the company was “very sorry” although they are “extremely concerned to hear viewers found the advertisement distasteful”.