Why and How Media Companies Use Research???

Things You would research in the Media:

Examples of things you would research for the release of a magazine through market research are:

• Target Audience/ How many people are going to buy it/Printing
• Who your Competition is?
• Distribution; Advertisements
• Finances; How your gonna fund it in relation to the target audience
• Content (what is going to be in it)
• Selling your magazine to your target audience is just as important as selling it to your advertisers

I looked at TV Easy made by IPC Connect and analysed the different ways they describe and categorised their audience in order to attract there sellers. The first thing recognisable to the advertisers were there target audience. It was clear that audiences of Soaps were targeted through the use of bold images and content on the front page (i.e, Exclusive Information on soaps such as Eastenders, Corrie, Emmerdale etc). Demographics played a huge part in the clarity of what audience their targeting. The demographics (age, gender,sexuality; facts) states that TV easy are appealing to an audience of an average age of 44, predominately females, and of a somewhat wealthy background (ABC1). It is questionable as to why people of a wealthy background would buy a magazine, mainly about Soaps; which is seen to be something that displays the life of 'normal' characters. However, the attraction of being able to buy something which the 'norm' wouldn't could possibly be seen as an attraction or satisfaction for the fact that they are different.

Psychographics (how the audience feels, their interest, their attitudes, their beliefs) Physcographics and demographics are the medias way of dividing up the population into categories. Magazine editors mostly send a team out to research what they think their target audience is like, how they feel etc and from that results, they then get ideas on how to attract them, content within the magazine and how to sell it to their advertisers.

Social Media Research

Social Media Research has evolved into an effective and reliable form of research. Companies such as Lynx and Coca Cola are discovering social networks such as Facebook and Twitter as a form of communication to an extremely huge audience allowing them to give them feedback about there thoughts on the product and how they can improve if possible. Technology as a whole has evolved, an has since gained a huge fan base; with the millions of people joing multiple social networking sites. Instead of having to carry out primary research on an minimal amout of audiences they get the opportunity to commute to millions of people at once. From audiences reactions and thoughts to these products, advertisers are then able to know how to market and advertise their product. Although this form of research has seen to be affective the article 'Social Media Research by Sean Hargrave' states that social media doesn’t reach all strata of society, so some traditional research methods are still needed for a full picture.


I believe that this research is a great way of communicating with a variety of audiences at a faster speed. Its a cheap way of getting the physcographics of audiences, its economic and good value for money. Its target audience is prodominetly teenagers and I believe that products such as coco cola could do with opinions from the people who mostly buy their products.