Why and how do media companies use research?

Things you would research in the media?

• Target audience and how many people are going to buy your magazine?

• Who is your competition?

• How are you going distribute it?

• How are you going to price it in relation to its target audience?

• What content is going to be in the magazine?

Selling your magazine to your target audience is just as important as selling to your advertisers.


IPC use audience profiling to clearly describe the audience to advertisers in order to gain funding/sponsors to help fund and support the magazine.

From the IPC website, we are shown the different areas of audience profiling used to help define the target audience to possible advertisers for the NME magazine;

Demographics (facts and fingures in relation to mdeia researc) such as -

• Key statistics: Eg percentage of - Age, gender, social class (ABC 1, percentage of students readers, circulation of the magazine, readership (how many people read the magazine).

Psycographics (social/political responses found through media researc) such as -

• Mobile: promotes the use of mobile techonology - advertisements
• Music and film - in relation to the target audiences and their responses to the regular music and film updates
• quotes fromn regular readers, eg "The NME is damn honest" - NME Reader

Social media research

Social Media Research is a technique used to gain product knowledge using online networking sites eg: Facebook and Twitter. Compare such as 'Simple' and 'Coca Cola' have used this method in order to make major product decisions. For example - Coca Cola made the decision to with the distribution and production of 'Coca Cola Vainilla' in 2006 following poor sales and response from the target audience. On the contray 'Simple' used social media research to request opinions on future products which lead top the introduction of new nip balm products which appealed to their target audience. The advantages of social media is the speed at which responses are received and action can be taked. As well as it is is incredibly cheap.